Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-12
UNCLE SAM GETS READY
TO COUNT BIG FAMILY
Household Increases l,4OO,OOO a Year.
Census Bureau Faces Gigantic Task.
Work Starts in April.

sprinkled thinly throughout this fair
Yes, there were only about 100000
Of us then. Philadelphia was the
largest city, with just 42444 popula-
ton. New York was second, with
33,131; Boston third, with 1909
smaller than Attleboro. Mass, Of today:
Charleston, S. c., was fourth, with
1880. smaller than Spartanburg. s. c.,
with 13,503. which would put it almost
in the village class of this day and
time.
Took Name of Head of House.
Those marshals were only required
to take down the name of the head of
the house and then add, wife and
three children" or, in case of widow
er, three children" or -four children"
etc. The enumerator of today has to
take down each name with the age,
sex. etc. To envisage the difference in
the jobs, the family of John Hancock,
for example. was reported in 1870 as
comprising two white males over 16
years OF age, three white females and
seven other free persons not white"
the latter, presumably, Negro servants.
John Hancock, by the way, was one
OF the richest men in the country.
There was but one millionaire, John
Jacob Astor of New York, who had
grown rich selling furs. Consider that
in those days this Nation was still in
the woods. so to speak, and hunting
and trapping and planting a few
patches of Indian corn were about all
the American people had found to do
except down in Virginia, where they
had already begun to lay the founda-
tons for the great fortunes now repre-
sented by the tobacco industry.
BY that first census the racial CLASH
fication Of Uncle Sans household was
made by judging nationality by the
names OF the heads of families. Thus
Schneider would be counted as a Ger
man, Hancock as an Englishman, Mac
Pherson as a Scotsman, O'Brien as an
Irishman, etc. Clearly. this was not
very true and accurate way to COM
pute our racial groups and that was
where objection was lately raised to
our national origins plan Of restricting
immigration. Nevertheless, it is inter-
esttng here to note that by this calcu-
lation there were 2,345844 persons of
English and Welsh blood by that first
census, 1859 Scotch, 44,273 Irish,
56,623 Dutch, 156,457 German. 1884
French, 1,243 Hebrew and 1885 Of all
other stocks.
A Task for Machinery.
Director William M Steuart, the big
boss OF the census, points out that the
numerous claSsif1cations and correla-
lions required in modern census would
be simply out of the question without
the use of tabulation machinery.
In fact, the differences in the meth
DDS Of handling the tabulation of a
census that have come with introduc-
ton and development of machine proc
esses. he thinks, are as great as In any
OF our factory industries The first
thing they do now Is to transfer the
information reported by the enumerator
70 punched card on which the posi-
ton OF the holes in each section of the
card indicates the characteristics re-
ported. There will be card for every
person In the United States.
When the cards have been punched
they are taken to the electric sorting
machines and sorted by sex, color and
nativity. Then they are run through
the tabulating machines, which count
numerous other items, such as age,
place of birth. illiteracy, occupation,
etc. These machines will count so items
or combinations at the same time and
print the results on large sheets. from
which they are taken and rearranged
for publication in the census reports.
Everything will be prompt and on
time this year. Americans have no
dread or prejudice in this matter of
being counted as they did in the first
census. ThoSe pioneers, or some of
them, had read about the census which
King David took of the Children of
Israel, and they had learned that
great deal Of sickness had followed
after 1t. So they were shy of the census
takers, and some of the States were
several years in reporting. Not so now.
We know the benefits of census. We
are proud of the record and progress of
our country and welcome to the emu
merator hangs on every door.