Evening star., 1937-09-24
J0BLESS CENSUS
PARLEY IS CALLED
BiggerS Asks Nine Leaders
to White House Con-
cIave on Monday.
BACKGROUND

BACKGROUND
President Roosevelt agreed in
August to jobless count if the
census tUere made voluntarily. Con-
gresS at once passed an unemploy-
ment census bill. Eighteen months
earlier the President petoed bill
for such census on the ground
tt offered too much chance for dis
tribution of political jobs.
John D. Biggers, Toledo industrialist
and dOllar-a-year supervisor of the
Federal unemployment census, today
invited nine leaders of agriculture,
business and labor to meet with him
and his Government Committee at the
White House Monday at pm. to give
their ideas on how the census should
be conducted and what it should
prove. He said the meeting had the
approval of President Roosevelt.
A few hours after he issued tele-
graphic invitations, Biggers, in his
first Washington press conference,
told reporters he is determined to
have partial returns on the enumera-
ton tabulated by December l. AS
soon as possible, he plans to have in
the mail questionnaires of not more
than IA questions for each of 81 1,0O0,-
600 homes in the United States, in
Guiding Alaska and Hawaii.
In the end, Biggers said, he may
have to distribute 100,000,000 ques-
tionnaires.
The White House meeting will bring
together John L. Lewis, chairman of
the Committee on Industrial Organi-
cation, and william Green, president
of the American Federation of Labor,
if all those invited accept. A. F.
Whitney. president Of the Brother
hood OF Railroad Trainmen, is the
third of the labor representatives who
will meet with:
Officials TO Be Present.
Edward A. O'Neal, president of the
American Farm Bureau Federation;
M. w. Thatcher, president of the
Farmers National Cooperative Grain
Corp, and L. j. Tabor, master of the
National Grange agricultural repre-
sentatives, and w. Averell Hartman,
chairman Of the Business Advisory
Council; George H. Davis, president of
the United States Chamber of Com
merce, and William B. Warner, presi-
dent of the National Association of
Manufacturers, representing industry.
Biggers said he also had asked
Secretary Wallace, Alan Johnstone,
counsel for the special Senate Com
mittee on Unemployment and Relief
c. B. Uttley of the Post Office Depart
ment, and Frank w. Persons, director
of the United States Unemployment
Service, to be on hand with his COM
mittee, comprising Secretary Roper,
Secretary Perkins, w. P. A. Chief
Hopkins, Chairman Altmeyer of the
Social Security Board, Chairman Rice
OF the Central Statistical Board and
Director Austin of the Census Bureau.
To Be in Postcard Form.
I'VE will have reached by tonight
or tomorrow tentative agreements
among members Of the Committee on
essentials to be covered in the ques-
tionnaire," said Biggers, who has been
given Office space on the sixth floor
of the Commerce Building.
But we will not reach a final de-
cision until we hear from the repre-
sentatives at Mondays meeting. We
have limited the number invited to
this conference so that it will be a
working session instead of a scenic
conference"
Through his QUESTIONABLE Biggers
expects to find how many persons IN
the United States are unemployed,
how many are partially unemployed,
how many are unable to work and
how many are unwilling to work.
The questionnaires, on blanks
shaped like post cards, but larger, win
be delivered by postmen.