The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1909-09-17

shC SrHouS year iJlU. Inc passing
bell Will toll every twenty-three sec.
onds, ushering 1850, 900 American.
out Of the world during the twelve
months. Every twenty four seconds
marriage will occur, giving expec-
tation Of filed cradles, and five OF
these later will be supplied with oc.
Icupants every minute during the year
i SO huge has the population grown
that the taking of the census of 1910
would be a job nothing short OF ap-
palling, were 1t not for the recent In
production OF machinery into the bust.
ness 1t Is reckoned that the mere
tabulation OF the sex, age, nativity
and occupations of the people, If
made by hand, would consume, for
/ those four items alone, the entire
/ time OF 100 clerks for eight years.
But most Of the work is now done BY
machines, which may almost be said
to think, and which, when the facts
are once gathered by the enumera-
tors, attend to the task Of putting
them together. ts5 4altT n
The census bureau is buying a.
large number OF mach ines Of entirely
new patterns, which are d great i'm !
provement on any apparatus Of the
kind hitherto known. They are run
by electricity, and so perfect is their
operation that If the clerk makes a
mistake. the continuance stops auto
matically. The tabulating machines
Will handle as many as AIS. cards d
minute; but the actual speed in sac-
tive work is about $50. This is an
average Of 5000 or so, 600 cards in
q working day OF seven hours, in
Guiding stoppages for reading dials,
etc. 5E@ I.
VI AS the census returns come in from
the enumerators all over the country
IN the shapes Of filled in blanks, the
facts they contain will be transferred
to cards each card representing one
person. The facts in question are
copied on the cards by punching holes
and the position of each hole indi-
Gates it's significance, SO that no writ
ing is required, Thus. for example,
q few holes will tell that the individ-
ual represented ~ a card is white,
or mal sex, IS years old, married,
teacher by profession, able to read.
write and speak English, with the adj
dltlonal information that he was born
in England, that he has been in the
United States ten years, THAI he is al
naturalized citizen, and that he re-
sides In the eighth ward, Albany, N.
Y. a
It will be understood, then, that
all the people in the United States in |
the year 1910 will be represented in
the census bureau by ninety odd mil
mons IONS OF cardsone card for eachI
man, woman or child. The biggest
JOB, however, is to put together the
Facts on the, cards, so as to make
tables of figures telling how manyl
persons there are, Of each age: howl
many are white, black or Of mixed
blood; how many carpenters. under
.akers and trained nurses there are.
low many can read and write: and
20 on, even to the tabulation of these
md hundreds Of othe> matters in
every township and city.
10 do all this by hand would be all
'astly expensive and almost intermin-
lDle JOB. But the machines attend to /
automatically, and with an expedi-
lon tnat is nothing short of marvel
JUS. All that is required is to feed
ne cards into them, and they do the
est, working out the problems and
lving the result without possibility
t error. With the help Of one az
nese contrivances, a capable clerk
an tabulate from $4,000 to 10000
ards, as already stated, in a work
1g Day, all the facts they contain be-
ng duly assembled and classified.
some OF the new tabulators have
ddlng machines attached to them, to
repare statistics of agriculture and
ertaln other arrangements Of figures
lformational. Another novel deyicel
an automatic sorter, which sepa-
ates the cards into classes, electro
agnets controlling their passage I
trough series Of chutes. Indeed 4
\ OF the mechanism from beginning 7
end depends upon electricity, the :
TRENT Delng made and broken by lit Z
metal rods which pass through the \
Dles in the cards. 4
Inc enumerators employed to gath =
the facts for the census of 1910 +
ON all parts of the. country will Z
lmber 65,VO, and all of them will :
men-save perhaps few, who. forl 4
me special and particular reason Z
Ill be Of the gentler sex. Some wo- n
en- did this kind of work for the
81 census very efficiently; but Or
nariiy 1t is too rough, not infre-
entity involving quite little hard I.
Up or one kind or another. The
slness OF putting the facts together
we,ver. after they have been ocl-
ted, will be intrusted mainly to
men, the great majority of them
ung.
experience has shown that women |
more clever than men at such
TX, though they are not easv "a i
mage. A census bureau official said
other day; Il once knew a man | |
@ had twenty girls under his con +.
u. He would introduce any one of X
friends to fifteen of them. saving
y ne reserved the other five for
nself. Now, during the last census
az 100 young women under me and ~
1body might have BIN welcome "a
m al. say without resrve that
nan VINO can mango that number
girls can do anything. The greatest
EQUITY is to curtail their chatter : ,
IN the long run, they make betterI IN
ks than the men. " -