Evening star., 1940-03-29
Census Enumerotors Due to Count 1872 00OO Noses;
Many Answers Already Known, but Bureau Won't Guess
SIide-RuIe Wizards
Have All the Fucts
About Romance
Last of a Series.
BY MORGAN NJ. BEATTY.

&AA1ASi ASN OH OOullu up AL
green volumes.
Those books tell of the joys and
tragedies, successes and failures OF
the people who, for $50 years, have
been making our land what it Is
today-the worlds richest and most
powerful democracy. You and !
can't read this epic of America. It's
set down in millions of Arabic num-
erals.
But the wizards with slide rules
in the Census Bureau can see the
romance. Their facts often are
closer to the hearts OF Americans
than many historian ever got.
OF course, like all accounts of ro-
nance, the census account has its
ups and downs and its blind spots
There have been padded figures in
years past. And it took two CEN
suses to lift the automobile from
the class of miscellaneous ma
chinery" into its place as a great
modern industry.
But, by and large. census sta
tlsticians have been uncannily ac-
curate for $50 years, and they've
gone deep into the life of America
for keys to secrets of the future.
Broken Hearts Department.
A census wizard knows more about
love than Hollywood. He can tell
you the depression had left $4,000
broken hearts among American
women up to 1887. This year emu
merators expect to find 100000 OF
these, still broken, counting 10 per
cent off for those who wouldn't
have suffered a broken heart under
any circumstances.
Those half million broken hearts
represent women who would have
been married if the depression
hadn't prevented it. The men who
would have married them have
since taken wives-but they picked
younger women, leaving a lost gen.
Grafton of spinsters.
The census experts could have told
John Steinbeck in 1890 to head out
West to find material for his story
OF the miserable Joad family. Sta
tisticians knew then the greatest mi
grafton of modern times was on full
force and playing havoc with their
Slide rules and economic problems.
They can even tell you the turkey
and chicken population of the United
States.
Value of Data.
What's all their data worth to any,
body?
Starting with the turkeys and
chickens, literally thousands of bust
ness houses and millions of farmers
want to know what that population
Is. Sixty-seven types of business
concerns are asking. including
florists in the market for strong fer
tilizer.
The lost generation of spinsters
and the divorce question. on the
census for the first time in 1890, will
give the census men enough figures
so that your school board will know
for sure whether new schoolhouse
will be needed in your town in the
next 10 years. Those things helr
count the fertility rate of American
women. Unless a divorced woman
tells about the children of her pre-.
vious marriage, part of her fertility
record is lost, and the rate of popu.
lation gain or loss becomes mac
curate.
With death data, this fertility
question is an index to the rate o1
population growth. and indicates
peak population in the United States
will come in about so years, and viii
be, perhaps, 10000, 900 people.
If it weren't for the census. tn,
economic power of America woulc
be as wild as lightning. as haphaz.
ard as bull in a china shop. OF
companies wouldn't know where
to put their pipelines and storage
stations. because they wouldn't know
where the sale of their oil woule
Justify the cost. And gasoline fol
your car would go up.
Chain stores wouldn't know where
to put their super-markets. Inde.
pendent merchants wouldn't know
how much money they needed tt
go into business to meet chain com.
petition.
Census figures not only measure
business growth, they are the basis
for continued growth. Trade maya.
zines circulate them, so that business
men recognize what's catching or
with the public and why.
They Won't Guess.
Now the Census Bureaus slide rult
doctors can tell you already many O.
the things they are going to find ou'
about America in 1910. long befor.
they complete the count But they
won't admit it, because the Censu.
Bureau doesn't guess.
For instance. they're going tt
count about 132O0O,O0O people thi.
year, nearly 100000 more thar
they counted in 1920.
About 55.0O0,00O of these people
will make up the big group callec
"the nations labor force" Some
35.000,O00 will be the Nations indus
trial workers-profession sales.
men, traders and service workers
such as hotel employees. About TO-.
100000 will be found in agriculture
Three million will be working or
Federal and State emergency pro.
grams to care for the unemployed
And about 100000 will be actively
seeking work In the labor market
That's the net number of unem.
ployed.
Another 35,O0O,OOO of the popula.
ton will be babies and school chill.
dren under IA. Twenty-eight mil
lion more will be housewives, and tn,
remaining $4,000, 900 will be students
vagrants, cenvicts, the insane, ane
those who do not choose to work
meaning the retired.
Where and Why Puzzle.
But the wizards with the slide