The Wyandotte herald. (Wyandotte, Mich.) 1879-1943, 1939-12-29
Census Takers
Are Taught How
Bureau Prepares Students to
Handle Big Job of Max
ing 1910 Count.

WASHINGTON.-The census bu-
reau is teaching class Of l75 men
and women in the proper method OF
asking a question and getting the
right answer Of these r03 will be
given jobs as area managers for the
big census of 1910.
The school was started because
the census bureau, whose business
is, gathering statistics, decided sta
tistic is hardly statistic at all II
it lacks precision.
In past censuSes. enumeratorS
have free-lanced a bit, officials said,
in classifying borderline answers
For instance, the president of
small manufacturing company
spends As per cent of his time on
administrative duties, SIS per cent on
sales work Is he an administrator
or a sales official? The right an
swer. they decided, is sales Off
cial," because that job takes up the
major part of his time. But that
wasn't always the answer the bureau
received in prior years.
Almost every one of the I72 SEIZED
ules of questions 10 be asked in the
1910 census has some of these bor-
derline queries in it. The statisti-
clans feared equivocal reports OF
IA, 600 enumerators asking these
questions of more than 100, 600, 900
people. They decided to get method
lest there be madness
Jobs to Last Nine Months.
So for go days ITS persons have
been going 10 school in what was
once department store warehouse.
The class looked like a meeting OF
moderately prosperous proprietors
Of small businesses. Their gsbs, In
most cases, will last about nine
months and they will be paid about
$500 a month
The job of area manager is q
new one with the 1910 census. Here
tofore directors of the $50 census
districts have sent their reports di-
rectly to Washington. Only from
someone in the census bureau or q
field representative, who might or
might not be present when he was
needed, could they get advice on
handling the many problems that
arose. Next year al this viii b
handled by the area managers.
Thus, while il was the borderline
question that suggested the Job, the
person who gets it win be response
Bile for great deal more than just
coaching the enumerators.
The area, IN most instances, will
be approximately half a state, con-
tanning from Eve to eight census
districts. The districts are divided
into the 143,eeo enumeration dis
tricts, which contain an average of
about 1880 persons
Drilled in Details.
The candidates for area managers
have been drilled, not only in census
methods, bat on details from public
relations to geography.
Their instructors have been CEN
sus bureau officials plus an occa-
si0nal lecturer from outside. The IL
schedules for the business (distribu-
tom census have been explained in
detail. as well as the l48 SEIZED
ules for manufacturers, the nine re-
gionalized schedules ON farms plus
the supplement on plantations, and
the single schedules on population,
housing, mines and Quarries, and on
irrigation and drainage
The students sat at semi-circular
rows of desks in a barnlike class
room, equipped with a loudspeaker
system. After each lecture, the stu
dents were given written and oral,
tests, in which they solved hypo-
thetical puZzlers.
Although the census-takers will
have legal authority 10 demand ac-
curate replies to all questions, per-
sonal or otherwise, the group, was,
warned of the bureaus impulse 20
fire any enumerator who wasn't
equal to getting the information
without recourse to that authority.
Get the answers, says the bureau,
and get the right ones, biaa don't
hold your foot in the door ex make
threats-be courteous, be clever, be
persuasive.