THE CENSUS | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 29, 1900

THE CENSUS.

New York-Sun.

Some time about June 1 a man will call at your house, and ask you questions. It may be that the questions that he asks will strike you as being very personal in nature. You will find him possessed of a raging curiosity as to your age, conditions, business status, family relations, and financial capabilities. He will even go so far as to inquire earnestly of you whether you are white or black. Perhaps he may exasperate you, but you must remember that he is a man and a brother, and refrain from hitting him with the furniture; for he is employed by the government to get you down on paper, and make you a part of the census of 1900. If you refrain from replying to any of his queries, perhaps he'll put you down as a deaf mute, for there is a special catalogue of persons thus afflicted, and also of the blind. But if you turn him out of your house by force, or commit any assault upon him, you will have your Uncle Sam to reckon with, and the next time your name appears on a list it may be on the roster of a jail.

Officially the census begins on June 1. As there are not enough census enumerators to make the entire rounds on that day, or for many days following, in all probability the process will be stretched out a good deal, but all questions will be asked and answered with reference to that day. For instance, the enumerator may arrive at your house June 6 or 7 and find that you were married on June 2. Down you go on his list as a bachelor; your wife set down as a spinster, living at the residence of her parents. The census won't recognize your marriage at all because it took place after June 1. Similarly you may be dead since the first day of the month, but if the enumerator finds out that you were alive on that day you are part of the population of your State, and will eke out a fictitious existence in the sum total. Should a baby be born in your household after June 1, the child is non-existent so far as the census goes. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can happen to you between the first of June and the date of the enumerator's arrival. The law says so, and the law goes.

When the enumerator comes to your house, he will identify himself by his official schedules, and also by a badge which he will wear on his waistcoat. He is bound by his instructions to be not only civil but patiently polite, and if he isn't you can write a complaint about him which, supposedly, will receive prompt attention. Special stress has been laid on this matter of politeness in the instruction to the enumerators, and they have been warned that any proof of bad manners on their part will result unpleasantly for them. Uncle Sam recognizes that the average American resents having to discuss his private affairs with outsiders, and has set out to make this census as little of an ordeal as possible. At the same time it is to be pretty sweeping in its scope.

Here are some of the things which the enumerator will want to know about yourself and the inmates of your household, and he won't necessarily depend upon the evidence of his eyes, either: He will ask you outright your sex and color, and the fact that you wear trousers and a white skin won't excuse you from answering. He will ask you the date of your birth, month and year, whether you are single, married, widowed, or divorced; how long you have been married to your present consort, how many children you have had, and how many are now living; whether you are deaf, dumb, or blind; and he will require to know these things about each member of your family. You will be expected to tell where you were born; and if you are a native of another country, when you came to this country, and what steps, if any, you have taken to become a citizen.

Then your business will come under consideration, and here is where the enumerators anticipate the greatest trouble. A business man generally considers his business as his own business and nobody else's, and prefers to tell almost anything else about himself rather than give details of the processes whereby he makes his living. But the government is just as much interested in your business as it is in your household. It wants to know just what your occupation is, and if you have more than one you will be listed under the head of that one from which you derive the chief part of your income. In case you aren't sure of that, the one you spend the most time and effort on will be that under which you will be described.

You are to tell whether you own your own home, and if so, whether it is mortgaged. Also, you are expected to state whether you can read and write the English language. If you can't, but can read and write some other language, that is duly set down to your credit, and saves you from the stigma of illiteracy.

When the census enumerator gets through with you, he will probably know things about you that your most intimate friend doesn't know. As soon as he has asked and received the answer to his last question, he is expected to leave your premises and promptly forget everything he has found out. If he doesn't forget it, or behave as if he had forgotten it, he will get into very hot water.

Severe penalties are established for the punishment of any betrayal of information received by the enumerator. Whatever you tell him is a confidence between you and the government, and he is merely the apparatus through which the desired information passes. If he is false to his trust, and repeats to any person any information received in the performance of his duties, he may be fined five hundred dollars upon conviction. Not only may he not show his schedules to any person other than his superiors in the Census Office, but he must promptly destroy all imperfect copies. For returning false information about any person on his schedules he may be fined five thousand dollars and imprisoned for two years. Canvassing or advertising of any kind while in the discharge of his duties is forbidden to him, and he must do his work himself and not delegate it to any one else. He can not even take any one with him while making his rounds except another Census Office employee; nor can he take any interpreter except by special authority. Every precaution to protect the public has been taken.