The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1920-01-03
THE CENSUS is
NOW BEING TAKEN
ENUMERATORS STARTED WORK
YESTERDAY THROUGHOUT
THE UNITED STATES
People Should Be Ready With Their
Answers, as the Enumerators
4, Are Paid by Names, Not Time

the United States 1t on.
Under the immediate direction of
Thomas A. Scott, supervisor of the
5th census district of Washington,
census enumerators will call at every
dwelling house in this community to
secure the information necessary to
fill out the questions contained on
the printed census schedules.
Questions covering the following
points will be asked of every per-
son in the United States:
Sex:
Color or race:
Age at last birthday:
Whether single, married, widow
ed or divorced:
Birthplace of person enumerated
and birthplace of father and mother,
giving names of both country and
province if foreign born:
Occupation, specifying trade or
profession, also industry in which
employed:
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Whether able to read:
Whether able to write:
Whether able to speak English:
Whether home is owned or rented,
and if owned whether home is free
of encumbrance OF is mortgaged:
Persons of foreign birth will be
asked questions concerning these adj
ditional points:
Year of immigration to the United
States:
Whether naturalized, and if so the
year of naturalization.
Mother tongue or native language:
Census enumerators also will call
at every farm in this community to
secure the information necessary to
fill out the questions contained on
the agricultural schedule.
Each farmer will be asked ques-
tions concerning the acreage of his
farm; whether he owns, rents or
partly owns and partly rents the
land he farms; the quantity of all
crops raised on his farm during the
year 1919; and many other questions
which cover all possible farm opera
tions.
/ An absolutely accurate and COM
plete census vitally concerns the well
fare of this community and every
person living in it. The official pop
ulation for the next ten years will
be determined by the census of 1920.
Be ready with your answers when
the census man calls at your house.
The men and women appointed to
serve as enumerators of the Four
teenth Decennial Census are charged
by law with the collection of all
facts necessary to fill out properly
the printed census schedules which
each enumerator will carry when
making the house-to-house canvass
of the territory assigned to him.
Each enumerator must visit person.
ally each house in his district and
make his inquiries of the head or
some other member of the family
who is competent to answer the
census questions.
The act of congress providing for
the census gives each enumerator the
right to enter every dwelling in his
district for the purpose OF OBJ
tanning the information required.
Enumerators will carry with them at
all times their identification cards
and also their written commissions
from the government which they will
show whenever they are requested
to do so. They are instructed to be
always courteous and considerate,
but in those rare instances where in
formation necessary to fill out the
questions is denied them, they are
empowered by law to insist on cor
rect answers. There are legal penal
ties for refusing to answer the cen
sus questions or willfully giving an
swers that are false.
Each enumerator is prohibited by
law from publishing or communicat-
ing any information obtained through
the census regarding any individual
or his affairs. This obligation to
secrecy likewise applies to all per-
sons connected with the census. After
the schedules are filled out they are
sealed up and sent to Washington
where the information is tabulated
by means of machinery, names being
discarded entirely. No person, there
fore, need fear that his personal
affairs will be disclosed or that the
information given will be used to
harm him in any way.
It is expected that the work OF
enumerating urban districts will be