Perry Weekly Chief | Perry, Iowa | Wednesday,

January 19, 1910 | Page 7

CULBERTSON WANTS

MORE APPLICANTS

Supervisor of Census Makers Call for

Enumerators - Preparations Being

Made for the Test.

     A call for more applicants for places as census enumerators has been issued by supervisor of census Cambridge Culbertson.  He urges all persons in his district desiring to serve to obtain their application forms at once and to file them with him before January 25, when he must stop considering new applications in order to prepare for the "test" of the previous applicants on February 5.  After this he will examine and rate the papers until about February 22, when he will forward his list of designations as enumerators, with their "test" papers, to census Director Durand who will carefully go over and rerate the papers of the successful candidates before giving his consent to issue of commissions to them by the supervisor.  By the middle or latter part of March all enumerators will have been commissioned and in receipt of detailed instructions concerning their work.

     To quiet any qualms relative to the "test" of the qualifications of applicants to be made February 5, the supervisor has obtained some information from the Census Director concerning the "test," of Twelfth Census enumerators.  It has been officially stated that the 1910 "test" will be very similar to the one in the preceding census and will consist in requiring applicants to fill sample schedules from printed narratives concerning census facts.  As the rural enumerators are to carry both the population and agricultural schedule, they will be "tested" with samples of both, but the city enumerators, who carry the population schedule alone, will only be required to prove their ability by filling a sample of that schedule.

     The "test" population schedule narrative in 1900 was, in part, as follows:

     "The enumerator of the forty-fifth enumeration district of the ninth supervisor's district of the State of Pennsylvania, in the village of Port Royal, Londonderry township, Schuylkkill Co., begins his enumeration June 1, 1900, at No. 201 Burton street.

     "This house is occupied by a single family, consisting of Patrick O'Leary, his wife, Margaret, and his son, James.

     "Patrick came to this country from Ireland (where he was born of Irish parents) in May of 1870, when he was just 22 years old.  Three years after his arrival he was married to an Irish girl who had come over from his native village a year before.  as soon as possible he became naturalized.  He can read and write and speak English, and owns a good house, free of incumbrance which he has bought from his earnings as a teamster, in which occupation he has had steady work during the past year.

     "Margaret, his wife, is also of Irish parentage, and was born in January, and is nearly four years younger than her husband.  She has had two children, only one of whom is living.  She can read and speak English, but has to make her 'mark' for her signature.

     "James was born in Harrisburg, February, 1875.  He has a good common school education, works at any sort of day labor, and secured nine months' steady work during the past year.  He is not married.

     "In the next house, 203 Burton street, the enumerator found an English woman by the name of Mrs. Jane Parker, a widow, occupying a rented house with her single daughter, Virginia, and married daughter Nellie E., and the husband of the latter, Albert Johnson.

     "Mrs. Parker came to this country 34 years ago, has a good education, is a dressmaker by trade, and has constant employment.  She was 50 years old last April, and is of Scottish birth on her mother's side.  She has had four children, three of whom are living and one of whom has died.

     "Virginia is of English parentage, has been through the local schools and has been a saleswoman for eight months of the past year; she was born in Philadelphia in March 1877.

     "Nellie E. was 28 years old last January, and has but recently married.  She was born in Baltimore, reads, writes and speaks English.

     "Albert Johnson, the husband of Nellie, was born in New York City, of Welsh parents, November, 1865.  He is in the grocery business and keeps his own books and accounts.

     It seems comparatively simple, according to supervisor, to draw out of the above statement the required details for the population schedule, and to enter then under the proper column divisions relating to location, name, relationship, personal description, nativity, citizenship, occupation, education, etc.

     About all such a "test" can do is to evidence the legibility of an applicant's handwriting and his ability to determine where to write in the sample schedule the facts clearly stated in the narrative.

     The agricultural schedule narrative for 1909 was very similar, except that the facts stated relate to farms and farming operations.

     Before the "test" February 5, the supervisor will send each applicant a list of instructions concerning filling in the "test" schedules, which will still further simplify the subject and insure the passing of the test by those who possess only an ordinary common-school education and practical common sense.