The Detroit times., 1910-04-07
CENSUS WORK IL
COST s15,000.0Q
Army of Clerks Will on April
Count Noses of All Who Liv|
Under Stars and Stripes.

quiet side street, almost un0er
shadow of the capitol. Is a low. ran
ling, red brick structure, which
noisy neither In appearance nor
the days news at present. Vet
occupants of this building are gettip
ready to spend in slpgle day ~
sum OF s1.000.000.
The day is April 15--census dnE(
The building is occupied by Direcf4
L. Dana Durand and his cenou
bureau. <<<
1t Is a big job spending $4,000. 00 n
all in wad like that. and alreadJ
there are sure indications OF thu
activity to come. Each day sees new
faces among the crowd of clerks l41
the building. and new faces will con-
tinue to appear until on April 15 therU
will be 1000 clerks, stenographero,< IA
typewriters, machine operators ana
experts crowded about the machines
benches and desks. counting thu
noses of all of us who live under th4|
stars and stripes from Porto Rico t1|
the Philippines.
Only In theory Is the counting all to}
be done and the money spent on coxl@|
sus day. In reality Durand began
spending his appropriation last foII4
fore the last column OF statistics ~ x
footed up.
But so far as the figures are con-
cerned they apply only to April Isl
The baby born April 16 will not gek3
into the 1910 census. The man who
dies April IA will not be reckoned In
Il is going to be a mighty task
counting the noses. The 1000 clerlk1
a N ri a htlt a orr
the actual number to be engaged The
field work is in charge of $50 super
visors, who will direct some 70,00oA
enumerators--the ones who will e.
from dosr to door. Then there Win
be 1900 special agents garnerin&1
statistics OF various sorts and otherf'
agents enumerating in Hawaii and
Alaska.
Incidentally, II may be noted that
the census in Alaska has nearly all
been taken. The count there began
Jan. /. because then the miners and \,
prospectors were all gathered into
towns easy of access.
The constitution directs that a cen-I
sus be taken every 10 years to de-.
termine how many men each state
may send TO the house of representa-
tives. And in early times this was
the extent of the census: merely aN
count of heads.
| But now the tallying has a much
tbroader worth. This year each man.
woman and child In the land will ~
asked 80 questions. II is the most
complete census ever attempted byf
| this or any other country. The fig
ures compiled from the totals of the
80 answers will be of the highest i'm,
portance to all of us Legislation Of
various sorts may be expected to fol-
low
For instance each person will be re-
quired TO tell his correct age under
penalty of 800 fine. In another cob
umn he will tell whether he is en-
ployed or not. So a child of IL years
may say in another column that he Is
employed. Thus would be shown
violation of the child labor laws.
OF course, information given the
census enumerators will be held in
strictest confidence. and no prosecu-
lions OF any sort can follow the Civ
ing of census information. But, for
the first time in history, we are go-
ing to get accurate information as TO
the numbers of children employed by
American manufacturers.
AS a result of this census we will
know whether there is an exodus d
from or to the farm. we will under.
stand American labor conditions bet
ter than ever before, we will probably
receive interesting side light upon
! the high cost OF living.
! Great care is being taken to make
| this census. the thirteenth in our his
| tory, the most complete and accurate.
| Il is the first time the human machin-
cry for the count was not chosen
politically This time employment in
/ the service has depended upon ones
ability 10 pass the test examinations.
This year the census totals will be
found by census machines, designed
and patented by men In the census
Office The machines are expected to
revOdtionize the work. One machine
is built like a typewriter with 240
keys Each key Is n symbol. instead
OF a letter. and a touch of the key
punches a hole of special shape in n
card
with these machines the whole
census will be reduced TO a card In
deX system. With a machine one
clerk can punch 5000 cards day.
There are 300 OF these machines
ready to begin on the 10000. 900 cards.
From the punching machines the
cards will go 10 electric tabulating
machines. Pins, passing through the
required holes. will make electric
connections. printing the tabulations
on tape such as comes from a stock
ticker Hundreds Of power adding
machines will assist to complete and
total the big count