The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1909-10-08
CENSUS TAKING
No EASY THING
By Ernest q. Walker.

WASHINGTON, D. c., Sept. 90
If Census Director Durand could elm
mate several mountain ranges from his
enumeration Of population next April,
he would avoid deal of brain flag
in the next few months. 1t is compare
lively easy taking a census Of popula-
tion on prairie or over fairly thick
ly settled farming region. The enumer-
alton work is not so very difficult for
big city, although the problems of
getting the population accurately
| counted there are numerous.
| Up and down the entire length of
| the country, near the Atlantic sea-
board, is a range of mountains with
many spurs, and up and down the
length of the country, near the Pa
| cifc Coast, is another larger mountain
range with many spurs. Many people
have penetrated into the Businesses of
those mountains. They live there in
great isolation, some of them many
miles from a nearest neighbor. The
census Office at Washington is just as
anxious to numerate accurately jim
Jones and his family, living on some
high place in the Great Smoky or on
| the Sierras as it is to enumerate John
Smith, living in Chicago or Brooklyn.
| An enumerator can reach John Smith
| easily, at cost of 2 or cents. 1t
can reach the Jim Joneses, living in
the mountain Businesses of the coun-
try only at an expense of So or So
or, perhaps, several times that sum.
There are ten of thousands of these
| Jim Joneses-the hardy mountaineer
| folk of the land. The census author
| tiles are bent upon getting their names
| and the names of their wives and chill
| dren but it is taxing their ingenuity
to do it without eating a big hole
into the appropriations of some $l2,-
| 100000 for taking the enumeration.
| They have decided that it will be i'm
practicable to send an enumerator to
every one of these mountain men but
| great care will be exercised in choosing
the enumerators in the mountain re-
| gions to obtain men who personally
know these mountaineers and who,
when a man lives in some distant fast,
ness, will be able to answer for him
such questions as his name, age, ma
tionality and occupation.
This caution will be exercised
| through the supervisors for the various
| census districts There are to be
schools of training for these census
supervisors and particular attention
will be paid to instructing them about
| the enumerations in the mountain re-
gions. No extension of time can be
allowed for taking the enumerations
in the mountains. The work must be
completed during the month of April
next, just as in all the other rural re-
| gions of the United States. There is
a big mountain problem in taking the
census of the Territory of Hawaii,
| because there are many isolated com
munities in that territory of numerous
| islands. But there the census office
can allow more than a month for
enumeration, if it be necessary, be
cause the figures for Hawaii will not
be used in making up the totals for
the mainland.
very troublesome census, about
which the country hears comparatively
little, will be the census of manufac-
lures. In some respects it is hardly of
| secondary Importance to the enumera-
| tion of population. A man or woman
here and there will buck against the
| questions of n census enumerator and
| think he or she is smart in giving in.
formation, which except as affecting
| an abstract unit will never reach the
| public. But those recalcitrants are
| pigmies by the side of the manufac-
turers, asked to furnish information
about their business to nm employee of
| the United States government. They
| get out of their heads only with the
greatest difficulty. the idea that the in
formation may leak to people who have
no right to know, and especially to
| business rivals.
Many manufacturers are convinced
that political pull will get anything at
/ Washington and that a powerful rival
can go down to the Federal capital or
hire big lawyer or politician to go
and learn everything that has been told
| to the enumerator.
Therefore the most careful plans
have been laid for taking the census
of manufactures. Some of the best
experts in the census business have
been at work all summer, preparing the
| form of schedules for that census and
devising schemes which may assure
manufacturers of ample protection
from publicity.
Something has been accomplished to.
ward educating manufacturers by the
extensive work done since the last de-
cennial enumeration. a number of
special ccnsuses has been taken in that
period and the the Bureau of Corpora.
lions in the Department of Commerce
and Labor has done much work OF a
semi,cens character. The secrecy. OBJ
served as 10 individuals aud establish
ments, has been uubrokcn as rule,
although the agitation about the use
~ such information during campaign
time 10 obtain political contributions
has not been very Quieting TO nervous
cnpiuius Of industry.
About year ng0 the Census Bureau
: took census of water powers, develop,
ci and undoyeloped In the entire Uni,
+ "a States. During that period, as now
thrrc WINS much talk about water
. mower trust ana about Tho pn,rta "a