CENSUS BILL, 1919. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1918. UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON THE CENSUS, The committee met pursuant to call, at 10 o'clock a. m., in the committee room, Capitol, Senator Morris Sheppard presiding. Present: Senators Sheppard (chairman), Ashurst, King, McKellar, Sutherland, and Townsend. Also present: Sam. L. Rogers, Director of the United States Census Office; William Dudley Foulke, chairman census committee of the National Civil Service Reform League; William L. Austin, Chief Statistician for Agriculture and for Cotton and Tobacco of the United States Census Office; William M. Steuart, secretary of the United States Tariff Commission; Charles S. Sloane, Geographer of United States Census Office; Thomas J. Fitzgerald, Chief Clerk of the United States Census Office; Dr. Joseph A. Hill, expert special agent of the United States Census Office; and William A. Bird, National Civil Service Reform League, New York. The committee thereupon proceeded to consider the bill (H. R. 11984) to provide for the fourteenth and subsequent decennial cen suses. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will be in order. This is a meeting of the Census Committee of the Senate to consider H. R. 11984, a bill to provide for the fourteenth and subsequent decennial censuses. The bill has passed the House and is now before the Senate. The Director of the Census, Hon. Sam. L. Rogers, has kindly consented to appear before the committee and to give us his views as to the necessity of immediate action and as to the requirements of the bill. The committee will be glad to hear from Mr. Rogers. Do you intend to take up the bill section by section, Mr. Rogers? Mr. ROGERS. I think that you would prefer to have me take it up in that way, Mr. Chairman." The CHAIRMAN. We will be glad to have you do it in that way, Mr. Rogers Mr. ROGERS. There are some sections in there that need special consideration. The CHAIRMAN. All right, you may do it in that way, and the bill may be set out in full in the record at this point. (The bill referred to is here printed in full in the record, as follows:) H. R. 11984. AN ACT To provide for the fourteenth and subsequent decennial censuses. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a census of the population, agriculture, manufactures, and mines and quarries of the United States shall be taken by the Director of the Census in the year nineteen hundred and twenty and every ten years thereafter. The census herein provided for shall include each State, the District of Columbia. Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico. A census of Guam and Samoa shall be taken in the same year by the respective governors of said islands and a census of the Panama Canal Zone by the governor of the Canal Zone in accordance with plans prescribed or approved by the Director of the Census. SEC. 2. That the period of three years beginning the first day of July next preceding the census provided for in section one of this act shall be known as the decennial census period, and the reports upon the inquiries provided for in said section shall be completed and published within such period. SEC. 3. That during the decennial census period, and no longer, there may be employed in the Census Office, in addition to the force provided for by the legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation act for the fiscal year immediately preceding the decennial census period, an assistant director, who shall be an experienced practical statistician; a chief statistician, who shall be a person of known and tried experience in statistical work; a disbursing clerk; an appointment clerk; a private secretary to the director; four stenographers; eight expert chiefs of division; and fifteen statistical experts. The assistant director shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The chief statistician, the disbursing clerk, the appointment clerk, the chiefs of divisions, and the private secretary to the director shall be appointed without examination by the Secretary of Commerce upon the recommendation of the Director of the Census. The statistical experts and the stenographers shall be appointed in conformity with the civil-service act and rules: Provided, That no man appointed or employed or who shall hereafter be appointed or employed under this act shall on account of such employment be certified by any official or authority for deferred classification under act numbered twelve, Sixty-fifth Congress, entitled "An act to authorize the President to increase temporarily the Military Establishment of the United States," approved May eighteenth, nineteen hundred and seventeen, or under any act amendatory thereof that has been or shall hereafter be enacted: Provided further, That whenever practicable women and honorably discharged soldiers and sailors shall be employed in the positions herein provided for. SEC. 4. That the assistant director shall perform such duties as may be prescribed by the Director of the Census. In the absence of the director, the assistant director shall serve as director, and in the absence of the director and assistant director, the chief clerk shall serve as director. The appointment clerk shall perform the duties assigned him by the Director of the Census. The disbursing clerk of the Census Office shall, at the beginning of the decennial census period, give bond to the Secretary of the Treasury in the sum of $100,000, surety to be approved by the Solicitor of the Treasury, which bond shall be conditioned that the said officer shall render, quarter yearly, a true and faithful account to the proper accounting officers of the Treasury of all moneys and properties which shall be received by him by virtue of his office during the said decennial census period. Such bond shall be filed in the office of the Secretary of the Treasury, to be by him put in suit upon any breach of the conditions thereof. SEC. 5. That during the decennial census period the annual compensation of the officials of the Census Office shall be as follows: The Director of the Census, $7.000; the assistant director, $4,500; three chief statisticians and the chief clerk, $3,000 each; two other chief statisticians, $3,000, and the geographer, $2.750; the disbursing clerk, $3 000; the appointment clerk, $2,750; the chiefs of division, $2.250 each; the private secretary to the director, $2.250; the statistical experts, $2 000 each; and the stenographers provided for in section three of this act. $1,800 each. SEC. 6. That in addition to the force hereinbefore provided for and to that authorized by the legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation act for the fiscal year immediately preceding the decennial census period, there may be employed in the Census Office during the decennial census period, and no longer, as many clerks of classes four, three, two, and one; as many skilled laborers, with salaries at the rate of not less than $720 nor more than $1,000 per annum; and as many messengers, assistant messengers, messenger boys, watchmen, unskilled laborers, and charwomen as may be found necessary for the proper and prompt performance of the duties herein required; these additional clerks and employees to be appointed by the Director of the Census; Provided, That the total number of such additional clerks of classes two, three, and four shall at no time exceed one hundred and fifty: Provided further, That employees engaged in the compilation or tabulation of statistics by the use of mechanical devices may be compensated on a piece-price basis to be fixed by the director: Provided, That whenever possible women and honorably discharged soldiers and sailors shall be employed in the positions herein provided for. SEC. 7. That the additional clerks and other employees provided for by section six shall be subject to such special test examinations as the Director of the Census may prescribe, the said examinations to be conducted by the United States Civil Service Commission, to be open to all applicants without regard to political party affiliations, and to be held at such places in each State as may be designated by the Civil Service Commission. Certifications shall be made by the Civil Service Commission upon request of the Director of the Census from the eligible registers so established, in conformity with the law of apportionment as now provided for the classified service, in the order of rating: Provided, That the requirement as to conformity with the law of apportionment shall not apply to messenger boys, unskilled laborers, and charwomen: Provided further. That hereafter all examinations of applicants for positions in the Census Office, from any State or Territory, shall be had in the State or Territory in which such applicant resides, and no person shall be eligible for such examination or appointment unless he or she shall have been actually domiciled in such State or Territory for at least one year previous to such examination: Provided further, That the Civil Service Commission may hold examinations for positions in such service of applicants temporarily absent from the place of their legal residence or domicile in the District of Columbia and elsewhere in the United States where examinations are usually held upon proof satisfactory to the commission that such applicant is a bona fide resident of the State or Territory in which such applicant claims to have a legal residence or domicile: Provided further, That nothing herein shall be so construed as to abridge the existing law or apportionment or change the requirements of existing law as to legal residence or domicile of such applicants: And provided further, That no person afflicted with tuberculosis shall be appointed and that each applicant for appointment shall accompany his or her application with a certificate of health from some reputable physi cian: And provided further, That in no instance shall more than one person be appointed from the same family: And provided further, That when the exigencies of the service require, the director may appoint for temporary employment not exceeding six months' duration from the aforesaid list of eligibles those who, by reason of residence or other conditions, are immediately available; and may also appoint for not exceeding six months' duration persons having had previous experience in operating mechanical appliances in census work whose efficiency records in operating such appliances are satisfactory to him, and may accept such records in lieu of the civil service examination: And provided further, That employees in other branches of the departmental classified service who have had previous experience in census work may be transferred without examination to the Census Office to serve during the whole or a part of the decennial census period, and at the end of such service the employees so transferred shall be eligible to appointment to positions in any department held by them at date of transfer to the Census Office without examination, but no employee so transferred shall within one year after such transfer receive higher salary than he is receiving at the time of the transfer: And provided further, That during the decennial census period and no longer the Director of the Census may fill vacancies in the permanent force of the Census Office by the promotion or transfer of clerks or other employees employed on the temporary force authorized by section six of this act: And provided further, That at the expiration of the decennial census period the term of service of all employees so transferred and of all other temporary officers and employees appointed under the provisions of this act shall terminate, and such officers and employees shall not be elegible to appointment or transfer into the classified service of the Government by virtue of their examination or appointment under this act. SEC. 8. That the Fourteenth Census shall be restricted to inquiries relating to population, to agriculture, to manufacture, to forestry and forest products, and to mines and quarries. The schedules relating to population shall include for each inhabitant the name, place of abode, relationship to head of family, color, sex, age, conjugal condition, place of birth, place of birth of parents, nationality or mother tongue of all persons born in foreign countries, nationality or mother tongue of parents of foreign birth, number of years in the United States, citizenship, occupation, whether or not employer or employee, whether or not engaged in agriculture, school attendance, literacy, and tenure of home, and the name and address of each blind or deaf and dumb person. The schedules relating to agriculture shall include name, color, sex, and country of birth of occupant of each farm, tenure, acreage of farm, acreage of woodland, value of farm and improvements, and the encumbrance thereon, "value of farm implements, number of live stock on farms, ranges, and elsewhere, and the acreage of crops and the quantities of crops and other farm products for the year ending December thirty-first next preceding the enumeration. Inquiries shall be made as to the quantity of land reclaimed by irrigation and drainage and the crops produced; also as to the location and character of irrigation and drainage enterprises, and the capital invested in such enterprises. The schedules of inquiries relating to manufactures and to mines and quarries shall include the name and location of each establishment; character of organization, whether individual, corporate, or other form; character of business or kind of goods manufactured; amount of capital actually invested; number of proprietors, firm members, copartners and officers, and the amount of their salaries; number of employees and the amount of their wages; quantity and cost of materials used in manufactures; principal miscellaneous expenses; quantity and value of products; time in operation during the year; character and quantity of power used; and character and number of machines employed. The census of manufactures and of mines and quarries shall relate to the year ending December thirty-first next, preceding the enumeration of popula tion, and shall be confined to manufacturing establishments and mines and quarries which were in active operation during all or a portion of that year. The census of manufactures shall furthermore be confined to manufacturing establishments conducted under what is known as the factory system, exclusive of the so-called neighborhood, household, and hand industries. Whenever he shall deem it expedient, the Director of the Census may charge the collection of these statistics upon special agents or upon detailed employees, to be employed without respect to locality. The form and subdivision of inquiries necessary to obtain the information under the foregoing topics shall be determined by the Director of the Census. SEC. 9. That the Director of the Census shall, at least six months prior to the date fixed for commencing the enumeration at the fourteenth and each succeeding decennial census, designate the number, whether one or more, of supervisors of census for each State, the District of Columbia, Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico, and shall define the districts within which they are to act; except that the Director of the Census, in his discretion, need not designate supervisors for Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico, but in lieu thereof may employ special agents as hereinafter provided. The supervisors shall be appointed by the Secretary of Commerce upon the recommendation of the Director of the Census: Provided, That the whole number of supervisors shall not exceed four hundred: Provided further, That so far as practicable and desirable the boundaries of the supervsors' districts shall conform to the boundaries of the congressional districts: And provided further, That if in any supervisor's district the supervisor has not been appointed and qualified ninety days preceding the date fixed for the commencement of the enumeration, or if any vacancy shall occur thereafter, either through death, removal, or resignation of a supervisor, or from any other cause, the Director of the Census may appoint a temporary supervisor or detail an employee of the Census Office to act as supervisor for that district. SEC. 10. That each supervisor of census shall be charged with the performance within his own district of the following duties: To consult with the Director of the Census in regard to the division of his district into subdivisions most convenient for the purpose of the enumeration, which subdivisions or enumeration districts shall be defined and the boundaries thereof fixed by the Director of the Census; to designate to the director suitable persons and with his consent to employ such persons as enumerators, one or more for each subdivision; to communicate to enumerators the necessary instructions and directions relating to their duties; to examine and scrutinize the returns of the enumerators, and in the event of discrepancies or deficiencies appearing in any of the said returns, to use all diligence in causing the same to be corrected or supplied; to forward the completed returns of the enumerators to the director at such time and in such manner as shall be prescribed, and to make up and forward |