POPULATION SCHEDULE 



FOR THE CENSUS OF 1920 



Harry H. Laughlin 

 Eugenics Record Office, Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, N. Y. 



THE FOURTEENTH decennial 

 census of the United States will 

 be taken as of January 1, 1920. 

 The mere counting of the people 

 has long ceased to constitute the chief 

 activity and purpose of the federal cen- 

 sus. Formerly the census organization 

 was made and dissolved for each decen- 

 nial canvass and tabulation, but by the 

 act of March 6, 1902, Congress pro- 

 vided for a permanent Bureau of the 

 Census which was created in the Depart- 

 ment of the Interior. Later, when the 

 Department of Commerce and Labor 

 was organized, the Bureau of the Census 

 was transferred thither. At present this 

 Bureau is part of the Department of 

 Commerce. Thus the impending decen- 

 nial census will be the second taken 

 under the permanent organization. The 

 intercensal years are occupied by analy- 

 ses and publication of decennial census 

 material, and in making and publishing 

 the results of many special surveys. 



THE POPULATION SCHEDULE 



Section 8 of the Act of March 3, 1919 

 (an Act to provide for the fourteenth and 

 subsequent decennial censuses) reads: 

 "Sec. 8. That the Fourteenth Census 

 shall be restricted to inquiries relating 

 to population, to agriculture, to manu- 

 factures, to forestry and forest products, 

 and to mines and quarries. The sche- 

 dules relating to population shall in- 

 clude for each inhabitant the name, 

 place of abode, relationship to head of 

 family, color, sex, age, conjugal condi- 

 tion, place of birth, place of birth of 

 parents, nationality or mother tongue 

 of all persons bom in foreign countries, 

 nationality or mother tongue qf parents 

 of foreign birth, number of years in the 

 208 



United States, citizenship, occupation, 

 whether or not employer or employee, 

 whether or not engaged in agriculture, 

 school attendance, literacy, tenure of 

 heme and the encumbrance thereon, and 

 the name and address of each blind or 

 deaf and dumb person." 



Then follow the specifications for the 

 schedules relating to agriculture, to 

 manufactures, to forestry and forestry 

 products, and to mines and quarries, 

 each set of which is equally extensive 

 with that for population. The value 

 to the nation of the summarized and 

 digested information secured by these 

 schedules is of course very great. 



EUGENISTS AND GENEALOGISTS DESIRE 

 AMENDMENT TO POPULATION SCHEDULE 



In 1916, Alexander Graham Bell, 

 Chairman of the Board of Scientific 

 Directors of the Eugenics Record Office, 

 proposed a resolution which was unani- 

 mously adopted by this body, to the 

 effect that it would be highly desirable 

 in the interests of American family 

 history studies if to the census schedule 

 there were added two items: first, 

 "name of the father of the person 

 enumerated;" and second, "full maiden 

 name of the mother of the person 

 enumerated." The Eugenics Research 

 Association, through its Executive Com- 

 mittee, in following up this purpose, 

 presented on February 21, 1919, the 

 following memorial to the Director of 

 the Census: 



"To the Hon. Samuel L. Rogers, 

 Director of the Census of the United 

 States, A Memorial: 



"In the interest of race betterment in 

 the United States, the Eugenics Re- 



