Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1919-02-22
PREPARE Foa CENSUS.
ousssiennairs 10 De Employed
Making 1870 gnunevatior.

Making 1890 Enur,sratien.
! ellington. Feb. 2i.--With HOSTILE
ties at an END. theN government 10 now
laying the basis for one OF the greater
of its peace time tasks--the decennial
inventory OF the United States, its
people, lands. industry. and live stock
that is called the census Secretary
or Commerce Redfield the other day
signed the order that transferred one
OF the largest Of the temporary war
buildings put up in Washington. that
formerly housing the army's depart
ment Of aeronautics, to Director OF the
Census Rogers an0Shis staff.
Actually, the government began the
Job some months ago. assembling Its
plans and forces. BY law, the begin
ming Of the census period OF 1920 Is
July I, 1919. though il will not be I'M
til a year from April that the enumer-
ators will be set at work. II Is then
that every individual in America, or
some one acting for the individual. will
be asked the series Of questions that
must be answered.
There will be 20 Of these questions In
the 1920 census, according to the pres
cards, which now are being given the
exhaustive study Of statisticians. The
more complex questionnaires that 60
to Industrial establishments, schools.
farms, and every other permanent in
stitution Of the country are likewise in
the development stage. undergoing
critical examination in the light OF ex-
perience the government has gained in
conducting thirteen inventories Of the
kind.
Chiefly the bureau is engaged in
preparing for the classification and
tabuiation of the vast quantity of ma
terial which will be assembled. The
1920 census tabulation will be for the
first time almost completely machine
operation. conducted by means Of de-
vices useful only to the census bureau
of the United States which have been
invented and are now being built by
men in its employ. Electric machines
Will first transfer the written informa-
ton coming in on the enumerators'
sheets to cards. not by writing. but by
punching holes at proper points. Then
the punched cards will be handed in
their millions to another battery OF
machines, the tabulators. an amaz-
ing product Of human ingenuity. E.
NJ. BoiteauX, who devised them, has
bean with the census for Is years, and
10 now experimenting the construc-
ton Of twenty 1--WE machines the oper-
alton Of which he will direct.
These tabulators, working with
smooth and silent perfection, take in
400 cards a minute, count them, re-
ject all that are imperfect or i'm
properly punched In any fashion. and
take OF the totals Of punch marks, as
sembling the final result in printed
figures on handy sheets. One Of them
the other day in eight hours handled
10000 cards, compiling information
that would represent the population
statistics Of very stable American
city. Their experimental use was
commenced after the 1910 census, but
Mr. Bofteaux has since devoted most
Of his time to their improvement, and
to the extension Of their abilities.
The machines resemble in outward
aspect piece Of office furniture. cards
90 into a metallic magazine at their
top travel few inches on metal
guides, come out neatly stacked with
the mistakes Of the punching machines
which have merely human operators
pointed out. The printed records of
the Is or 20 totals that the. punch
marks indicate come out from another
slot, and the instrument stands ready
to repeat.
With these machines, there Is a prac-
tical assurance that the publications Of
the census. usually coming out a long
time after the enumeration, may be
more quickly at hand to guide the es-
Inmates Of governmental and industrial
leaders. and generally guide and
demonstrate the progress Of national
civilization. They are being produced
largely by the work Of youthful ap-
prentices from Washington schools,
which have vocational course.