The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-06-01


merely to gather a force Of statistical /
experts and clerks together with the
greatest rapidity possible, put them 10
work under the best chlefS oDtalnaple,
and finish the undertaking as soon as
possible; thus giving a Spasmod1e at
mosphore to the whole AFFAIR There |
was q lack of a well defined plan, ana |
as a result the outcome necessarily was |
not always satisfactory. The law under |
which the twelfth census is being oper-
ated is better than anything heretofore |
enacted by the national legislature Tor !
the purpose of taking census. Inc
executive and statistical branches of |
the work are so sharply defined that 1t |
is possible to make the individual IN |
charge of each inquiry responsible for |
lack of method or hardness IN
securing results. The director has
general charge of the admins
tration, under him an assistant
director who is a trained statlstlclan,
to whom is assigned the general over
sight of the various Statist1cianse mploy-
ed by the bureau. There are five chief
statisticians in all, and a certain line Of
and finish. IN this way responsibility
can be placed and each statistician held
responsible for the proper fnlfhment OF
his duties. The last census required be-
tween six and eight years to prepare.
tabulate and finish. The law under
which we are now organized directs US
! to complete the four census reports pro
per-that is, agriculture population. Vi
| turing inquiries-within two years from
| the first of the coming July. All of the
work of the Office and all of its plans
! have been laid out with this in view,
although it is almost impossible in en-
| Urgency work of this kind to calculate,
| with any accuracy, the amount OF time
that will be required to acquire certain
| information. and the necessities that
will arise before the same can be pro-
perly tabulated and printed must be
| more or less of a conjecture; but no eff
fort will be spared to carry out the law
of congress- and so far as we can see We
| shall be able, at the date named, to give
1.-THE public the census reports in accord
| ance with the present law.
In order to effect these results, how
| ever it has been necessary to lay out
deAnite plan Of organization, not only
for the preliminary work, but to pro-
vide a large clerical force, a large
building, a large printing once, and
enormous quantities of stationery,
blanks, etc. For the past 10 months the
officers in charge of the work have been
recruiting an army consisting Of super
visors, enuneraters and special agents,
for the purpose of doing the field work.
There were 400 supervisors named by
! the president of the United States for
work in different parts of the country,
appointed nearly year ago. These
supervisors have selected and named,
| for the purpose of taking the enumera-
ton on the first Of June and gathering
| other data, IS, 600 enunerators. In addi-
ton, there are special agents to the
number of nearly 1900, engaged in Sc
curing reports on manufacturing and
mechanical institutions. as we'll as other
data in connection with the agricultural
inquiry. All of these enunerators and
special agents have to undergo a test of
a certain character, to determine their
fitness for the work. Millions of sche-
dulles of various kinds have been sent to
| the supervisors, to be delivered to the
enumeraters for the purpose of using in
1 %to{,- III - >
be said in passing, that much Of the
success or failure of the census will be
determined by the faithfulness and ef
fcienoy shown by the supervisors and
enumerators. Supervision and enumer
alton are the basic factors of all census
work, as these are the facts upon which
the whole fabric is reared A great deal
of pains has been taken by those in
charge of the Office work to secure not
only capable supervisors but a high
class of enumerators 1t was found in
the last census that thousands and
thousands of schedules that were sent
to the Office were utterly unintelligible
and practically of no value 1t is hoped
under the careful system in vogue in
this office at this time to avoid the diff
cultieS of the work of SINH
lar character in. the previous decade.
While all the preparation has been
going on for the taking of the enumera-
ton and the gathering of other statis-
tics, provision has been made for the
Sary to do the actual work after the
statistics have reached the office II
was found, after securing the best data
obtainabIe, that thirty-two hundred
people would be required to care fol-
the statistics and put them in present
able shape and prepare them for the
printing Office within the two-year linai'
| provided by law. One thousand of these
clerks however, will only be employed
in using what are known as the Hol
lerith tabulating machines, for abou
six months from the first of July You
= readers VIII undoubtedly be very mucl
interested to know that the great cen
f sus of 1900 is to be counted by electric
e ity, thus invoking this great bidder
a force which has so long baff1ed all scien
o lists, but has proved so efficacious IL
= carrying into effect man requirements
: 1t is proposed to employ one thousand
e clerks in transferring data from thu
enumerators sheets to cards abou
r three by six inches in size. There vii
= be in all one hundred million of thest
cards. This transference is done frs
= by preparing a card for each person
d enumerated, showing the character
= lSticS of such person. The cards useI
. for this purpose are printed with Letters
. and symbols SO arranged that b,
: punching holes in the proper space
we get the following information re
. garding the Individual: Race sex, color
y age, conjugal condition, birthplace 0
: person, of father, mother, years in tn
- United States occupation, school at
II II tendance, etc. These cards, though onl,
II seven one-thousandths of an inch il
II thickness, would Scrm a stack min
!. miles high and would weigh two hun
{ dred tons.
This transcript from the original re
j turns of the enumerator to the punch
le ed card Will be done with email ma
10 chimes something like typeWri,erS call
: ed keyboard punchers. About on
l. thousand of these viii be u~~c, and tn
10 entire work of transcribing the seven.y
IN fve million or more individual record
s. will be done in about. one kundre
< working days, or nearly four .lo1 HI
10 These punched record cards ara the
i counted, or tabulated, in tie electrica
w tabulating machines. These machine
as are provided with n circuit-clos:ng &C