Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1909-10-19
ANNOUNCES CENSUS
SCHEDULE CHANGES.
Director Durand's Action on One for
anufacturers-WiII Simplify
Investigations.

Washington, Oct 19.-T. S. Census
Director Durand announces two very
material changes in the schedule for
manufactures to be carried by the spe-
cial agents employed in collecting the
data for the thirteenth census.
"At. the censuses of 1900 and 1905,
stated the director, the manufactures
schedule called for the average num-
Der of men, the average number Of
women, and the average number OF
children under t6, employed during
each month in each establishment.
Could this question have been an
swered accurately, it would undoubt-
edly have furnished information of
much value and of greater value than
that which we are now proposing to
secure. To answer this interrogatory
with strict accuracy would, however,
require the special agent or the man
ufacturer, filling out the schedule, to
go in detail through every pay roll OF
the year, usually either 50 or 26 in
number. counting the number OF
men. women and children separately
on each-the segregation of those un-
der 16 involving peculiar difficulty,
particularly in the case of earlier pay
rolls of the year-and averaging the
count for each month. To do this
would in my Judgment, nave required
several times as long as to fill out
all the remainder of the manufactures
schedule except only the question on
classified wages.
"As matter of fact, practically
none of the returns at the preceding
censuses were, | am convinced, based
on actual analyses of the pay rolls.
They were in nearly all cases mere
estimates made more or less off hand
by the manufacturer or his bookkeep-
ers, and there is every reason to be-
lieve that these estimates were often
wide of the mark.
| "The schedule as it has been re-
! vised for the present census calls for
/ the number of men, women, and chill
dren employed during one specific
week only, and for the total number
employed. without distinction of age
or sez, on the first pay roll of each
month. The relative extent to which
women and children are employed
will be ascertained approximately
from the figures for the selected
week; and, although that week will
not, perhaps, in some industries be
i typical of the year as whole, the
accuracy of the figures will more than
compensate for the apparent sacrifice
! in the amount of information OBJ
| tanned.
I'VE have also deemed it wise to
cut out the question with regard to
! classified wages to which | have just
referred, and which appeared in the
census schedules of 1900 and 1905
These schedules called for the num-
ber of employees during a selected
week, classified according to thei1
earnings, and also separating men
women, and children under 16. This
interrogatory. if correctly answered
would furnish information of great
value. We have become convinced
however, that for many establish
mentS correct answers cannot be OBJ
tanned by any amount of effort, anC
that for other establishments the
amount of effort necessary to obtain
answers would involve expense an(
: delay precluded by the limitations o
| our appropriations and requirement.
: as to the date of publishing the re
suits Strictly speaking. this inquiry
falls within the field of the bureau
of labor rather than that Of the cen
sus bureau. 1t may be, however, tha
, at another census, i'll order to taxi
( advantage of the fact that census
agents are to visit every manufactur
ing establishment, We shall ask th'
, authority of Congress to provide
, separate schedule covering classified
wages and an extra appropriation Il
, get it properly filled from actual pa,
Tolls. II WUulu IlOl ne CSSGllIldl llld
) statictis of classified wages be Sc
cured from every establishment.
such returns could be secured fo
even so per cent of the establish
ments, they would be of great inter
= est. and the agents should be spec
fically intrusted to accept no est
mates.
''The reason for these two change
in the manufacturing schedule i
found not only in the difficulty i
: answering the former inquiries prol
u erly, but in the fact that they ten
to injure the accuracy of the replie
to all the other interrogatories
L the schedule The schedule of mani
l. factures hitherto has been overload
,, ed. The special agents and manufa
} turers were practically forced in man
q cases to make estimates in replyin
to these two interrogatories, and thi
practice tempted them to regard e.
Inmates as sufficient also in replyin