Evening star., 1940-03-01
Divorce Questions
In Census AssaiIed
By Senator Tobey
Employment Of Some
Women Might Be
'Jeopordized,' He Says
By the Associated Press.


Senator Tobey, Republican. Of
New Hampshire, foe of the Census
Bureaus plan to ask citizens about
their incomes in connection with the
decennial counting of noses this
April, broadened his attack today to
include questions about divorces.
He asked a Senate Commerce
Subcommittee to consider the con-
sequences which might follow a leak
in census information If 1T means
the loss of job for a woman to tell
she was divorced"
The employment of some women
ne said, might be "jeapordized" II
word of a divorce got around. He
also disclosed receipt of letters from
several divorces who have remar-
ried. Their divorces, the Senator
explained, were not known in their
own communities.
DR.. Leon E. Truesdell, Census Bu-
reau statistician, advised Senator
Tobey and the committee that such
women would not have to bring up
the past, however, because their
present marital status is married "
Not all divorces report them
selves anyway" Mr.. Truesdell re-
marked.
Fears Wage Disclosures.
Before the subcommittee was a
resolution by Senator Tobey calling
for elimination from the census of
questions dealing with wages and
salaries of individuals. Senator To-
hey said he feared disclosure" of
answers to such questions.
After Senator Tobey had protest.
ed the broad construction" which
he said the Census Bureau has
placed on the census law, Chairman
Bailey, Democrat, of North Carolina
said he also was a little afraid
of it."
"They might ask a persons poll
tics, which also relates to popula-
tion," Senator Bailey said.
A total of 400 different questions
will be asked during the census next
April, but Mr.. Truesdell said the
average person would have to reply
to only about 20. Other census off,
cials have estimated enumerators
could complete questioning an indi-
vidual in eight minutes.
Senator Davis, Republican, of
PENNSYLVANIA said earlier that census
inquiries are approaching a point
where the housewife will have to
account for her pots and pans and
a man will have to take inventory
of his fishing tackle"
"The right of privacy in. a mans
home is one that must not be taken
away" Senator Davis declared.
Would Study All Questions.
Senator johnson, Republican, of
California a subcommittee member,
remarked that the group should
study the whole set of census ques-
tions.'
Some OF the others are Just as
inappropriate as those regarding in
come" the Californian added.
Chairman Bailey said, however,
that he wanted the subcommittee to
act On Senator Tobeys resolution
today.
Women Held ResentfuL
A warning that millions of Amer
lean women will choose jail rather
than answer intimate questions in
the forthcoming census was given
the subcommittee yesterday by
Cathrine Curtis of New York, ma
tional director of Women Investors
in America, Inc.
II recommend that Congress post
pone further appropriations for ma
tional defense and put through an
emergency measure to enlarge jail
accommodations to house the mil
lions who will go there rather than
disclose their wages or income, mat
rimonial adventures or whether they
use their bathroom alone or share
it with som, one else" she said.
Her warning was reinforced by
Mrs. Norman Mock of Washington,
a representative of the National Or
ganization of War Mothers. Assert
ing that most War Mothers are now
grandmothers, she said they would
be "frightened" by such personal
questions.
Referring to the Supreme Court
reorganization bill in 1897, Miss
Curtis declared that you may think
the women of the country were in
censed over that, but I can tell you
their fury in that instance is but
a small cloud in comparison to the
storm now brewing"
So far as jailing persons for
refusal to answer census questions
was concerned, William L. Austin,
census director, said no such action
had ever been taken in the past.
Congress in Brief
Senate: