ratified differed but
little from the arbitration treaties of 1908.

CHAPTER XVI

THE THIRTEENTH CENSUS, 1910

[1910-1911]

After many years of urging on the part of statisticians and public men,
Congress, in 1902, passed a bill which was signed by the President
providing for a permanent census bureau connected with the Department of
Commerce and Labor. This bureau, as shown in the taking of the
thirteenth census, serves to promote both efficiency and economy in the
collection of statistics associated with the census work. Heretofore the
Director of the Census had enormous patronage at his disposal which he
farmed out among congressmen and other political leaders.

E. Dana Durand, a trained statistician of wide experience, was appointed
Director of the Census. He announced that so far as possible the 65,000
enumerators would be selected under civil service rules and for
supervisors of the census he selected men on the basis of their special
fitness for the work. President Taft was in complete agreement with this
programme and insisted that local enumerators were to be appointed for
the purpose of getting the work properly done and not to assist any
would-be dispensers of local patronage.

On April 15 the enumerators began their work of gathering statistics.
The usual inquiries were made on population, mortality, agriculture,
manufactures, etc. Prior to April 15, an advance schedule was sent to
practically every farmer in the country, and he was asked to fill it out
before the coming of the enumerator. Similarly, in the cities, the
enumerators distributed advance population schedules which the head of
the family was requested to fill out before the official visit of the
enumerator. In taking the thirteenth census, greater attention was given
than ever before to perfecting the schedules and weighing each question
with regard to its precise significance and scientific value. To that
end a group of trained investigators, familiar with the various topics
which the census would cover, spent several months on a preliminary
study of the character of these questions. In addition to the
nationality of each person as determined by the mother tongue of the
foreign-born inhabitants, additional inquiries were made relative to the
industry in which each person was employed and whether the person was
out of work on April 15.

[Illustration: Portrait.]
Copyright by Clinedinst. Washington.
E. Dana Durand, Director of the