Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-31

PREPARATION is being m alsl
Ia n for the taking of the thlr-
III teenth census, the thlrteeIi,Ln
Ia Ss6N decennial stock-taking of the
IS E3sE9 United States of America;
lslyslsssl During next year the federal
/ government will ask the people Vi III
! country some billions of questions, III
/ the aggregate, and upon the ans
/ to these questions will be paseu 'He
/ new measurements of the grown VI
! the nation, The questions ana an
/ swers will relate not alone to popu-
| lation, but also to wealth, health,
well-being and almost everything else
that enters into the life of the busiest
people on earth.
Every man must answer the census
! takers questions, some will be askeu
only dozen or two, some must an
swer a hundred or more. Thls great
statistical photograph of the American It
| nation will cost the government not
| less than S14,000,000. It will require an
army of G., 900 inquisitors. The greater
| part of the questioning will be done
| between April Is and May Is, 1910. AFTER
| all the data are gathered will come the
work of tabulating the returns, or IN
! terpreting the data and Of publishing
the results. The completed work van
represent the balance-sheet OF a dec
AIDES doings of nearly 90,00O,OOO busy
| people.
The taking of the thirteenth census
will represent the most stupendous
summing up of things ever undertaken
| by man. At the present time the
| twelfth census represents the greatest
| statistical inquiry ever made, but the
| thirteenth will excel the twelfth as
that one excelled everything that had
gone before In the number of people
| to be counted it will be found, in all
probability, that there has been an in
| crease of nearly 20 per cent-l4, OO0,OO0
more people to be INTERCEPTED than
there were last time. And Uncle Sam
will have many more billions Of dol
| lars in wealth to count this time. If
he grows richer only half as rapidly
| between 1904 and 1910, as he did be-
| tween 1900 and 1904, he will have over
| $50 900 900, 900 Of wealth to count above
| what he had at the twelfth census.
And so it will be in every line of in
| quiry. This means added work in the
| preparation for the enumeration, added
work in the actual gathering of the
data, and in the Interpretation Of it.
Although the most extensive and
thorough statistical inquiry ever made,
the thirteenth census will be captained
and generated by the youngest set of
men who ever have taken federal
census. Director Durand is not yet
SO years old and his lieutenants are,
for the most part but little older than
he. Secretary Nagel described him re-
Gently in the somewhat slangy but
highly expressive phrase, "a oorking
good fellow" He proved his mettle
when he gathered the statistics in the
Standard Oil prosecutions, and that
work resulted in his being called to
the present larger task. There is an
other thing peculiar about the Initial
work of the thirteenth census. There
are more A. MS, Phi. DIS and other
college men lined up to help make 1t
a success than ever before They can
prepare and interpret census data as
well as "Old Figgers" Grosvenor could
make an election forecast in his palm
lest days.
The formative work Of the thirteenth
census, so far as preparing the ques-
ton lists is concerned, Is now about
completed. There are many different
schedules of questions that will be
asked. The one which will be used
oftenest is the population schedule,
which contains thirty-three questions.
The next most important schedule has
to do with the farm. There are some
100000 farms in the United States,
and each farm schedule will have on 1t
from fifty to sixty questions. After the
COlIiS lllOoS CONOiAA blAS
manufacturing industries and on the
general and special schedules will APP
pear many hundred heterogeneous.
In the making of the schedules of
questions there are many things to
consider It is by no means simple
matter of writing down every question
that happens to suggest itself to the
schedule-maker. Upon the number and
the character of the questions asked
depends the entire value of the census;
and in the preparation of the question
lists there is more science than in all
the remainder of the work together.
There are two principles that must
govern those who frame a schedule.
The fewer and the simpler the ques-
lions asked the greater the accuracy