New Britain herald., 1919-02-21
CloRplete Inventory of Nation and
 Its People Next on Program

L.. Washington, Feb. 21.--With hostiIi- ties at an end, the government is now laying the basis for one of the decennial inventory of the United States, it's people. lands, industry, and livestock that is called the census. Secretary of Commerce Redfeld the other day signed the order that trans ferred one of the largest of the tenn l porary war buildings put up in Washington, that formerly housing 1 the army's departm ent of aeronautics, 1 to Director Of the Census Rogers and l his staff.
 l Actually, the governm ent began the l job some months ago, assembling it's l plans and forces. By law. the be- ] ginning of the census period Of 1920 i is July l, 1919, though it will not be ! until a year from April that the emu 1 merators will be set at work. It is 1 then that every individual in America,
 or some one acting for the individual 1 will be asked the series of questions { that must be answered.
 1 There will be 3s of these questions 1 in the 1920 census, according to the present design of Director Rogers dummy cards which now are being gwen lll6 6AHAuSElEe SLuOy or SIdLlB- ticians The more complex question naires that go to industrial establish ! ments. schools ia rms. and every other permanent institution of the country are likewise in the development stage l undergoing critical examination in the light of experience the governm ent l has gained in conducting IS inven- tories of the kind.
 Chiefly the bureau is engaged in 1 preparing for the classification and l tabulation of the vast quantity of ma l terial which Will be assembled The l 1920 census tabulation will be for the 1 first time alm ost completely a ma- | chine operation. conducted by means l of devices useful only to the census ! bureau of the United States which 1 have been invented and are now being
 built by men in It's employ. Electric l machines will first transfer the writ
 ten information coming in on the enu-
 merators' sheets to cards. not by 1 writing, but by punching holes at l proper points, Then the punched
 cards will be handed in their mil
 lions to another battery Of machines,
 the tabulators, an amazing product of
 human ingenuity. F. M. Boiteaux, l who devised them, has been with the
 census for l 5 years, and fig now super ! intending the constru ction of 25 ma ! chimes the operation Of which he will l direct.
 I These tabula.tors, working with
 smooth and silent perfection, take in I 400 cards a minute, count them, re- l ject all that are imperfect or inn 1 properly punched in any fashion, and 1 take off the totals of punch marks.
 assembling the final result in printed 1 figures on handy sheets. One of them 1 the other day in eight hours handled
 150,000 cards, compiling information | that would represent the population 1 statistics of q very sizable American l city. Their experimental use was l commenced after the 1910 census, but l MT. BOiteauX has since devoted most
 of his time to their improvement, and 1 10 the extension of their abilities
 The machines resemble in outward
 aspect a piece of office furniture Cards l go into a metallic magazine at their ! top. travel 8 few inches on metal 1 guides, come out neatly stacked with he mistakes of the punching ma l cInes-w which have merely human
 operators pointed out The printed 1 records of the IS or 20 totals that l the punch marks indicate come out l from another slot, and the instru-
 ment stands ready to repeat.
 With these machines, there is d
 pra actica1 assurance that the pubhca-
 tions of the census, usually coming
 out a long time after the enumera
 ton, may be more quickly at hand
 to guide the estimates of governmental
 and industrial leaders and generally
 guide and dem monstrate the progress
 of national civilization. They are being produced largely by the work
 of youthful apprentices from Wash
 lngton schools, which have vocational
 courses.