Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1909-10-27
GETTING READY FOR
TAKING THE CENSUS
Population in 1910 Expected to
be Hundred Million.
Census Taking is an Enormous Task,
Employing Thousands of Skilled
hen in the Work.

One hundred millions of inhabir-
ants! Such is the advance estimate
made by the census bureau of the
population of the United States in
1910.
To count them, and reckon up
their manifold notwithstanding, as
a properly taken census must, COM
pIete picture of tbs people and their
doings-will be an enormous tasks.
There will be $50 supervisors, ap-
pointed by the president, to look
after as many geographical districts,
and in Washington alone at least
5000 additional clerks will be en-
pIoyed.
To gather and put together the
census of 1910 will require the
services o. an army OF nearly 10 600
men and women.
So huge has the population grown
that the taking of the census of 1910
would be a job nothing short of ap-
palliug, were it not for the recent in
PRODUCTION of machinery into the bust
ness. It is reckoped that the mere
tabulation of the sex. age, nativity
and occupations of the people. If
made by hand. would consume, for
those four item alone, the entire
time of one HUNDRED 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
enumerators, attend to the task OF
putting them together.
The census bureau is buying a
large number of machines of entirely
new patterns, which are 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 machine
will handle as many as Ais cards a
minute; but the average speed IN
actual work is about $50. This is an
average of so, 600 or so 600 cards in a
working day of seven hours. includ-
ing 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
its significance, so that no writing is
required. Thus for example, few
holes will tell that the individual
represented by card Is white, of
msle sex, 45 years old. married, a
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 be
is a naturalized citizen, and that he
resides 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 bureau by
ninety-odd millions of cards-one
card for each man, woman or child.
The biggest job. however, is to put
together the facts ON the cards, so as
to take tables of figures. telling how
many persons there are OF each age
how many are white, black or OF
mixed blood; how many carpenters,
undertakers and trained nurses there
are; how many can read and write.
and so on, even to the tabulation OF
these and hundreds of other matters in
every township and city.
To do all this by hand would be a
vastly expensive and almost interim
nable job. But the machines attend
to it automatically. and with an ex-
petition that is nothing short of
marvellous. All that is required is to
feed the cards into them, and they dc
the rest, working out the problems
and giving the results without pos
sibility of error. With the help OF
ne of these contrivances a capable
clerk can tabulate from so, 600 to so,
600 cards, rs already stated. in work
ing day. all the facts they contain be-
ing duly assembled and classified. :
Rene Bache in Los Angeles Times.