' '? ? v ? ' ; ; . ?*- - v v > > J ' ?-* fE spec\o\\v| -for ^oung readers , he Min/ ^adf | C^=*-~ Distinguished Achisvsmsnl Awards Winner 1975 April 1 la Tpnana nny By BETTY bJLBUniYi Counting U S Folks What about you? Your mom or dad will fill in a column about you. How would you answer these questions? (*See directions under story.) PERSON in column 3 U?t First name Middle initial If relative of person in column 1: O Husband/wife O Son/daughter O Brother/sister O Father/mother O Other relative If not related to person in column 1: I O Roomer, boarder O Partner, roommate O Paid employee O Other nonrelative ) O Male m O Female o White O Black or Negro O Japanese O Chinese ? O Filipino * O Korean O Vietnamese O Indian (Amer.) Print tribe O Asian Indian O Hawaiian O Guamanian O Samoan O Eskimo O Aleut O Other ? Specify a. Agt at last c. Y? birthday I I I L. b. Month of O Apr ?June O July? Sept. O Oct.? Dec. I of birth 0 O 1 O 2 O 3 O 4 O 5 O 6 O 7 O 8 O 9 O 0 O 1 O 2 O 3 O 4 O 5 O 6 O 7 O 8 O 9 O O Now married O Widowed O Divorced O Separated O Never married O No (Not Spanish/Hispanic) O Yes, Mexican, Mexican-Amer., Chicano O Yes, Puerto Rican O Yea, Cuban | O Yea, other Spanish/Hispanic This census will ask everyone if he or she is from a Spanish backfrotaT f The government says this will enable it to know where to set ?p special language classes. Questionnaires will be available in Spanish. Someone in every U.S. household will take time out to do something very serious on April Fool's Day. April 1 is also U.S. Census Day. This is the day people will have to send in the census forms they will receive through the mail. A census is an official count of the people in a country. But it is more than that. The census form also has questions about age, sex, race, and other items. When added up, the figures from the answers tell us a lot about our country. These figures (or statistics) help our government and businesses plan for the future. The population figures tell us how many representatives each state can have in the U.S. Congress. By law the U.S. must take a census every 10 years. It is written into Article One of our Constitution. The national census has been held every 10 years since 1790. The first census did not ask many questions. As time has passed, more questions have been added. Most people will get a short questionnaire with 19 questions. Other people mil get a long form that asks 64 questions. Exactly how each person answers the questions is kept TOP SECRET. The people who work for the Census Bureau are not allowed to pass on any information except the figures. The information is carefully guarded. *Your mom or dad will probably fill out the census form for your family. One of them will be the person in column 1 on the census form. You might be the person in column 3. To answer the questions, fill in the "O" like this: ?. The black circles help the computer line up the blank to "read" it.