The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1900-05-31
Census Queries.

The blank schedules to be used in
the next census are now being distyi-
buted by the Census Office to the
enumerators, who will start to work
on June /. The schedules contain ques-
tions which some persons may think
prying, purposeless, or excessive in
number. But their number and char
acter have been determined by Con-
gress, not by the Census Office, and all
of them have been asked in previous
censuses. The only important change
since 1890 is that some questions have
been abandoned.
People are often offended at the
question, ''How old are you? ?" and
are apt to wonder what use the
Government can make of their replies.
Taken as a whole the replies are as
important as any class of information
the Census Office collects. Age re-
turns penetrate and elucidate every
other branch of statistical knowledge.
They show where child labor is pre-
valent, and where the proportion of
persons able to support themselves is
large or small. They reveal the great
number of colored children and the
short life of the negroes under present
conditions. They make it possible to
ascertain whether the average length
of life is increasing or decreasing,
how many men the nation contains
who are capable of voting or of bear
ing arms, and whether the relative
number of children is increasing or
decreasing.
In MOhammedan or semi-civilized
countries like India householders are
often unwilling to answer the question
regarding the sex of persons in the
house, but in civilized countries where
the sexes are regarded as on an
equality, such unwillingness does not
appear. The answers to the questions
shows that in nearly all cities the fe-
males outnumber the males and that
the same is true of most of the States
along the Atlantic coast. The be-
lief is widespread that taking the
world in general there are more fe-
males alive at any given time than
males. and that if it were not for i'm
migration there would be more fe-
males in the United States than males.
But census statistics show that we
can explain the great excess of males
lover one and half million) in the
United States by immigration alone,
for when the foreign-born are left out
of account, there are still above 6OO,-
600 more males than females.
Few would dispute the necessity for
asking questions regarding race. All
arguments regarding the future of
any particular race in this country,
like the Indian, the negro, or the
Chinaman, must hinge upon the re-
turns in the census. With the Indians,
moreover, it is of the highest impor-
tance to learn what success the policy
of the Government has met with in
establishing them apart from their
tribes and reservations, and whether
such Indians are increasing or de-
creasing.
Some mothers may shrink from stat
ing the number of children they have
had and the number who are living.
But from the answers to these ques-
tions, the country will learn whether
the native American population is
holding its own, or whether, as some
have claimed, it is being gradually
supplanted and displaced by the child
rem of recent immigrants.
In the light of such explanations,
and only few of the most important
questions have been touched upon, it
may perhaps be clear to the public
that no question has been ordered by