The U.S. Constitution mandates that a Census, which is a count of everyone living in the United States, be taken every 10 years. The next one is in 2010. The law requires your participation and it takes less than 10 minutes to complete. The personal information you share during the Census is protected by federal law. Census data collected are used to make decisions about what community services to provide, how to distribute Congressional seats to states and to distribute billions of dollars in federal funds to local, state and tribal governments each year. Make sure you are counted in 2010.
William Byron Way was born in 1858 in the Elim community and once served as the editor of the Ludowici News. He wrote for years for many newspapers in the area as a humorist. He died in 1934. I want to share some of what he wrote about the Census taker.
“The Census taker tangled me up. He said he had come to take my senses and I told him I didn’t have any, never did have. Then he said that the government sent him and if I didn’t answer the questions he would have me put in jail, and here we go:
Q. How old are you? I don’t know.
Q. Was the day of your birth never recorded? My daddy wrote it down on a blank page in the Bible but I got hold of the book and wore it out, trying to learn how to dodge the devil.
Q. Are you married or single? Married. Did you ever see a fool single if anyone would have him?
Q. How many children have you? Not any. My wife has all of them.
Q.Have you any stock? Yes, a grasshopper and a boy, Dixie.
Q. Are you a farmer? Yes.
Q. What kind of crops do you grow mostly? Crab grass and weeds.
Q. Did you curtail expenses? Yes.
Q. How? By not working the crop a lick.
Q. Do you cooperate with your neighbors? Yes.
Q. How? By borrowing from them as long as I can and then buying all they have on credit and never paying them.
Q. Is there anything else you would like to state to the government? No, that department knows too much about my things already, inasmuch as they take half of my stuff every year for taxes.
And the Census taker said, ‘I’m ready to go now, but I want to impress on your mind that the first thing you told me when I arrived was the truth, for you do not have any sense at all.’ ”
William Byron Way was born in 1858 in the Elim community and once served as the editor of the Ludowici News. He wrote for years for many newspapers in the area as a humorist. He died in 1934. I want to share some of what he wrote about the Census taker.
“The Census taker tangled me up. He said he had come to take my senses and I told him I didn’t have any, never did have. Then he said that the government sent him and if I didn’t answer the questions he would have me put in jail, and here we go:
Q. How old are you? I don’t know.
Q. Was the day of your birth never recorded? My daddy wrote it down on a blank page in the Bible but I got hold of the book and wore it out, trying to learn how to dodge the devil.
Q. Are you married or single? Married. Did you ever see a fool single if anyone would have him?
Q. How many children have you? Not any. My wife has all of them.
Q.Have you any stock? Yes, a grasshopper and a boy, Dixie.
Q. Are you a farmer? Yes.
Q. What kind of crops do you grow mostly? Crab grass and weeds.
Q. Did you curtail expenses? Yes.
Q. How? By not working the crop a lick.
Q. Do you cooperate with your neighbors? Yes.
Q. How? By borrowing from them as long as I can and then buying all they have on credit and never paying them.
Q. Is there anything else you would like to state to the government? No, that department knows too much about my things already, inasmuch as they take half of my stuff every year for taxes.
And the Census taker said, ‘I’m ready to go now, but I want to impress on your mind that the first thing you told me when I arrived was the truth, for you do not have any sense at all.’ ”