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In the cases of a few industries, we cite below the bases upon which returns should be made. The request for such detailed information as regards quantities made, is not confined to these industries, however, but in all industries the quantities should be specified.

Cotton Goods: Give number of pounds of cotton cloth produced, as well as the number of yards; give pounds, if only one basis can be supplied.

Boots and Shoes: Give number of pairs of boots, pairs of shoes, pairs of slippers, etc., instead of giving the number of cases, which latter designation is indefinite. Designate the kinds,—as men's, women's, boys', youths', misses,' children's, etc. By boots is meant long-legged boots.

Clothing: Give the number of dozens of shirts, drawers, etc., and the number of overcoats, undercoats, vests, pairs of pantaloons, etc., made.

Cordage and Twine: Give the number of pounds produced.

Furniture: Give the number of dozens of chairs, number of lounges, tables, mattresses, parlor or chamber sets, etc., made.

Leather: Give the number of pounds or feet of the various kinds of leather tanned or curried.

Woollen Goods: Give the number of yards of woollen goods manufactured. Designate the kinds,-as cassimeres, union cassimeres, satinets, meltons, cheviots, etc.

A college professor, who has given much attention to the subject of teaching statistical processes, propounds the following inquiries to which answers are appended:

1. What are the chief difficulties in getting full and truthful answers to Census questions relating to industries?

(a) The failure of parties receiving Schedules to read the instructions carefully.

(b) A natural objection on the part of individuals and firms to stating the details of private business. Corporations rarely fail to answer fully and promptly.

(c) Lack of proper accounts to supply the desired facts.

(d) Because time and expense are required to answer many inquiries.

(e) Many inquiries made are impracticable.

(f) Many inquiries apply only to certain industries.

2. What questions relating to industries are practically never answered with precision so that statistics on these subjects are to be received only with great caution?

(a) Average number of persons employed. This inquiry entails much labor upon large establishments.

(b) Capital invested. There is an objection to giving details. In many cases it is difficult to state the details, for proper accounts are not always kept, and the "scaling down" for depreciation leaves the book figures much lower than marketable values. There is often a fear expressed that the information supplied will fall into the hands of the assessors, who lay the taxes.

(c) Inquiries calling for information as to expenses and profits. There is an indisposition to supply figures that will enable any one to figure out the gross or net profits of an establishment.

3. How does the Census office control the returns of individuals so that it is almost impossible for them to make false returns? (a) The relations of Capital Invested, Stock Used, Goods Made,

Persons Employed, and Working Time from perfect schedules are brought out by grand averages for each industry, and are easily applied. Cases of disproportionate returns are investigated by correspondence. In many cases the questioned figures are substantiated, there often being peculiar circumstances connected with the industry.

4. How far is it allowable for the Census office to fill out industrial returns which are incomplete?

(a) By transferring information given in the wrong part of a Schedule but omitted in the proper place.

(b) At least 75 per cent. answer substantially correct, although 25 per cent are slow in answering at all. The remaining 25 per cent are usually small establishments. Although onequarter in number they do not represent more than 10 per cent. of the total product. They know their business is small and think it of no great account if they do not make a return. Letter writing comes hard to them and they seem to be gifted with unusual powers for misunderstanding simple inquiries, no matter how graphically explained. In such cases, the Census Office having exhausted time and patience to obtain a product that probably does not exceed $500 per annum, finally estimates the product and other points, taking care to make them less than the supposed fact, so that no aggregates may be exaggerated. The same plan may be followed as

regards all statistics of production, but estimates are not allowable in the case of population or social statistics. In these instances the usual plan is to call the point "unknown" or "not given." Then, statements of fact are not improperly influenced by guess-work.

CHAPTER V.

TABULATION.

We have reached the fourth stage in the progress of statistical work. First, the preparation of the schedule and instructions, then the collection of information followed by the examination of returns. When the schedules have passed through these three stages they are ready for the fourth-or Tabulation.

The past fifty years has seen a great advance in manufactures and in the mechanic arts. The factory and workshops have grasped every industry, and by the sub-division of employment, and the use of machinery in those sub-divisions, have made each workingman a specialist. Few workingmen at the present day manufacture a complete article. They make a part only, but make that part better than it was ever made before.

The profitable inventions in machinery have had three points in view, or have secured those points-first, reduction in brain labor; second, reduction in physical labor; third, a saving in material and a consequent reduction in the cost of production.

Notwithstanding the great expansion of manufacturing and commercial business, the consequent increase in the number of banks, large business houses, and the various branches of the city, state, and national governments, the computation incident to business and accounts has been carried on uniformly in the old ways in vogue a century or more ago. We have had "lightning calculators" who now find the dime museum their most lucrative field. We have had expert accountants who are called in when business records are in a bad condition as the result of ignorance, or systematic embezzlement. The great body of the people have clung to the old ways and have resisted, or rather ignored, innovations. The metric system, with its sensible decimal basis, is tolerated, but is used by the few only.

It would not be creditable to human ingenuity and progress to assume that no inventor has realized the need of quick computation and done nothing to secure it.

The progress in computation and tabulation, like that in all sciences, has been one of evolution as regards methods. There has been no change as regards the kind of work to be done. That has always consisted and will ever consist of two, in themselves, simple processes-Counting and Addition. Counting is adding one at a time. Addition is the aggregating of larger numbers than one. In both cases, the result is called the total. It is evident, therefore, that the problem of "quick computation" is to introduce new and rapid methods of doing the same kind of work that always has been done.

We can imagine the first counting or tabulating was done orally, the results only being written down. The next natural step would be to cut notches in a stick, or to use beans, peas, small stones, or other articles that could be added after the tallies had been made upon the stick, or the beans, etc., dropped into some receptacle. The next move would be to make marks or lines. Thus four would be indicated by IIII, the horizontal-diagonal line being added to make five-. But one answer or point was tallied at a time, at first. The progress to a sheet upon which several answers could be tallied was easy and natural. In a similar manner, when a number of numbers were to be added or aggregated, only one series of answers would be handled at one time. By a natural progression would come the ruled sheet upon which many columns or numbers could be recorded, and then added.

The first calculating machine of which we have any record, unless the Chinese abacus be considered, was invented in 1642 by Blaise Pascal who was born at Clermont, France, in 1623. This machine was the basis of those now used to indicate the revolutions of printing presses, in gas meters, and for hundreds of other purposes. M. Thomas of Colmar invented the arithmometer by which all ordinary mathematical operations are performed. Messrs. E. and G. Scheutz of Sweden invented the first difference machine, or engine, which was improved upon by Mr. Charles Babbage, an Englishman, who made use of punched cards similar to those used in the Jacquard loom. Mr. Babbage died in 1871, and the engine was never completed. Mr. Grant of Boston, Massachusetts, has

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