The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1913-02-08
Cost of Thirteenth Census.


Regarding the cost of the thir
4 teenth deeennial census, the report
submitted by Census Director Durand
states that the grand total expendi
ture from July 1, 1909, to June So
1912 was SIS, III ,593, of which 1929,
355 was expended for field work (sal-
aries of supervisors and enumerators
etc.; $6,271,4A6 for compilation and
publication of statistics; and 81 ,676,
762 for annual and other investiga-
tons of. the permanent bureau not
connected with the decennial census.
The total appropriation, receipts,
ETC., were S15,175,48
The most striking recommends
tons in Director Durand's report
are the plan to use United States
mail carriers in the future to per-
form as large a part of the census
field work as possible, and the plan
to provide for the supervision of
this field work by trained census en-
ployees instead of Or in addition to
supervisors or other directing Off
GERS chosen locally. It is proposed,
if congress approves, to apply these
methods to the special census Of
agriculture which, by authority of a
recent act, is to be taken in 1915.
In regard to the plan of using mail
carriers Director Durand says in his.
report:
Mail carriers, whether in cities or
in rural districts, appear to be con-
spicuously well qualified to act as
census enumerators. They are Sc
leeted without reference to political
considerations and as the result of
tests which guarantee a fair degree
of education and ability. Their
peculiar experience, however, adds
Immensely to their fitness for the
work. They are personally acquaint-
ed with almost every family and in
sdIVidual il the districts which they
serve. Such acquaintance would not
only result in saving the carrier
much time, but would enable him to
secure more complete and accurate
Information. Again, the mail
carriers have a permanent respon-
sibility to the government as their
employer, and if utilized for census
work would feel under obligation to
do it to the best of their ability,
lest otherwise their permanent posi-
tons might be endangered It is in
conceivable, for example, that mail
carriers acting as enumerators would
permit themselves to become parties
to a scheme of elaborate padding of
the census such as was attempted |
in number of cities and towns of
the country at the last census, or
that they should neglect their work
to any such degree as did some of |
the enumerators in 1910,
Another peculiar advantage of the |
employment Of mail carriers as cen
5us enumeralorss is the fact that their !
duties require them day by day to |
go over the same territory. A large
part of the required census work /
could be done by the carriers as in
to their mail deliveries, al
though Of course a considerable |
amount of additional time would be /
Under the method hereto I
lore employed, an enumerator who
finds a family absent on his first visit
IS under strong temptation not to re-
turn to that family to complete his
work. To. do so, particularly in the
rural districts, may mean special
trip of considerable distance. The
nail carrier who is unable to obtain
the required schedules on one visit
would lose no time in visiting the
same family on later trip.
= # mail carriers were called upon
sor such service, they should, of
course, be properly compensated for
additional work thrust upon them
It is believed that Just compensa-
ion to the carriers would amount to
} decidedly smaller sum than must
lecessarily be paid to enumerators
employed exclusively for census work.
The saving Of cost, however, is less
important than greater accuracy in
he statistics, y
In most of the leading foreign
countries the work of census emu
neration Is largely Or wholly perform
ID by permanent employees either
If the central government or of the
ocal governments. Postal employees,
policemen, and other officers of cities
md local governments are called into
eryice