Washington, Oct. 16.
With the exception of the presidential election no periodic occurrence excites the interest and curiosity of the American people as does the decennial census. In no other country does the census cover so wide a range of subjects as it does in the United States. It is not merely a count of the population: it is a complete national stocktaking, and every branch of productive industry is included within its scope.
But while the prodigious mass of information thus gathered is of the utmost value, both in itself and as affording a fixed datum for the annual estimates of the following ten years, it is the growth, movement, heterogeneous character and unequal distribution of - the population that excite the keenest interest.
In January last 60,000 enumerators visited the 18,000,000 homes of the American people, counted the population and made a precise record of their colour, nationality, conjugal and other relationship: physical infirmities or rather di abilities, and other matters con: cerning them. The quantities and value of their agricultural products, where there were any to report, were also recorded, and at manufacturing establishments the quantities and cost of materials, the amount and character of the' labour employed, with the amount paid for wages, and the quantities and value of the manufactured products, and much else of interest and value to the satis-tic ian and economist were made matter of record. The collection and tabulation of this information will cost between 20 and 25 million dollars, about one-third of which represents the cost of its collection. takes several years to tabulate and classify the "statistics of industry, but those of population, far at least as nuniber and distribution are concerned, are usually ready for publication within a few months, not so much, how-over, to gratify public curiosity, as to enable the House of Repre sentatives promptly to reapportion its. membership among the several states. in accordance with the Constitution.
Tus Tora, Porctartoy.
The population of individual states and cities has been made public as fast as it has been tabulated, and a few days ago the Director of Census was able to announce the total population of the country, which is found to be 105,683,108, an increase of 13,710,- 842, or 14.9 per cent., since 1910. This is exclusive of outlying pos-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.