The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1916-11-30
HAS YOUR LIFE STORY
Woman in Census Bureau Has
dope" on Every Citizen.
Handles Cards on Which Are Recorded
Essential Facts About 93,o00,oo0
Residents of Country.

1t is early to begin thinking about
the taking Of the census of 1920, but
Uncle Sans aids in the department of
commerce are thinking about it and
one of the interesting and remarkable
women in whom Washington depart
ment life abOunds, is doing much of
the thinking. Miss Olive NJ. Riddle
berger, Virginia girl of distin-
guished antecedents, is one of the i'm
pOrtant if not conspicuous, figures in
the work.
Miss Riddleberger is assistant Statis-
tician in the census bureau. of which
William C. Hunt has been the chief
StatiStiCian for many years. She Is
possessed of the mathematical mind, a
possession not usually accorded to
those of her sex by those gentlemen
who have made a profound study of
psychology. She loves figures and sta
tistics and perfected herself for the
work of which she has become an i'm
pOrtant factor by taking a twO-year
university course in mathematics after
her experience as typist and stenOg-
rapher in the bureau had opened her
eyes to the possibilities of an interest
ing, useful and Out-Of-the-Ordinary ca
reer. Now she preSides over a labOra-
tory of figures in the Commerce build
ing, prepared to go at a moments no.
tice into the life history in outline of
every person in the United States
whose tabulatiOn was included in the
93,O00,0OO odd obtained by the census
takers in 1910. Such life history of
every person canvassed in that great
undertaking is a matter of record, al
though not open to the scrutiny of the
public. 1t is questionable, however,
whether the persons for whom the his
tories are intended would be able to
decipher them in their present form.
The biographical sketches in ques-
tion are to be found on cards, about
the size of an ordinary postal card
which are covered with apparently
meaningless abbreviatiOns and pene-
trated by numerous small circular per-
fOratioEs, each of which has meaning
according to the exact spot it occupies
on the card in question. Every alb
brevlation and every perfOratiOn stands
for some important fact in relation to
the individual.
Electric TabUIators.
The cards themselves are first sorted
and then counted by electric machin-
cry that never makes a mistake and
which is capable of tabulating from
10000 to $4,000 of these cards in q
working day of seven hours. These
tabulating machines record the equiva-
lent of 60 facts at one operation, such
for instance as recording the exact
number of men Of any particular for
eign race or the number of white wom-
en- who work in laundries. At the last
federal census, to provide for the mani
fold detailed classificatiOns required to
make the census a work of value, re-
specting the population, these cards
were sorted eight times, counted five
times, involving, in these various trans
actions, the handling of 1,20OOOO,OOO
cards, or their equivalent in numbers.
Census clerks, working under anti
quated methods, could not perform the
work in years. The machines do it in
a few months. They do it with such
incredible perfection that imperfect or
improperly adjusted cards are auto
matically eliminated. And in the per-
fecting of these machines, as in the
other parts Of the statistical work,
Miss Riddleberger is acknowledged to
have had a part. Her ability to devise
means and methods commensurate
with the vast and ever-increasing mass
of statistics that must be handled with
speed and accuracy has been demon
strated on several occasions. She is
now assisting in preparing plans for
the taking of the next census, whose
last details must be perfected before
the actual work of enumeration can be
undertaken.
Preparing for Next Count.
During the census period the Office
force of the census bureau will be in
creased to approximately 1000 persons,
nearly One-half Of whom are connect
ed with the population division. This