Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1910-03-23

The comparative cneapness with
which the thirteenth census will be
taken will be largely due to Director
E. Dana Durand's economical meth
DDS, to the Introduction of semiauto-
matte electrical card punching. tabu-
lating and sorting machines and to the
Inheritance Of wisdom from the ex-
perience gained by the permanent cen
sus bureau.
Modern Methods For Accuracy.
Mr.. Durand is responsible for many
Of the new methods to increase Stats
teal accuracy at every step of the
census taking and to decrease the per
capita cost Of the enumeration. The
card punching. tabulating and sorting
machinery is the invention Of a census
mechanical expert, and the patent
rights belong to Uncle Sam. The ma
chimes are novel in plan and design,
are of greater speed and efficiency
than those they superseded and can
be built and operated at large saw
ing Of money as compared with pre-
vAOu0 CS 1Ol luAo Pu1 pOoOs
Other money saving features are the
elimination Of the vital statistics in
quiry from the work Of the decennial
census, as it belongs to the permanent
branch of the United States census;
the reduction in the number Of sched-
ules, the piece price method of paying
for machine work. the omission of the
hand, household and neighborhood in
dustries from the manufactures branch
Of the census and the reduction of the
size and number of copies of the final
reports
The larger part of the $13.OOO,OOO
| will be expended in the fiscal year
which began July last and ends
June 80. 1910. the first of the three
years within which time the thirteenth
| census must be over. the temporary
clerks and special agents discharged
and the permanent census bureau
| with its Office force of 700 clerks again
performing it's annual intercensal func-
lions. Fully half Of the total to be
expended will be Washington's share.
and the remainder will be distributed
all over the country
Congress has limited the thirteenth
census to four general subjects-pop-
ulatiOn. agriculture. manufactures and
mines and quarries. The director is
authorized to determine the form and
subdivision of inquiries. The inquiry
as to population relates to April Is.
1910; that as to agriculture concerns
the farm operations during 1909 and
calls for an inventory of farm equip,
ment April Is. 1910; that relative to
manufactures and mines and quarries
is for 1909.
An Army to Get the Facts.
The enumerators will carry only the
population and agriculture schedules
April Is. 1910. Special agents will be
sent out with the schedules for the
manufactures. mines and quarries
data. There will be fully $1,000 emu.
merators. of whom about $4,000 will
carry both the population and agri.
culture schedules, as it is estimated
that there are now fully 100000 sep
arate farms in America. with farmers
numbering we'll up into score of mil
lions. In 1900 there were many more
billions of dollars Of fixed capital in.
vested in agriculture than there were
in manufactures. strange as it may
seem. And the farmer is getting bet
ter off all the time: his mortgage in
debtedness is decreasing fast, his tax
alton is small as compared with the
urbanite's burden, and he has taken
to automobile riding on large scale.
This Is the heyday Of the farmer
and old DR.. u. S. Census is going tc
diagnose him pretty carefully for feal
; that with ease comes evil-that is
the neglect of those essentials which
have made his prosperity possible.
Census taking every ten years is {
tremendous task. 1t is the creates
single operation undertaken by Uncle
Sam with the exception of the Pana
} ma canal work and the assembling o.
an army in time of war: The Ameri
can census is the largest, costiiest ant
most accurate Of any taken by the civ
ilized nati0n,. Its methods are th,