The act of May 23, 1850, under which the Seventh Census was taken, was the law under which the Eighth (1860) and Ninth (1870) Censuses were taken. The work of the Eighth Census was completed under the Commissioner of the General Land Office. Tallying machines were first used in the Ninth Census.

In 1869 and 1870 a special committee of Congress investigated in detail census needs, and the report of its chairman, General Garfield, formed the groundwork of the Tenth Census.

An unsuccessful effort to establish a quinquennial census was made in 1875.

The Superintendent of Census was first appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, in the Tenth Census (1880), this official having theretofore been a superintending clerk, appointed by the Secretary of the Interior, under the law of 1850. In this census (1880) the services of United States marshals were dispensed with, and supervisors of census were appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, while the supervisors, in turn, nominated enumerators in their respective districts. Provision was made in the census act of 1880 for an interdecennial census, in 1885, by any State or Territory, the Federal Government to bear a portion of the expense. Three States and two Territories availed themselves of this opportunity.

The census of 1880, in the variety of its investigation and in completeness of detail, marks the beginning of the third era in census taking in this country. The enumerations prior to the law of 1850 had in effect amounted to nothing more than a count of the population, though some advance along the line of industrial statistics had been made. The three censuses taken under the law of 1850, although decided improvements over the earlier enumerations, were deficient in many respects. The census of 1880, by its change in the methods of supervising and collecting data, and the employment of experts in making special investigations, enabled the Nation to know more accurately the facts concerning its population, wealth, industries, and varied resources.

The census of 1890 was taken along the same comprehensive lines as the preceding census. It was not intended originally to follow the plan of the Tenth Census, but the law of March 1, 1889, under which the Eleventh Census was taken, supplemented by later legislation requiring information as to "farms, homes, and mortgages," resulted practically in as many different subjects of inquiry, and as many volumes constituted the final report. The work of the census was assigned to twenty-five divisions, each devoted to some special branch or feature. An electrical system of tabulation was used for the first time in compiling the statistics relating to population and mortality, and to crime, pauperism, and benevolence. The work was completed

by the Commissioner of Labor (now Commissioner of Labor Statistics) by direction of Congress.

The census of 1900 was taken under the act of March 3, 1899, by which the Director of the Census was given entire control of the work, including the appointment of the statisticians, clerks, and other employees of the Census Office. The decennial work was limited to inquiries relating to population, mortality, agriculture, and manufactures, but provision was made for the collection of statistics relating to various special subjects after the completion of the decennial work. This division of the work constituted a radical departure from the course pursued at the two preceding censuses, at which the effort was made to carry on, practically simultaneously, the work relating to twenty or more distinct subjects of investigation. The general reports of the Twelfth Census, comprised in ten quarto volumes, were published, in conformity with the requirements of the census act, on or before July 1, 1902, or within two years from the date set for the legal termination of the enumeration work. The system of electrical tabulation was again employed in the work of the Twelfth Census, after a competitive test, and was utilized to advantage in the tabulation of the statistics of population, mortality, and agriculture.

The necessity for the establishment of a permanent statistical bureau to which the work of the decennial census might also be intrusted was recognized, indirectly at least, as early as 1845, and beginning with 1860 recommendations for the establishment of a national bureau of statistics were embodied in the annual reports of the Secretary of the Interior up to and including the year 1865.

Similar suggestions were made after that date for the establishment of a central bureau of statistics at Washington, but no direct action toward providing for a permanent census office, as such, was taken by Congress until February 16, 1891, when the Senate directed the Secretary of the Interior to consider and report on the expediency of the establishment of a permanent census bureau. No final action in the matter was taken by Congress, however, and nothing more was done until March 19, 1896, when the Commissioner of Labor was directed to report to the Congress for its consideration, as soon as practicable, a plan for a permanent census service. The Commissioner of Labor, under date of December 7, 1896, reported, as thus directed, a tentative organic administrative act by which an independent census office was to be established, leaving the details of the Twelfth and subsequent censuses to the officers having them, respectively, in charge. Nothing came of this effort, however, and no provision was made for a permanent census office until the passage of the act of March 6, 1902, which made permanent, after June 30, 1902, the Census Office temporarily established by the act of March 3, 1899. The act approved July 2, 1909 (36 Stat., 1), entitled "An act to provide for the Thir

teenth and subsequent decennial censuses," and several other later acts of varying though less importance, amplified considerably the duties of the Bureau and comprise the larger part of the law under which it now operates.

The Bureau of the Census is charged with the duty of taking the decennial censuses of the United States, of making certain other statistical investigations at regular intervals of years, and of collecting such special statistics as may be authorized by law from time to time. The last decennial census, 1910, covered the subjects of population, manufactures and mines and quarries, and agriculture. An intermediate census of manufactures is taken in the fifth year after the decennial census, and the act providing for the Thirteenth Census requires a census of agriculture, much less comprehensive than the decennial census, to be taken in 1915 and every ten years thereafter. The act establishing the permanent Census Bureau requires that, after the completion of the regular decennial census, the Director of the Census shall decennially collect statistics relative to the defective, dependent, and delinquent classes; crime, including judicial statistics pertaining thereto; social statistics of cities; public indebtedness, expenditures, and taxation; religious bodies; transportation by water, and express business; savings banks and other savings institutions, mortgage, loan, and similar institutions; and the fishing industry, in cooperation with the Bureau of Fisheries. Every five years statistics must be collected relating to street railways, electric light and power stations, and telephone and telegraph business. Annual statistics must be gathered relating to births and deaths in States and cities maintaining efficient registration systems; the financial and other statistics of cities having a population of 30,000 and over; the production and distribution of cotton, and forest products; and the quantity of leaf tobacco on hand.

The carrying out of these inquiries involves the collection of necessary data by mail or by personal visits of employees to the individual or commercial establishment, the subsequent assembling, tabulation, and compilation of the information secured, and the publication in reports of tables setting forth the data, with comparisons, percentages, averages, textual comment, maps, and diagrams. These reports form a list of publications, which in the course of ten years comprises upward of 400 bulletins of a more or less temporary character, and over 50 volumes of a substantial form.

The following brief statement conveys only a superficial idea of the work involved in carrying out the functions mentioned:

was

Decennial census of population.-The last decennial census taken as of April 15, 1910. The general methods are as follows: Schedules calling for data concerning each individual with regard to name, sex, color or race, age, marital condition, nativity, citizenship, language, occupation, education, etc., are circulated, collected, and

revised by enumerators working under the direction of supervisors. These schedules are then forwarded to the Bureau. The office work consists of the following steps: (1) A count of the population direct from the schedules for the purpose of determining the pay of the enumerators and-after subsequent careful examination of the schedules to determine their accuracy-for the purpose of announcing the population of the various localities and States, and ultimately the United States as a whole; (2) such editing of the schedules as is necessary to prepare them for the punching clerks, particularly with reference to the returns of mother tongue and occupation; (3) punching of a card for each individual making up the population, showing all the facts appearing on the schedule concerning him, this being done by means of a punching machine; (4) the verification of the cards. by means of electrical machines which automatically reject cards in which any of the required holes have not been punched or in which the holes are inconsistent with each other, and the correction of such rejected cards; (5) the sorting of the cards by means of electrical sorting machines into main groups, as determined, for example, by sex, color, or nativity, several different sortings being required at the different stages of the work; (6) tabulation of the facts with regard to the characteristics of the population from the cards by means of electrical tabulating machines, it being necessary to run the cards through the machines several times in order to take off all of the facts; (7) transcribing on large sheets of results from tabulating-machine records, and compilation of statistics for publication.

Decennial census of agriculture.-A separate schedule is provided for each individual farm and contains numerous questions pertaining to the farm and its productions, including the name and address of farmer, his color or race, country of birth, and age; the acreage, value, and tenure of farm; number and value of domestic animals; quantity and value of live-stock products; and acreage, quantity, and value of crops. These schedules are prepared by the enumerators of the population census. The various data are tabulated in the

office, chiefly by the aid of adding machines.

Census of manufactures.-The conduct and scope of the decennial and intermediate censuses of manufactures are practically the same. They cover all manufacturing establishments conducted under what is known as the factory system, exclusive of so-called neighborhood, household, and hand industries; also mining and quarrying establishments, and steam laundries. By a special provision of the Thirteenth Census Act, retail slaughtering establishments are also canvassed in order to secure an enumeration of animals slaughtered for food and of hides procured. The inquiry as to manufactures includes character of ownership of the establishment; data as to wage earners and other persons engaged, including sex and age; and with reference to capital, wages, cost of material, other expenses, and value of

products. Additional data are also ascertained with regard to the quantity of the principal products manufactured and quantity of principal materials used. This information is collected on schedules by special agents or by clerks detailed from the office, a general schedule for all establishments with the addition of special industry schedules being used. The information on the schedules is examined and tabulated in the office principally by the use of adding machines. Annual inquiries.-The collection of statistics of cities involves the abstracting, from the office records of municipalities having a population of 30,000 and over, of data relating to the total expenditures for city government and for specified public services and objects; the revenue derived from all sources and from each specified source; and the amount and character of municipal debt. The information is secured on schedules by employees sent from the Bureau to the various cities, the results being compiled in the office. Special inquiries as to the operations of particular branches of city adminstration such as sewers, schools, or parks-are made from time to time.

The work of gathering statistics of births and deaths involves the receipt and recording of transcripts of the original certificates of the same, furnished by persons selected for the purpose by the State and city authorities. The transcripts are tabulated in the office by methods similar to those used in the population census. The greater part of this work is in connection with death statistics, which are compiled so as to show general and specific death rates; summaries of deaths, by causes, sex, and age, by color and nativity, and by urban and rural localities; and average death rates in States and cities.

The cotton statistics assembled by the Bureau are collected in the cotton-producing States by local agents, and elsewhere by mail or by employees detailed from the office. The results are issued in annual reports on the production, distribution, and consumption of cotton and cottonseed products; monthly reports showing cotton consumed and on hand in manufacturing establishments and warehouses; and ten summaries compiled during the cotton-ginning season from telegraphic reports showing amount of cotton ginned. Statistics are also collected and published annually with regard to the production of lumber; and a half-yearly statement is issued showing the amount of tobacco on hand in factories and warehouses.

The work of properly and economically dividing the country into enumeration districts, and of preparing maps, etc., to accompany and illustrate reports, is performed by a staff of employees under the charge of the geographer.

The mechanical appliances used in the census work include a large number of punching, sorting, and tabulating machines, many of which have been devised and wholly or partially constructed, or have been