The Census - 2

March 29, 1940

Dear Clara,

We had our meeting all day today regarding our enumerator jobs. Only five of us are women, and I already feel that I will be good friends with two of them, Florence and Martha. They are both in their early 40's so much younger than me, and we are all new recruits. Most of the men have done the job before, and looked with a certain amount of disdain at us, with our feeble questions.

We were welcomed and given an overview of what the job entails. Then we were given a pack, and went through it in some detail. I won't tell you all about it, but some things I found very interesting and surprising.

We start on Monday, April 1^st, and work at our own pace, but getting through the ward as quickly as possible, while still being accurate and neat. We have lots of huge sheets which are filled in according to strict rules. This census is much more comprehensive than any has ever been in the past, and they are hoping from the statistics that we recover, to find out much more about the social trends in the country.

For instance, there is a section where we have to say whether the people we are enrolling are working or have worked in the past year for any government sponsored initiatives, like Roosevelt's New Deal or the Civilian Conservation Corps. And we not only want to know how well educated the people are, but which was the last level of education they attended – which might extend well beyond college for some of them.

We have to put down which race they belong to, and of mixed race, there is a very specific formula we need to adhere to. For instance, if they are Negroes, to any degree, we need to put down Negro. If they are Indians, at least more than half, we have to put down Indian. Unless one of their parents was a Negro, and then that takes preference. If they come from Britain or Ireland, they have to be labelled with which bit, Scotland, Eire, Wales, etc. and Canadians, have to be labelled either French-Canadians or English-Canadians and it doesn't matter what language they speak.

If they are born citizens, there is no problem, but if they came here from another country, we have to put in whether they are naturalized or not. And if they are, that doesn't automatically mean their spouse and children are – as it used to. So there are likely to be a lot more aliens – which is what we label those who have not claimed citizenship.

We need to label some of the women (a five percent page sample) as to if they are married, and
at what age, and how many marraiges, and how many children from all mariages together.

I was worried about how we were going to deal with putting down how valuable their houses were, if they owned them. If they rent them, there is no problem, as we just need to put in the monthly rent. But how many people could say exactly what their house was worth. Mr Galvin, the boss, said that if they had bought it recently, they would know what they paid for it. It doesn't matter if they own it outright or have a mortgage. It is put down as O, for owned in either case. But he said the level of taxation was not to be used as it was not usually very accurate.

Then the value depends on its location, size of plot, number of bedrooms, whether they have indoor plumbing, the form of heating they use, and so on. He said we could estimate, and the more we did the job, the easier it would get. If you start out with somebody who knows their house cost them $3000 last year, and it has two bedrooms and a finished basement and a nice bit of land – then you can compare that to the next door neighbour's house and increase or decrease it accordingly. Apparently the average house price in the country is $3000, although probably in a place like Jamestown, property is cheaper than it would be in Chicago or New York.

So wish me luck, and if I have time, I will sent you a letter each day telling you how I got
on, and who the most interesting people that I met were.

Love

Nan