PLAGUE OF QUESTIONNAIRES

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 125, 29 May 1930, Page 28

PLAGUE OF QUESTIONNAIRES

The ' questionnaire continues, to bo called upon in America to solvo a wido rango of problems, says the New York Times" writing on "Our Plaguo of Questionnaires." Prohibition, the bible, the decline of home life, sex, marriage, the average salary-of business girls, subways, the proper amount of home work for children in public schools, the. tariff, racketeering in the Bronx, have all been the subjects of recent questionnaires. If no one hus yet issued a questionnaire on questionnaires, it would seem to bo only a question ,pf time. A large number of tho questionnaires distributed each year havo for their purpose the collection of statistics useful in bnsiness. For example, the recent stock crash gave rise to a questionnaire in which industrial compan ies were asked if they thought their stocks were too high. Another, sent to airplane pilots, asked them to give a list of the number of accidents they were in. over a period of one year and the number of times their motors had failed, Others attempted to determine some causes of bankruptcy, the extent of employment of the middle-aged— those 40 to 60 years old —business conditions in the garment trade, the status and operation of cemeteries, the mothods used in computing interest and the reasons for success in business. At the end of tho college year most senior classes distribute to their members a "Senior Questionnaire" designed to fathom the depths of the collegiate mind on such problems as prohibition, petting, garters, suspenders, favourite actors and actresses, most popular student, cleverest professor, professor who thinks he is cleverest: Besides these types of questionnaires many have ■ been distributed recently which do not fall into any convenient categories. These include questionnaires on capital punishment, traffic congestion, the average expenditure of tourists, suggested means to improve courts, the jury system, chain stores, amateur sport, anti-trust'laws, the five cent faro and old-ago pensions.