not claiming credit for the medical work, but our people assisted in evaluating it and showing that it was sound. We had 3 people engaged in that work, 2 men and 1 woman, who are mentioned by name in the report and acknowledgment is made to the Bureau of the Census for lending these people.

The last part of my statement calls attention to the fact that the 1954 Censuses of Agriculture, Business, Manufactures, and Mineral Industries are being processed more rapidly than before and the results are being made available earlier. The results have been put in mimeograph form and I think we have some of them available if you are interested. We are carrying out our agreement to this committee that we would get our final results out faster than has ever been done before. We hope to get out by the end of the present calendar year the bulk of the standard statistics, not all the cross tabulations, but the things that are most used by business.

That concludes my general statement.

Mr. PRESTON. Thank you, Doctor. Tomorrow we will begin to discuss the "Salaries and expenses" item. We must adjourn now. We will meet again at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning.

THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1955.

SALARIES AND EXPENSES

Amounts available for obligation

(Balances for June 30, 1954, are as certified under sec. 1311, Public Law 663)

(Balances for June 30, 1954, are as certified under sec. 1311, Public Law 663)

Mr. PRESTON. The committee will please be in order.

TYPES OF CENSUSES

Dr. Burgess, will you be good enough to give us a rundown on the various types of censuses that you plan to take during the coming fiscal year? You have certain censuses for which money is requested in the budget, but there are others that will be of the sample type that you take under the heading of salaries and expenses, I believe. Mr. BURGESS. Yes.

Mr. PRESTON. Would you give us the number of those that you propose to take under the heading of salaries and expenses?

Mr. BURGESS. What we call surveys?

Mr. PRESTON. Yes. But let us have them now.

Mr. BURGESS. Those are outlined in our fuller statement here.
Mr. PRESTON. I want them now.

BUSINESS STATISTICS

Mr. BURGESS. Under the head of business statistics, we have a national survey of retail trade, which is issued in two stages; that is, an advance report issued within 10 days, and a larger sampling in greater detail issued later in the month.

Mr. PRESTON. What is the next one?

Mr. BURGESS. And a smaller monthly survey providing an estimate of inventories of selected types of retail stores.

Mr. PRESTON. Inventories, retail stores.

Mr. BURGESS. Then there is a survey providing physical inventories of used cars held by used-car dealers.

Mr. PRESTON. All right, the next?

Mr. BURGESS. There is a monthly survey of wholesale sales and inventories of all merchant wholesalers.

Mr. PRESTON. Yes.

Mr. BURGESS. An estimate of distributer's stocks of canned food, based on five selected dates. Finally, we have an item for fiscal 1956, the 1955 annual retail survey. This includes a regional breakdown of the retail sales; comprehensive coverage of year-end inventories for all types of retail stores; and a report on consumer credit outstanding at the end of the year.

Mr. PRESTON. Is that a separate item?

Mr. BURGESS. This is really the year end retail report, including the several items.

Mr. PRESTON. Consumers' credit?

Mr. BURGESS. Consumer credit; and an estimate of the number of retail establishments in business at the end of the year, etc.

Mr. PRESTON. Estimates of the number of retail establishments in business?

Mr. BURGESS. Retail establishments, yes.

Mr. PRESTON. All right.

Mr. BURGESS. That is what we call business statistics.

INDUSTRIAL STATISTICS

Now, we have industrial statistics, primarily manufacturers.
Mr. PRESTON. Of manufacturing?

Mr. BURGESS. Yes. We have a series of monthly, quarterly, and annual reports on various commodities. I do not know how many of each of those—we have 65 commodity surveys covering about 2,000 commodities.

We also have an annual survey of manufactures that we are asking funds for; that is to cover information similar to, but in less detail than, the complete census. This survey is to cover the calendar year 1955.

Mr. PRESTON. That is still under salaries and expenses?

Mr. BURGESS. This is all under salaries and expenses. This is in the industrial statistics category, this last group I have mentioned.

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS

Then we have the agricultural statistics.

Mr. PRESTON. Is that a sampling process in agriculture?

Mr. BURGESS. This is the collection and compilation of cotton ginning reports. The schedules run monthly starting in August. Mr. Preston. That is an annual operation?

Mr. BURGESS. This is biweekly from August.

Mr. PRESTON. That is taken every year, I mean?

Mr. BURGESS. Yes; this has been running for a long time.

Mr. PRESTON. Yes; I realize that.

Mr. BURGESS. Yes. There is no other agriculture survey under "Salaries and expenses."

FOREIGN TRADE AND VESSELS SHIPPING STATISTICS

We have a report. I think you are asking about all reports. We compile the official foreign trade and vessels shipping statistics report, or rather a series of monthly reports, covering exports, imports, and shipping. This is monthly report.

POPULATION AND HOUSING STATISTICS

And then population and housing-this is quite a detailed list, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. PRESTON. We usually talk about this business on a general basis without taking it up item by item and finding out just what you are doing; that is why I wanted to get it in one place so we can find out exactly.

Mr. BURGESS. Yes.

Mr. PRESTON. What was the last one you mentioned, population and housing?

Mr. BURGESS. Population and housing statistics.

Mr. THOMAS. That is a new item?

Mr. BURGESS. No, we are expanding that, but under the population and housing there is a current population survey, a monthly survey, which has been going on a long time.

Mr. THOMAS. Yes.

Mr. BURGESS. Since about 1940. This comes under the general head of the monthly Commerce and Labor Departments' release on employment and unemployment, also referred to as the monthly reports on the labor force; that is the one where we are asking for an increase in the appropriation. In connection with this report on

employment and unemployment, we take a survey, starting in with 25,000 households each month and getting data month by month. We have a schedule providing in some months for obtaining other information, such as personal income; we get a lot of information that is based on the monthly current population survey, as we call it.

The biggest thing we get out of the monthly figures is unemployment and employment for the Nation as a whole.

Mr. PRESTON. What about the Bureau of Labor Statistics; do they not do that same thing?

Mr. BURGESS. No. We have a combined report which brings out the difference between what we get and what they get. We have been getting household reports, getting from householders how many people are working, how many hours they work, and getting from them the number of self-employed, the employment of domestic servants and unpaid family workers, in agricultural as well as nonagricultural lines. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has a report of wage and salary workers in establishments. They get figures from each manufacturer in the case of manufacturers; the report is sent in by mail, by the company, to various State offices, principally the offices of the State department of labor and in some cases other agencies, and the States compile these reports and send the results to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That gives a figure which is probably better on the aggregate manhours worked and the amount of payroll. Those results are published along with Census Bureau results in the joint reports; that is to say, statistics from both points of view are presented together.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics figures cover only employees, but do not include the self-employed and do not include those engaged in agriculture.

Mr. PRESTON. What else, Mr. Burgess?

Mr. THOMAS. Looking at this I see you have 21,000 in 230 areas; that is, about 90 households taken in each area?

Mr. BURGESS. That is a sample. We have on our staff samplers who are expert, who pick out the representative spots; the reports apply to the entire country with a measurable margin of variation. Mr. THOMAS. Do you have a sample questionnaire available covering the questions you ask?

Mr. BURGESS. I do not know if we have a sample questionnaire; do we, Mr. Alexander?

Mr. ALEXANDER. This is the new type of questionnaire [indicating] that we are using for the monthly report.

Mr. PRESTON. What is the next item, Mr. Burgess?

STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT STATISTICS

Mr. BURGESS. We now come to State and local government statistics. The current annual report gives the financial statistics of each State government, and of cities of over 25,000 population.

Those include the expenditures, revenues, debt, employment, payroll. That report also covers a sample of the small units as well as all of the large cities and all the States to give estimated totals for the whole country.

We are asking to have the report expanded, by the use of a larger sample covering the year 1955 more complete than the usual annual survey so we will be able to get total figures for each State as a whole;