Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/637

 /

CHANGES IN CENSUS METHODS 623

woman's marital relation was contained in the entry, "single," "married," "widowed," or "divorced," together with the number of years of her present marriage. The number of children re- ported might have been the fruit of a single marriage or of two, three, or even more successive marriages. With a view to secur- ing information with regard to the relation between the number of years of marriage and the number of children, we at first con- templated changing the schedule so as to call only for the number of children by the present marriage. This, however, would have cut out a great deal of information regarding the children of women widowed or divorced, as well as regarding the children of those married more than once. A simple solution of the diffi- culty was finally devised ; namely, to ascertain, in the case of each woman now in the married state, whether it is the first or a subse- quent marriage. It will be possible, therefore, to select all women now in their first marriage relation, ascertain the number of years of that marriage, and present for such women the number of children borne and the number now living ; and these statistics will relate to a sufficiently large proportion of the population to give a correct view as to the relation between duration of mar- riage and number of children. At the same time, of course, statistics can be presented showing the number of children which each woman has borne, whether she be now widowed or divorced, or whether married once or more than once.

A very important change has been made in the population schedule with reference to the return of occupations. At the last census only a single column was devoted to the return of occupations, and the result was that in many cases the designation was not sufficiently clear to permit a close determination of the industrial distribution of the inhabitants. At the present census there are three interrogatories relating to occupation; namely: ( I ) Trade or profession of, or particular kind of work done by, this person (illustrated by such examples as spinner, salesman, laborer, etc.) ; (2) General nature of industry, business, or estab- lishment in which this person works (illustrated by such examples as cotton mill, department store, street work, etc.) ; (3) Whether an employer, employee, or working on own account.