Show ke su nt 4 K 5 0 e dom ca 0 0 0 aan 0 4 0 V 0 0 0 v ala A M S e by ELMO SCOTT WATSON drawing by ray walters the next few weeks an army of men and women will be vl visiting it every home in the united states and asking a series of questions which every one of us must answer or have answered for us those questions are the following name and address sex color or race age single married widowed or divorced 7 relationship to head bead of futility family home owned or rented free or mortgaged literacy place of birth and that of parents citizenship ability to speak en lish whether employed and trade or profession whether veteran of any american war but lest yau should feel that the asking of these questions Is a meddle rome bome interference in your private ati afi fairs let it be stated at once that tant the roan faan or woman who calls at your home and asks you these questions Is a census enumerator engaged in the huge task of taking the decennial ceneus of population in the united states in accordance with article 1 of the constitution of the united states that you are required by law to give true answers to the questions and that there Is no real reason whatsoever why you should not answer them for you have this assurance from dr william ba M steuart Sl euart chief of the bureau of the census in regard to it no citizen need hesitate to answer the questions asked by the enumerators the facts so far as the individual Is concerned will be safe in the hands bands of the government and will never be disclosed no one need havo have the slightest tear fear that his bis personal or business secrets will ever be disclosed to friend or toe foe the oath of the enumerator requires that he shall keep secret the answers to queries it if he does not he be Is guilty of a crime and it if detected there Is not the slightest 1 I doubt as to what will happen the law will be invoked and enforced to the limit the 1930 census will be the greatest 44 counting of noses in the history of the world when it Is completed uncle sam will know just how many more children he has hag than he had bad in 1920 As A to what the population of the united states will be doctor steuart says cays it will be more than and nd less than we are certain as to this because we know that the population of the continental united states Is now increasing at the rate of about persons each year or to put it another way at the approximate rate of one person every twenty seconds these totals are made up of the annual excess of births over deaths which amounts to about and the he excess of immigration over emigration which gives vs US an additional each year the 1930 census will show that our people are thirty times as many as were in the country in 1790 1700 and nearly twice as many as in or only lorty years yean ago Ill history story records no instance in which population has so BO rapidly increased as has baa been the case in the united states neither Is it of record that the increase in population has anywhere uny where else els been accomplished by so gr great eat an improvement in the comfort and well being of the people generally in 1700 1790 there were 45 persons for each square mile of what was then the united states the 1930 census I 1 believe aiji wul show forty people to each square mile or nearly ten times more than at the time of the first census in 1790 there were six cities I 1 in a the united states with more than inhabitants then the cities were responsible for only 3 per cent of the population america in those days was truly agricultural in 1920 1020 the cities with more than inhabitants numbered and their population was 44 per cent of the national total add to these the little towns and villages of less than people and we flud fled that in 1920 the urban population was a little more than half the total for the union jn in accomplishing the huge task which faces uncle sams army of census enumerators they will visit not only homes but also more than stores almost manufacturing plants and in addition they will compile data concerning farms mines and quarries irrigation and drainage projects the reason for tills this is that the lath decennial census will be not billy a count of population but also a comprehensive study of the commerce and industry of the nation including for the first time a census of distribution in tile the last named it Is hoped that there will be found at least some of the reasons tor for an estimated annual loss of lit in the process of placing commodities in the hands bands of the ultimate consumer the 1930 census says doctor steuart St Is going to be we hope hobe and believe the most nearly perfect tabulation of population business a and n d other basic facts ever taken in history I 1 eay bay tills this with the tact fact in mind that nearly years have passed since the first census was made alien king david set out to number the people of israel and Judi ili it took him nine months and twenty days to do the jot job and among the things he found out was that there were in israel and in judah about valiant men that drew the sword the first census of the united states slates was taken years ago the united states vias nas first among the countries to make a regular periodical enumeration of its inhabitants a part of the fundamental law the first american census taken in 1790 was very limited in scope and was waa directed by the united states marshals they were allowed thirteen months on the job and when the totals were added up our population was about that census related solely to population the name of the hend head of the family was taken together with the number of persons in each family classified as tree free or slave the whites who he were tree free were classified as free whites as male or female and the tree free whites males as over or under sixteen years yeara of age that was about all there was wag to it the marshals who abo supervised the 1790 count numbered only 17 the enumerators and you will ampre an F za 1 A irs jmj AV IT anu elate date what the latter figure means when you are told that the enumerators who will take the 1930 30 census will be an army of more than since the 1790 census the nations of the world have been gradually developing ve methods and machinery that speed up the counting of heads beads and the accumulation of a vast amount of data regarding economic social educational and other conditions here in the united states the development has probably been more far reaching ulan than in any other country consequently the director of the census la Is now by law required to enumerate in the space of one month more than people and at the same time obtain very exten extensive she information about farms mines irrigation find drainage projects the facts of employment and unemployment affecting of people and also the trade profession or particular kind of work dune done jy hy every person of working age in the nation quite a job for tour four weeks Is it not yet it can and will be completed in the allotted thirty days with the exception of a comparatively few when tile the vast total I 1 Is con tlde the original records of every family enumerated in the 1700 anil and subsequent census are on file in tile the census bureau according to hir steuart the missing records have been lost or destroyed by accident however ver file on john hancock has been preserved and ills his family was reported as being made up of two white in males ales over sixteen years of nee age three white females and seven other free persons not white it Is presumed the seven free persons listed as not white were negro servants ser vanta in the taking of tile the ISCO census each person pei son was for the first time asked to give the alue of his bis or her real and personal property the records for illinois show abraham Lincol ns family comprised mr lincoln his wife his three sons and a boy fourteen years old named philip Din dingell kell mr lincoln said he was worth IT of which was the value of his bis real estate the remainder being personal property in the some same census james buchanan list ed his household as consisting of himself his niece miss harriet lane and eleven eleen employees and servants all of the latter being of foreign birth the system of individual enumeration was adopted at the census of 1850 and at the saw same e tl time in e a U number of new classifications were ad added ed illiteracy school atten attendance occupation cup place of birth age etc |