The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-03-02
No Harm Can Come to Any Person
Who Answers the Questions
Which Will be Asked
Them.
TAXES NOT CONSIDERED
information is Wanted only For statis-
tical Purposes and 1t VIII
All be Held Con-
fidentia.

WASHINGTON, d, c., March g.
Letters from the census supervisors
to the United States Census Bureau
show the erroneous apprehension of
considerable element of the population
that their answers to the enumerators
questions in the next census, begin
ming April 10, this year, will cause In
creased taxation, legal entanglements,
or injurious consequences to their per
sons 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
affiial statement relative to the decen'
NAL census, it's origin, purpose, and
uses.
This statement should furnish COM
plete 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, as
required by the policy of the bureau
and commanded by the Law of the
United States.
The bureau earnestly hopes that
clergymen, priests, physicians, school
| teachers, employers, and other public
| spirited citizens who come In contact
with large numbers of people, Will co
operate with the bureau by telling per
sons who are believed to entertain er-
4 70 ~
real facts and urging them to give
1 full replies to the enumerators. Teach
ers are particularly requested to speak
to the census to the school children
and ask them to tell their parents
about it.
The statement issued by the bureau
explains that the Constitution requires
a census of the population to be taken
every ten years in order to re-appor'
ton Misrepresentation in the Nat
ional House of Representatives. 1t 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
purposes. 1t will neither be published
nor used in any other way to disclose
facts regarding any individual or en-
! terprise. The census, 1t goes on tc
say, is not, never has been, and can
not be employed to obtain lnforma
ton that can be used in any way IN
j the assessment of property for pur
poses of taxation or the collection
of taxes, either national, state, or 10
cal. or for deportation proceedings
extradition measures, army or navy
conscription, internal-revenue inyesu
cations, compulsory school attendance
child-labor law prosecutions, quaran
4 tine regulations, or in any way te
affect the life, liberty, or property oi
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 vic
lation of the United States law in re
gard to this oath means $1,000 fine
or imprisonment for two years, O
both in the discretion of the court.