Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-12-03

WASHINGTON, d. C.-Machinery will'
play a considerable part in next years
stupendous task of counting the people
of the United States. But the keynote of
the job is system. An army of 10000 men
and women, fully equipped with a COM
mander-in-chief. majors, colonies and sub
officers, will work out a we'll laid cam
| paign plan, for in no oSner way could
| the undertaking ever be finished. Rene
| Bache, writing in the st. Louis Globe
| Democrat, thus describes some pictur-
| esque features of the campaign:
If one were to put side by side the fig
ures of the census Of 1890 and 1910 (as the
latter will present themselves when as
sembled) the most striking single fact
shown by the comparison would be the
o-sappearance of the children. CEN
| fury ago one-half the population of the
United States consisted of boys and girls
under 16 years of age Today the proper
| ton is only one-third.
The reason for this fact is that people
/ bring fewer children into the world now
adays If the average family in this
| country today were as prolific as in 1900
there would be 100000 more children IN
| the United States than are actually hv-
| ing! In 1890 there were in this country
| $50 persons over 20 years of age for every
| /, 900 girls and boys under 16. Today there
dren.
Thus il appears that, whereas in the
early days Of the republic there was
very large proportion of young persons.
at present the percentage of children IN
| the population is comparatively small.
In view of which facts it is easy to un-
| derstand the statement of the late Carroll
! y. Wright that the artificial limiting OF
families was the cause of a greater loss
of population than war, pcscilence ana All
other agencies combined
BABY BORN EVERY TWELVE SEC
ONDS.
Nevertheless baby is born every Il sec
onds. and thanks to this fact, about $780,
900 fresh citizens will be added to our pop
| uIation in the census year 1910. The pass
ing bell will toll every % seconds, usher
ing ], $50 900 Americans out of the world
during the Il months. Every "A seconds
a marriage viii take place. giving expec-
tation of filled cradles. and five of these
latter will be supplied with occupants ev-
cry minute during the year.
So huge has the population grown that
the taking of the census of 1910 would be
a job nothing short Of appalling were II
not for the recent Introduction of ma
cLinely into the business. 1t Is reckoned
| that the mere tabulation of the sex, age,
nativity and occupations of the people II
made by hand would consume for those
four items alone the entire time OF 100
clerks for years. But most of the work
is 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.
The census bureau is buying a large
number of machines of entirely new pat
tern. which are a great improvement on
any apparatus of the kind hitherto
known. They are run by electricity, and
so perfect is their operation that II, the
clerk makes mistake the contr1vance
stops automatically. The tabulating ma
chine will handle as many as 4l5 cards
a minute. but the average speed in actual
work is about $50 This is an average of
| so, eco or 80, 900 cards in working day OF
Z hours, including stoppages for reading
dials etc.
AS the census returns come in from the
enumerators all over the country, in the
shape of flled-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 indicates it's significance so that no
writing is required. Thus, for example,
a few holes will tell that the individual
represented by a card is white, of male
sex, As years old, married, teacher by
profession, able to read, write and speak
English-with the additional information
that he was born in England, that he has
been In the United States ten years, that
he is a naturalized citizen and that he re-
sides in the Eighth ward, Albany. n. Y.
1t will be understood, then. that all the
people in the United States in the year
1910 will be represented in the census bu
reau by ninety odd millions of cards-one
card for each man, woman and child.
The biggest job. however. is to put to-
gether the facts on the cards so as To