The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1910-03-02
WRONG VIEW OF THE CENSUS.
No Harm Can come to Any Person
Who Answers The Questions.
Washin gton, ID. C.
Mo III

"oohhh 5lOl, ~. ~.
March 2, 1910.
Letters from the census Supervisors
to the United States Census Bureau
snow the erroneous apprehension OF
a considerable element of the popula-
ton that their answers to the enum-
orators questions in the next census.
beginning April Is, this year. will
cause increased taxation. legal en-
tangiements, or injurious conseouen-
ces to their persons and property.
In order to quiet such unfounded
fears, which would, unless removed,
materially affect the accuracy of the
census, the bureau has prepared an
ofhcial statement relative to the de-
cennial census, its origin, purpose
and uses.
This statement should furnish com
piete assurance to those concerned
that information given the enumera-
tors is held by the Census Bureau in
the strictest confidence with reference
TO the identity of the informants nc
required by the policy of the bureau
and commanded by the law of the
United States.
me bureau earnestly hopes that
clergymen, priests, physicians, school
teachers, employers, and other pub-
ilc-splrlted citizens who come in con
tact with large numbers of people. will
cooperate with the bureau by telling
persons who are believed to entertain
erroneous opinions OF the census tbe
real facts and urging them to give
iull replies to the emu numerators. Teach
ers are particularly reQuester to speak
or the census to the school children
and ask them to tell their parents
about 1t.
The statment issued by the bureau
explains that the Constitution requires
census of the popuI alton to be taken
every ten years in order to reappor-
tlon state representation in the Ma
tional House of Representatives. II
is the means also to ascertain the in
crease in the population, agriculture,
industries, and resources of the nation
since the last census.
1t is emphatically declared, by the
statement, that the information sought
from the people of the United States is
used solely for general statistical pur-
poses. 1t will neither be published nor
used in any other way to disclose facts
regarding any individual or enterprjsc
me census, it goes on to say, is not.
never has been, and can not be en-
ployed to obtain information that can
be used i'll any way in the assessment
OF property for purposes of taxation or
the collection of taxes, either national
state, or local; or for deportation pro-
ceedlngs, eXtradition measures. army
or navy conscription, internal-revenue
investigations, compulsory school at
tendance, child-labor law prosecutions
quarantine regulations, or In any way
to affect the life, liberty or property
OF any person.
1T points out that replies to the emu
merators are and must be held by the
Census Bureau in strict and absolute
confidence. All the bureau officials,
supervisors, supervisors clerks, emu
merators, and interpreters, before en-
tering upon their duties, are Obliged
to take a solemn oath not to disclose
any information they may obtain, ex-
cept to the Census Bureau and a vio-
lation of the United States law in re-
gard to this oaths means a $1,000 fine
or Imprisonment for two years, or
both, in the discretion OF the court.