The American Almanac, Year-book, Cyclopaedia and Atlas

AGRICULTURAL TABLE NO. 10.-VALUE OF MISCELLANEOUS FARM PRODUCTS.-Continued.

Totals

|$24,312,242|$28,994,413 $342,023,111|$10,811,963 $1,951,473 $7,278,216 $37,696,770 $274,049,546

Permanent Census Bureau.

The United States Census Bureau is now established as a permanent adjunct to the Government machinery and in future it will be possible for citizens to keep posted at all times on all matters pertaining to the material welfare 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, and it is now probable that the office will become in fact what it ought to be, one of the most valuable parts of the Government machinery.

Under constitutional provisions a census of the entire country is required to be taken every decade. 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, but 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. Year after year the census enumeration enlarged its scope until the taking of a census became a formidable enterprise. But though the work increased and its value was appreciated, the facilities for gathering such information were not commensurate. Temporary quarters for the census work were opened in Washington, temporary officials were appointed, temporary forces of clerks, enumerators and tabulators were hired, and as soon as their labors were completed they were dismissed from office and the entire clerical force of the office was disbanded and scattered. Thus it was necessary for the new census officials, every ten years, to recruit an army of inexperienced men for census work, with the result that in many instances the labors of enumerators and tabulators in certain departments of the work were so badly performed as to be absolutely worthless, and thus the Government has not only been compelled to pay large sums of money to no purpose, but the country has been deprived of valuable information which it desired to obtain.

The need of a permanent system for the compilation of the census 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 who were not only 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 1902, fourteen years after General Walker first suggested the idea, Congress established the Census Office as a permanent institution and department of the Government with Census Commissioner W. R. Merriam in charge of its administration.

The good effects of the change will be apparent within a year or two, when the Census Bureau will issue its special reports based upon the census of 1900, and in the future the department 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 to be taken in 1910 will be the most thorough and valuable ever collected in any country of the world. It is suggested that statistics concerning manufactures and agriculture be collected and published every five years, instead of every ten years, as now, in order that a more close and accurate record of fluctuations in conditions affecting these branches of business may be kept, and thus a more accurate idea may be obtained of the commercial and industrial enterprises of this country. All European countries keep close watch upon the statistics affecting their interests, but while, as a rule, such information is for Government officials only. the United States Census Statistics will be open and free to all.

The establishment of a permanent census bureau would facilitate the publication of census reports and make them much more valuable. As it is at present, several important reports of the census of 1900 are not yet ready for publication, and some are not expected until the latter part of 1903. For example, the report on prison statistics will not be given to the public until late in 1903.

The material for that portion of the census work which deals with the defective and criminal classes was collected by the census agents at the same time that other information was gathered, but while the data have been in the hands of the bureau since 1900, their publication has been delayed until, as is now admitted by the census officials, it will be many months before it can be completed. In preparing the tables in regard to the prisons and prisoners in the United States for The American Almanac, the latest available material was that of the Census of 1890, and as this information was too antiquated to be of value, it was necessary to send to the wardens of all the various prisons in the United States in order to collect the facts that are presented in the penal tables that appear upon another page of this book. While the criminal statistics given in The American Almanac, therefore, may not be so far-reaching or complete as those that have been collected by the Census Bureau. the fact that they are the first to be published since the Census of 1890, and that they are of later date than those which are to be published next year by the United States Government makes them of the utmost value to those who are interested in the study of the defective or criminal classes.

Manufactures.-Cable No. 1.

The tables which follow give the number of manufacturing establishments, the capital invested, the number of salaried persons and wage earners, in the United
States, as given by the census for 1900. The Census act requires that the manufacturing schedules shall contain an inquiry as to the "amount of capital invested."
but does not define what shall be construed as capital. It is difficult to define the word "capital" so that the thing measured shall be a tangible, restricted and uniform

thing.

Superintendent Walker, of the Census Bureau, realized at the time of the Tenth Census that it was impossible to measure statistically the amount of capital in-
vested in the manufacturing enterprises of the country, and he recommended that these statistics should be omitted altogether.

The form of inquiry used in the Census of 1890 attempted to meet the criticism by formulating a drag-net inquiry to cover all kinds of capital either directly or in-
directly employed in manufactures, whether it be fixed or floating, owned or borrowed, real or personal. In 1900, after careful consideration, it was agreed that prac-
tically the same form of inquiry should be used, as it was conceded that the duplications which resulted from this method could not be eliminated anyhow.

The statistics of capital invested show totals which are comparable with those of other censuses, and are valuable for this reason, if for no other. The investments
outside of manufacturing proper, the value of land, either owned or rented, the ownership of good will, trade marks and patents, are to be included in capital.
In con-
nection with these statistics, those of the salaried employes and the wage earners have a more important significance than if either were taken separately, for they
show approximately the per cent of the invested capital for each employe, and give an idea of the economic position of the workers. Officers of corporations, though
receiving salaries, are not included in these tables, having been put in a separate class by the Census Bureau:

The tables below give the product of manufactures of the more important commodities made in the United States. Some of them are classed with manufactures, although they might come into the category of hand trades, as distinguished by the census. Among these come awnings and tents, book binding and blank book making and articles into the construction of which hand labor has a large part. In compiling statistics of these trades none were canvassed which were not carried on in shops of some sort, the existence of which was considered a guide for the enumerator in determining where he was expected to obtain a schedule. The establishment of this rule arbitrarily threw out of the census returns the statistics for a large body of artisans who work at their homes or without a shop.

Manufactures Cable No. 2.