The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1910-02-10
FACTS WILL Be HELD SECRET
Only the Men Connected With the
Census Will be Permitted to Look
Into the Business Secrets of the Big
Industrial Plants.

+ The United States Census Bureau
has begun to take the Federal Census
of Manufacturers, Mines, Quarries,
Petroleum, and Natural Gas for the
year 1909, which comprises two of the
principal inquiries embraced in the
Thirteenth Decennial Census, the
others being population and agricul-
ture.
The canvass is being made under
the supervision of William II. Ste
uart, chief statistician for lmanufac-
lures, and about 1900 special agents
will be employed eventually in the
work, and they are from day to day
being appointed by Director Durand
from the eligible registers established
as result of the November exami-
nation of candidates for these posi-
tions
Director Durand has taken extraor-
binary precautions to, assure the man
ufacturers that all answers will be
held absolutely confidential. This
statement is conspicuously displayed
on the front pages of the various
schedules, and it is also emphatically
declared that no publication will be
made in the census reports disclosing
the name or operations of individual
establishments in any particular.
The act of congress. provides that the
bureau Of the census shall not permit
any other than its sworn employees to
examine the individual reports. It
provides also that any employee who
shall, without the authority of the di-
rector of the census, publish or com
municate any information coming into
his possession shall be guilty of mis-
demeanor and upon conviction shall
be fined not to exceed $1,000, or be
imprisoned not to exceed two years, or
both, in the discretion of the court.
"There is but a limited time in
which to complete this work, - said
Director Durand today. cit is es-
sential that all the field employees ex-
ert themselves to the utmost. Those
who do good work will be re-assigned
to other districts and retained in the
service until the work is finished.
eff manufacturers or others furnish
ing data object to supposed disclosure
of the secrets Of their business, the
special agents will assure them that
the results of their individual bust
ness will not be made public. They
information will not be used for the
purposes Of taxation, nor in any man
ner to identify the operations of the
individual establishments, and will not
be disclosed to any other bureau of
the federal government. The intent
of the law, which will be strictly car
ried out, is to prevent the disclosure
of information which might operate
to the detriment in any way of the
person or establishment supplying it.
1.-THE period covered will be,
wherever possible, that of the year
ending December 81, 1909. In the
majority of cases the data can be Sc
cured for it, as the business year Of
most establishments will correspond
to the calendar year 1909 For es-
Establishments beginning operations for
the first time during the year it will
not be possible to make the report
cover more than the period actually
embraced.
GA manufacturing establishment,
which is the unit Of enumeration for
the census, is deemed to be one or
more factories, mills, or plants owned
or controlled by one individual, part.
nership, corporation, or other owner,
located in the same town or city, and
for which one set of books of account
lis kept. AS the statistics will be pre-
sented by kinds and by classes of in
dustries, it is essential that the pre-
else character of the work performed
by each establishment shall be clear
ly determined A general schedule
must be prepared for each establish
ment reported, and, in addition, such
special supplemental schedule or SEIZED
ules as may apply to the industry, if
any,"