OCR Text |
Show ORIGIN OFTHE CENSUS. II It Is Stated Upon Good Authority that II Hoses Took the First One in the Wilds of the Desert. OBEEOIANS" MODE 01 COUNTING Under the Direction of Solon Exact and Complete Information First Obtained By Angustus Cesar. The most ancient statistical record of the kind is that of Moses in the wilderness. wilder-ness. That enumeration must have been exceedingly simple, aa shown by the first chapter of the fourth book of the Pentateuch. Penta-teuch. "Take ye," says this account, "the sum of all the congregations of the children of Israel after their families, ty the house of thalt fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls from 20 years old and upward, up-ward, till that are able to go forth to war in Israel; thou and Aaron shall number them by thoir armies." The names of the chief enumerators are also given, those who assisted Moses and Aaron being "the renowned of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel." Then the enumerators "assembled "as-sembled all the congregation on the first day of the second month and they declared de-clared their pedigrees after their families fami-lies by the house of their fathers, according ac-cording to the number of names, from twenty years and upward, by the polls." This enumeration must have been nn affair af-fair soon over, requiring probably no more than a day's time, being merely a counting of the heads of the fighting men. There was no counting of women or children or old men or cripples, and "the Levites were not numbered among them." Those who did stand up to be counted numbered 608,550. THE CENSUS IN CHINA. There is record of a census in China as far back as the year 2043 B. C, and cf one in Japan the last century before Christ. Under the constitution of Solon the citizens of Athens were divided and registered into four classes according to the amount of their taxable property or income. The Roman census was burdened bur-dened with more statistics than any of these simpte enumerations. It originated origi-nated under Servius Tullius, sixth king of Rome, and was an affair of much solemnity. It is not at all likely any man or woman was found sufficiently lost to fear of consequences to make faces at census officers or withho desired de-sired information. Every citizen had to appear upon & Campus Martius and declare upon oa! his name and dwelling and the value o. his property under the penalty of having hav-ing his goods confiscated and of being scourged and sold for a slave. There was no trouble about having such a census cen-sus full and complete. It had the benefit, bene-fit, too, of making the people to be counted count-ed anxious to find the census man, while he was not put to the labor of going from house to house to find the people. f Augustus Ciesar, who had a great head for detail, svhen he: had the population numbered greatly enlarged the scope of the census and improved the method of taking it. The census of modern Europe is comparatively com-paratively recent. No exact popular enumerations were mado in the Seven-J Seven-J teenth century, but in the Eighteenth ' great progress was made in the development develop-ment of statistical science. In Russia I the taking of the census in a crude way j began in 1700, and in 1710, under Peter ' the Great, though improvement had j been made, females were omitted from J the enumeration. IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES. Census taking in Prussia dates from the time of Frederick William IL The i Prussian census of today is very exact and complete. It is taken by civil officers offi-cers in one day by means of printed schedules. The first census in Austria was taken in 1754, and for 100 years was taken each three years for military purposes pur-poses only. In Sweden the science of statistics has been particularly cultivated, cultivat-ed, and Belgium ranks among the first nations of the world in completeness of its national statistics. In Italy the returns re-turns of this character are very complete, com-plete, the range of inquiries having been greatly extended. The movement of the population is determined from civil registers reg-isters kept by the municipal authorities. Iu Turkey enumeration is imperfect, the chief object of taking it being to provide a basis for taxation and conscription. In France the first census of which records rec-ords are extant was taken in 1700. Of course, as in everything pertaining to statistics, work of that kind is thorough thor-ough in France. The first census of Great Britain was taken in 1801, and embraced the sex, but not the age, of all subjects. The families and occupations were classified, so as to exhibit the number num-ber employed in agriculture, in trade and manufactures or handicrafts and those not comprised in the classes. Blanks or householders' schedules are now left all over the kingdom by an army of enumerators, enu-merators, and these are required to be filled up on the night of April 2, and are collected by the enumerators the following follow-ing day. The police assist in enumerating enumera-ting the houseless population. The army and navy are returned by the naval and military authorities. Indianapolis Journal |