The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1919-03-21
MACHINES TO Do. Do
WORK IN CENSUS
Wonderful Devices to Tabulate
and Record Figures on Pop
u|ation and Industry.
QUIZ BEGINS IN APRIL, 1920
Government Already Has Begun the
Job Of Assembling Its Plans and
Forces-One Machine Handles
>. 10000 Cards in Eight
Hours

MISUNDERSTANDING hostilitics of an
end. the government is now laying the
basis for one of the greatest Of Its
peace-time tasks--the decennial inveD.
tory of the United States. its people,
lands, industry and live stock that is
called the census. Secretary Of Com
MERGE Redfield the other day signed
largest of the temporary war build
angs put up In Washington. that for.
merry housing the army's department
Of aeronautics, to Director Of the Cen
sms Rogers and his staff.
Actually. the government began the
Job some time ago, assembling its
plans and forces. BY law. the begin
ming Of the census period Of 1920 Is
July 1, 1919, though 1t will not be I'M
til year from April that the enumer-
ators will be set at work.
There will be Twenty-Five questions
Gin the 1920 census, according to the
present design of Director Rogers
dummy cards, which now are being
given the exhaustive study Of statisti-
cans. The more complex question
aaires that 60 to industrial establish
ments, schools, farms and every other
permanent institution of the country
are likewise in the development stage.
undergoing critical examination in the
light of experience the government has
gained in conducting thirteen inven.
tories Of the kind.
viii Be Machine Operation.
Chiefly the bureau Is engaged in pre-
earing for the classification and tabu-
latiOn of the vast quantity Of material
which will be assembled. The 1920
census tabulatiOn will be for the first
time almost completely a machine op-
Grafton. conducted by means Of devices
useful only to the census bureau Of the
United States which have been invent
ed and are now being built by men In
Its employ. Electric machines will
arst transfer the written information
coming in on the enumerntors' sheets
to cards, not by writing, but by punch
ing holes at proper points. Then the
punched cards will be handed in theIr
millions to another battery of ma
chimes, the tabulators, an amazing
product Of human ingenuity. e. M.
Boiteaux, who devised them. has been
with the census bureau for eighteen
years and Is now experimenting the
construction Of twenty-five machines,
the operation Of which he will direct.
These tabulators, working with
smooth and silent perfection, take In
400 cards minute, count them, reject
all that are imperfect or improperly
punched in any fashion and take off
the totals Of punch marks. assembling
the final result In printed figures on
aa'ndy sheets. One of them the other
dny in eight hours handled 10000
cards.
Looae Like Office Furniture.
The machines resemble In outward
aspect piece Of office furniture.
Cards go into a metallic magazine at
their top, travel a 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 eighteen or twenty totals that the
punch marks Indicate come out from
another slot, and the instrument stat DIS
ready to repeat.
With these machines, there is n prac-
heal assurance that the publications
Of the census, usually coming out a
tong time after the enumeration. may
be more quickly at hand to guide and
demonstrate the progress of national
civilization. They are being produced
largely by the work Of youthful ap-
prentlces from Washington schools
Which have vocational courses.