Totals..... 512,254 $9,817,434,799|396,759 $403.711,233 5,308,406 $2,322,333,877 $7,345,413,651 $13.004,400,143 Including custom work and repairing. Including wheelwrighting. Cars and general shop construction and repairs by steam railroad companies. Shops not included in those operated by steam railroads. Including condensed milk. Including dressmaking. The factory product. From fiber other than wood. *Including meat packing, but not retail butchering. Permanent Census Bureau. The United States Census Bureau is now established as a permanent adjunct to the Government machinery, and in the future it will be possible for citizens to keep posted at all times on matters pertaining to the material condition of the country. The office is under the control of a permanent chief, who is not dependent upon political influence for the retention of his position, and is not removable except for cause. Under Constitutional provisions a census of the entire country is required to be taken every decade. In the early years of the Government a census was construed to mean an enumeration of the population, and in the beginning the work of gathering such statistics was a simple matter. As the country grew in population and area it was found that the field of statistics also expanded, and it was deemed desirable to gather information bearing upon the social and financial condition of the people. As the work increased and its value became more and more appreciated the facilities for gathering such information were found insufficient. Temporary quarters for census work were opened in Washington; temporary officials were obliged to employ temporary clerks, enumerators and tabulators. Every ten years it was necessary to recruit and train a new army of inexperienced men for census work, with the result that in many instances the work done in some departments was worthless, costing the Government large sums of money to no purpose and depriving the people of much valuable information which they desired to obtain. The need of a permanent census bureau was first urged upon the country by General Francis A. Walker, director of the ninth and tenth censuses, in 1888. General Walker pointed out the difficulties under which the bureau labored, and showed by logical argument the impossibility of obtaining satisfactory results from a corps of men engaged without special reference to their fitness for the work, but half of whom might be found to be incompetent when it was too late to change the staff. The subject was then agitated in Congress and throughout the country, and, finally, in March. 1902. fourteen years after General Walker first suggested the idea, Congress established the Census Office as a permanent institution, with Census Commissioner W. R. Merriam in charge of its administration and a corps of officials in charge of departments. By the bill creating the permanent bureau it was made the duty of the Census Office to collect statistics of manufactures decennially, beginning with 1905; to collect statistics of cotton production annually, and to publish weekly bulletins thereon from September to January inclusive; to collect statisties of births and deaths annually from such States and municipalities as furnish satisfactory records; to issue before July 1, 1904. a number of special reports authorized by the bill, including those relating to crime, pauperism, charity, municipal taxation, valuation and indebtedness, public and semi-public utilities and mining. By a further act, approved in June, 1902, the office was directed to compile avail able facts in regard to the condition of irrigation. the area of land reclaimed and the cost and value of existing irrigation works. The good effects of the change will be apparent when the special reports based upon the census of 1900 will be issued, and in the future the office will be served by such skilled specialists in enumeration and tabulation in the various branches of statistical work that their services will in time become indispensable, and they will improve so much upon the present system that the census taken in 1910 will be the most thorough and valuable ever collected in any country in the world. Statistics of Insurance. INSURANCE OFFICIALS OF THE VARIOUS STATES. The following officials have authority over insurance matters in the various States and Territories: Idaho. Illinois. Indiana.. Kansas. Louisiana. Mississippi. Missouri. New Hampshire. New Jersey. New Mexico. New York.. North Carolina. Vermont. Virginia. Name of Official. J. Thomas Heflin.. George W. Marshall. Albert C. Scherr. Zeno M. Host. Le Roy Grant. Title of Office. Secretary of State.. Surveyor-General. Secretary of the Territory. State Auditor and Insurance Commissioner. Insurance Commissioner. Deputy Superintendent of Insurance. Insurance Commissioner.. Insurance Commissioner.. Superintendent of Insurance. State Treasurer.. Insurance Commissioner Secretary of Territory. Insurance Commissioner. Acting Superintendent of Insurance. State Auditor.. Superintendent of Insurance. Auditor of Public Accounts, Commissioner of Insurance. AMERICAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES, BUSINESS IN 1902. (From the Insurance Year-Book.) Address. Little Rock. Hartford. Madison. |