NITED STATES CENSUS OFFERS MASSIVE TASK

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29246, 2 July 1960, Page 10

NITED STATES CENSUS OFFERS MASSIVE TASK

[By JOHN BAKER, a Reuter Correspondent] The 160,000 census takers who set out at the beginning/of April to count the American people found that their task was not as easy as might have been expected. It was hoped that the census would be completed by now, to make the fastest count in history, but various difficulties, including an axe-wielding householder in Texas, an angry pet monkey, also in Texas, and mass resignation of head counters in many parts of the country, have held up the operation. The greatest difficulty of all, as always, has been counting that elusive one per cent, of the population who seems always to be out when the census taker calls, who lives in inaccessible houses, or who deliberately sets Out to make things difficult for the questioner.

Census planners say that finding that last 1 per cent, is “more difficult and time-consuming than anything else.” It seems clear from the forms already tabulated that the population, as expected, will be around the 180,000,000 mark. The Census Bureau is: required by law to have the actual final figure in the hands of the President by December 1, and in spite of the delays, it is hoping to beat 'that deadline by a month or six weeks; Tabulating the contents of the forms, which detail the racial structure of the American population, its distribution, age, and way of life, is expected to take another 18 months or so after that.

The count, speeded by electronic tabulators, can be made quite quickly. But reducing the rest of the information on the census forms to statistical tables can take a long time. Even if the task is not finished before mid-1962, it will still have been more swiftly done than ever before.

For many of the census takers, most of whom worked at the job to supplement regular income, the task, however, has proved a nightmare. One of their troubles, which caused thousands to leave the job in disgust in various parts of the country, was that they were supposed to be paid according to the number of people they counted. Since they would often have to call back several times at a single household before finding anyone at home, the job proved time-consuming and not very profitable. Some census takers, were luckier, however, and succeeded in getting themselves paid at an hourly rate, so that it did not matter how many people they found not at home. Motor-Car Trouble Census takers in remote country districts often found themselves in trouble, too,* with ■ their cars. The rough roads would damage them, or, in the bad weather which swept most of the country about Easter time, .they would become bogged down in mud and have to be towed out. Their mileage allowance from ; the Government did not nearly j cover such extra expenses as I these, they claimed. i Another source of anxiety to ’the counters was the violence which they met. A pretty girl attempting a count in Philadelphia was assaulted by a trio of men playing cards. They all kissed her and ripped ‘her dress before she struggled free. leaving behind her census forms.

At Portland, Oregon, , a householder threatened to set a dog l on a census man. At Houston, Texas, a man chased the censustaker away with an axe. ; Another was bitten by a pet monkey. In one of the “hillbilly” States of the south-east, a census taker came upon a group of then making “moonshine" liquor at their still, deep in the woods. When they realised that he was not a policeman, they consented to be counted, and he went on his way. In -San Francisco exhausted census takers, faced with steep hills, unco-operative “beatniks," and non-English-speaking families

in Chinatown, left the job in droves! - Even when' no violence t has been involved, a number of residents have offered a considerable amount of opposition to the idea of seeing details of their way of life entered on the forms. Ques.tions whibh irritated many included one on their bathroom and toilet facilities. Many objected, too, to being asked to assess their houses in terms of property values. Some civil liberties groups protested at the inclusion of a space to designate racial group.

Women, as usual, objected to being asked to give their age. But one official said that his census takers were advised to jump this •hurdle by telling the women they would just have to estimate, and then mentioning a figure which’ was obviously at least 10 years too high. This, he said, would inevitably induce the women to answer indignantly with their correct age. Heavy Penalty A fine of 100 dollars (about £35) and up to six months’ imprisonment is the penalty provided for someone who consistently refuses to co-operate. Generally, however, census takers do not use this, as a threat. They merely come back another time and try again, hoping to find the reluctant householder in a better mood. Or they question someone else in the family and get the required information. ' But census takers have always managed to get the information they wanted so far, and there is no record of a ’ prosecution under the law compelling people to answer One housewife who went out to take the census in a Detroit suburb said that rudeness was what bothered her most about the job. “People would say: ‘ls it necessary for you to come into my house?’ or ‘You’re interrupting a >artj or ‘Come back on Saturday when my husband's here’,” she complained. In Los Angeles, a middle-aged housewife found herself counting the “down-and-outs” on the city’s “Skid Row.” She described how she went into one shelter and found all the occupant drunk. Not to be put off, she went through their wallets and got the required information from their social security cards drivers’ licences, and so on.-“ They were all so drunk they didn't bother me," she explained. , But what the census takers worry about most- of all is how many families exist like the one in a New York residential suburb which for some reason was not counted at all,. "1 filled in the form* as l was told;” the householder Said. “Then I waited for someone to come along and collect it. There was always someone in the house, but no-one ever came. . , -

“What I shall do now,” he said with relish, “is wait until they have finished counting, and published the figures, and then write and tell them they missed me."