LIBRARY OF dttfinoh <0tndmtlittl c %tmv<;v4iti\, OHAMPAIQN, XI_3L.X3SrOXS- Books are Not lo be Taken From £lie Library Room. U- — - : I THE CENSUS SYSTEM OF MASSACHUSETTS FOR 1875 . EDITED AND ARRANGED FOR THE BUREAU OF STATISTICS OF LABOR, By OREN W. WEAVER. i « BOSTON WRIGHT & POTTER, STATE PRINTERS, 79 MILK STREET. 1876 . 1 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/censussystemofmaOOweav : \\ , 3 Cammontucultlr nf fflassarbusctts. OFFICE OF BUREAU OF STATISTICS OF LABOR, 33 Pemberton Square, Boston, April, 187(5. Hon. John D. Long, Speaker of the House of Representatives Sir, — I have the honor to transmit, herewith, for the information of the Legislature, "The Census System of Massachusetts for 1875.” This volume contains all the sched- ules, blanks, instructions, etc., employed by this Bureau in prosecuting the work of the Decennial Census and Industrial Statistics of the State, for the year ending May 1, 1875, together with a brief description of the system and the methods of tabulation, as well as an account of the number of enumerators and clerks employed, with other particulars respecting the performance of the work. It was thought best to preserve these matters in permanent form, and to that end the principal portion of this volume was printed at the time of use, and from the stereotype plates in the possession of the State. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, CARROLL D. WRIGHT, Chief. [iii.] a TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1. The Industrial Statistics Schedule ........... Pages 1-94 2. Indexes to Industrial Statistics Schedule .......... 95-104 3. Census Laws ................ 107 - 109 4. Letter to Selectmen asking for Recommendation of suitable Persons for Enumerators . Ill 5. Form of Recommendation for the use of Selectmen ........ 112 6. Letter to the Person accepted as an Enumerator, accompanying his commission as such . 113 7. Commission of the Enumerator, forwarded with the above letter ...... 114 8. Form of Acceptance and Oath accompanying the letter and commission above referred to . 115 9. The Enumerator’s Form Book (No. 1) for his Record of Work, with complete instructions . 117-124 10. The Enumerator’s Form Book (No. 2), with instructions ....... 125-132 11. The Enumerator’s Time Account ............ 134 12. The Enumerator’s Bill-Form and Oath ........... 135 13. Form of Penalty Notice used by the Enumerator to return names of persons refusing to answer inquiries ............. 136 14. The Family Schedule 137, 138 1q. The Instruction Sheet accompanying the Family Schedule ....... 139, 140 16. The Individual Schedule ............. 141, 142 17. Additional Instructions (No. 1) to the Enumerator ........ 143 18. The Manufactures Schedule ............. 145 - 148 19. The Occupation Schedule ............. 149-152 20. The Products and Property Schedule ........... 153-156 21. The Special Schedule . ............. 157, 158 22. Additional Instructions (No. 2) to the Enumerator ........ 159 23. The Letter of the Enumerator transmitting his Returns to the Office, with form of Oatli attached ............... 160 24. Final Circular Letter to Enumerators ........... 161 25. List of Inquiries to be answered by Enumerators, accompanying the final circular letter . 162, 163 2G. Tabulation Sheet for Families and Population ......... 165 b [v.l THE CENSUS SYSTEM OF MASSACHUSETTS FOR 1S75. The following pages embrace, in addition to the Industrial Statistics Schedule, copies of all the blanks used in taking the decennial census and industrial statistics of 1875. The Industrial Statistics Schedule, with its index and laws, covers the first 109 pages. In order to make clear its origin and illustrate its uses, it is necessary to give a brief sketch of the four preceding censuses taken under the authority of the State. This schedule owes its existence, primarily, to an Act of the Legislature of 1837 (chapter 199), entitled, "An Act to obtain statistical information in relation to certain branches of industry,” the first section of which states, that "the assessors of each town in the Commonwealth shall, between the first day of May and the first day of October next, make a return to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, of the following facts, as they exist in each town on the first day of April, preceding.” The remainder of the section specifies the facts desired. They are substan- tially, the quantity and value of stock used, of goods manufactured, of capital invested, and hands employed, for about forty industries which are enumerated by name, and which were at that time, doubtless, the principal industries carried on in the State. A saving clause provides for obtaining the same facts respecting any "other industries.” By this Act, the products of the soil were not asked for. The only productive property inquired other about, were Saxony, merino, and sheep ; and the questions were in respect to the number of each breed, and to the quantity of each kind of wool produced, "the average weight of fleece per head,” the value of the product, and the capital invested. Inquiries were provided respecting the fisheries of the State, such as the number of vessels engaged in fishing, their tonnage, the kind, quantity, and value of the fish caught, and of salt con- sumed. Section 4 declares that, "each assessor shall receive from the treasury of the Commonwealth, one dollar and twenty-five cents a day for every day that he shall be employed in making the return aforesaid;” section G, that, "if the assessors of any town shall willfully neglect to make the return aforesaid, in the manner aforesaid, such assessors shall forfeit to the Commonwealth a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars.” hTo part of the Act authorizes the use of a legal process to enforce the obligations laid upon assessors, it either being considered that compulsion was unnecessary in a work of such general use- fulness to all, or that, as the native ilew Englander has always been impatient of much [vii.] viii. interference with what he is pleased to term "private rights,” it was thought expedient to trust to the good sense and discretion of the assessors to elicit, in the most practicable way, the information desired. It is probable that the latter was the chief reason for leaving the Act in this comparatively inoperative state. March 21, 1845, an Act (chapter 171) was passed, having the same title as the preced- ing, and similar in form, authorizing the collecting of industrial statistics in that year, the facts to be presented “as they exist in each city or town, on the first day of April next.” This Act differed in no way from that of 1837, — the language employed, even, being iden- tical with it, — except that additions were made to the heads of industries enumerated, making the number mentioned about ninety, inclusive of some having reference to products and productive property. The principal items in the latter class, are certain domestic animals, such as horses, asses, nudes, neat cattle, and swine, of which the number and value was asked. In regard to agricultural products, the quantity raised, and the value of the following were called for: Indian corn, wheat, rye, barley, oats, millet, "potatoes, and other esculent vegetables,” hay, hemp, flax, hops, tobacco, raw silk, teasels, "fruit of various kinds,” butter, cheese, honey, and beeswax. May 21, 1855, an Act was passed, having the same title as the two preceding, making provision for again gathering statistics of "industry” in the Commonwealth, a decade having elapsed since the previous census was taken, and it being the intermediary year between the decennial censuses taken by the national government. This Act required "the facts as they exist on the first day of June next,” instead of April, as had been required by the former Acts, and it was provided that assessors should be paid two dollars per day, instead of one dollar and a quarter. Otherwise there was hardly a change in the whole text of the Act. April 24, 1805, there was passed " an Act to obtain the industrial statistics of the Commonwealth” (chapter 146), the first section of which provided that, "the aldermen of each city, and the selectmen of each town in the Commonwealth, shall, between the first day of May and the first day of September, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and also, between the first day of May and the first day of September in every tenth year thereafter, make to the Secretary of the Commonwealth the returns hereinafter specified,” such returns being required to relate to the facts as they exist on said first day of May, or to the facts for the year ending on that day. By this Act it is seen that the collection of the statistics was transferred from assessors, to the aldermen of cities and the selectmen of towns. This change was made, doubtless, to secure greater fulness and accuracy in the returns. The Secretary of the Commonwealth, in his letter submitting to the Senate a statement of the statistics of 1855, says: “It is next to impossible for the tax payer, when called upon by the assessors to answer such questions as were propounded under the law, to divest his mind of the impression of an intimate connection between his answers and the assessment of his taxes hence the general tendency to understate results, and an absolute ; refusal, in numerous instances, to answer at all. The Act of 1865 makes a third change in the date to which the statistics should relate, fixing it as the first day of May. Section 5 ; IX. provides that, "if any person shall refuse to give the information required in said first section, he shall forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars.” The general inquiries provided by this Act, were substantially the same as for the Acts of 1837, 1845, and 1855; but the specific heads of "industries,” as by a legislative misnomer the statistics of the Commonwealth have continued to be called, respecting which the information was desired, were increased to two hundred and seventeen, nearly one-third of which had refer- ence to the land and its products, domestic animals and fisheries.