The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1930-02-13


public inspection. Like the figures
in your income tax return, they are
official secrets which prying Cos
sips have no access to. Uncle Sam
is concerned, for census purposes,
only with totals and averages and
not at all with individuals. But a
clear picture of the people of the
United States as a whole can be
obtained only by getting the facts
start with.
For example, one of the things
which it is important to know, be-
sides the number of persons in the
| United States, is the average age of
our people. Is it higher or lower
than it was when the last census
was taken, ten years ago, and how
much? This average age has been
increasing steadily. But if the
census of 1880 should show a de-
cline in the average age, it would
be a danger signal, warning to
speed up public health measures, a
call to investigate the cause and ap-
ply all of the resources of sanitary
science towards improving and
guarding the general health.
So don't think it is impertinence
when the census taker asks your
age! Uncle Sam wants to know,
not your individual age but the av-
erage age of all the people.
Another question the enumerat-
ors will ask is, "Who is the head
of the family?" That doesn't mean
; what it sounds like. Uncle Sam
isn't interested as to whether the
wife wears the breeches or not, but
does want to know how many men
are dependent upon the earnings of
their children, how many women
are self-supporting. The: head of
the family, from the census point
of view, is the one who earns the
money.
Whether you live on a farm or
in town, whether you are white
black, red of yellow, male, female
married or unmarried, able to read
and write where you were born and
where your parents were born,
when you came to America If you
are an immigrant, what your ma
tive language was and whether you
can speak English, are questions
the reasons for which are clear
enough. On the totals compiled
from these answers depends, among
other things, the number of persons
from your native country who can
be admitted to the United States
in the next ten years.
Everybody who is employed will
be asked to give his trade or oc-
cupation and the particular in
dustry in which he or she works,
or if working on his own account
or as an employer, to say so. But
question on that line this year
will be: "Are you employed now?"
That is as of the first of April.
There will be for the first time an
accurate record of unemployment,
figures on which heretofore have
been largely estimates.
Another new question will be
whether you own your home. In a
general way the proportion of
home owners has been estimated in
the past, but nobody has ever had
exact figures. The figures have a
decided bearing on the important
subject of our national prosperity.
And if you do not own your home,
the census man will ask you how
much rent you pay. That is an
other useful index of the size of
the national bankroll. Taking the
two together the Government will
be able to tell us whether home
ownership is on the increase,
whether there is a demand for
more individual owned dwellings
and those facts have a bearing on
the lumber industry and the pro-
duction of all their building sup
plies, as well as on the market for
all sorts of household equipment
and furnishings.
Another new census question is
whether you own a radio set.
Nothing could better illustrate the
speed with which new inventions
take hold once they strike the pub
lie fancy. Ten years ago, when
the census of 1920 was taken, there
wasn't a radio set in the world ex-
cept experimental ones; there was
no such thing as broadcasting; no.
body but few experts knew the
difference between seterodyne
and screen-grid, if any. Now look
at the blamed thing. There are so
many receiving sets that Uncle
Sam is going to count 'em to find
out how many of his family he can
talk to at once.
For the first time, the census
taker will ask how old you were at
your first marriage. The informa-
ton will be more important ten
years from now than it is now, be-
cause the second set of answers to
it, in 1910, will disclose whether the
average age Of marriage Is getting
older or younger. Our grandpar-