Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/639

 CHANGES IN CENSUS METHODS 625

rule and to instruct enumerators to report children who work for their parents as gainfully occupied only in case they work for at least half of the year. This instruction may possibly result in reducing- the number of children reported as gainfully occupied, though this is by no means certain ; but it seems far better to have a definite basis for classification than to leave it, under vague instructions, to the variable judgment of enumerators.

I may also note that in the case of children who work for their parents on farms, which is perhaps the most common form of child labor, we will instruct the enumerators to designate them as "farm laborers, home farm," in order to distinguish them from those who work for other employers, who will be designated as "working out."

The last change in the population schedule which calls for mention is the insertion of the question, as required by the new Census Act: "Whether out of work on April 15, 1910." This new question is in addition to the question, "Number of weeks out of work during the preceding year," which corresponds to the old question, "Number of months unemployed," the substitu- tion of the words "out of work" for "unemployed" being designed to emphasize what we consider the proper meaning of the inquiry. It cannot be hoped that any very considerable degree of accuracy will be secured in the replies to either of these ques- tions, as it is obviously difficult to define the phrase "out of work." Our instructions are that persons are to be reported as out of work only where they want work and cannot find it, and that persons who are sick, on strike, or voluntarily idle are not to be reported as out of work. Of course, it would be interesting to know also how many working people are out on strike at the time of the census, or how long they were out of employment because of strikes during 1909. It would be interesting, too, to have some information as to the loss of earning power through sickness. To combine, however, all forms of unemployment in one return, without distinguishing the causes, which would be impracticable, would obscure the answer to the question which, after all, interests the greatest number of people; namely, how far work is lacking for those who are willing and able to work.