Evening star., 1939-10-29
Three Shifts
ToSpeed Census
Building Work
First Three Floors
Due to Be Ready
Soon After Jan.

Speeding construction OF the new
Census Building in Southwest Wash
ington to three shifts daily, begin
ming tomorrow morning, the Federal
Government now has in sight the
prospect of saving thousands of
census workers for this city. instead
of losing them to Baltimore and
Philadelphia.
Delay in construction had raised
the danger recently that much of
the census work would have to be
moved out of Washington because
of a lack of sufficient housing for
thousands of temporary workers re-
quired for the job.
Officials of the Census Bureau last
night estimated that unless some
thing turns up again to block the
progress of construction they may
be able to use the new building a
few floors at time.
Under present plans, the con-
tractor, McCloskey & Co.. will pre-
pare the first three floors of the
building for occupancy, and put
temporary roof over these first three
floors Census workers then can be
moved in. while builders finish the
rest of the building over their heads.
Three Floors Ready January I.
If the schedule of progress Is
continued with three shifts day,
the first three floors will be ready
for occupancy shortly after jan
uary l.
To rush this job. about 1000 men
will be at work tomorrow morning.
Carpenters will be building wooden
forms for pouring concrete foot
ings" and walls Concrete men will
be pouring concrete for other foot
ings and walls where forms are
ready Iron workers will be erect
ing steel on footings which already
have hardened sufficiently to hold
the first tier of steel beams, reach
ing from the basement to the first
floor.
BY the middle of the week ac-
cordlng to the contractor, it is
hoped that concrete may be started
on the first floor:
Some of the crafts have been on
two shifts for some time and others
have been working three shifts al
ready. But tomorrow will launch
the program of all crafts working
three shifts Employees all report
for work at 7:30 am, 4 pm. and II
midnight.
Personnel Up to 1900.
The big Job of preparing for the
1910 census already is getting under
way. Officials said the permanent
personnel of about IT'S in the Bu-
reau. of the Census had been in
creased by temporaries itt0raboyft
1900 Eventually in May II probably
will reach 1900. Many of these are
at work In the old warehouse at
First and M streets NE. formerly
used by Woodward e. Lothrop's de-
partment store. Some of the en-
ploves there are tvpists and clerks
Many are craftsmen working on
large-scale maps to be used in the
census.
These maps are being drawn in
great detail in order to enable the
bureau to cover the entire country
without duplication and also with
out missing any section The maps
are to be distributed to the 143 900
enumerators' districts. There is one
map for each of the districts.
The country has been divided for
purposes of the census into 103 big
areas, $50 supervisors districts and
the $4,000 enumerators' districts.
More to Be Added in December.
The first part of the census to
require appointment of enumerators
will be the business and manufac-
lures census, preliminary work for
which now is going on in the head
quarters of the bureau in the De-
partment of Commerce. There prob
ably will be about 10000 enumera-
tors required for the business and
manufactures census. They will be
taken on the pay rolls in December
When the roof is put over the
first three floors of the new build
ing in January the first personnel to
be moved in will be those working
on this business and manufactures
census. Sample forms for the busi-
ness census already have been sent
to trade associations for educational
purposes. in preparation for the ac-
tual gathering of data early in
January
The rest of the new building is
expected to be finished in March,
to be ready to provide space for the
big population, agriculture and
housing census to start April l.
The new building, located between
Second. Third. D streets and Vir-
ginia avenue SW, will be so large
that it is estimated the first three
floors when rooted over will accom-
modate about 5000 Federal workers
The contractor reported last night
there is no shortage of building
craftsmen for the job.