Letter to Miss Eleanor Phinney from Nancy Gray, Librarian, Oct. 22, 1957

              Oct. 22, 195' 7

Miss. Elesnor Phinn~ y,

Executiv Secretary,

d111 t C! ervtce D1v son,

America Li~ ra y ssociation,

Chicago 11, Ill.

ear Aiss. Pinney:

~ t. is t e long delayed answer to y~ lr qu~. ttons

abo'lt t e readin'" Sl'rve' in Wtls . w lc ' Irs. In l" ey

r feT'''' ed t 8.

ince th . rvey w s not expected to 1-) e of inter st

Ollts ide of " his locality or certainly ont id e of the state,

it failed to explain that 42.2% of the population are

Ne roes, which are the lowest educational and econo~ ical

group in t e c1 ty. s explained in t1: _ art · · cles, the Negroes

were not included in t e s11rvey. T e 195' 0 c ns s do s not

give separate statt~ tics ~ y age, sex, e ucation or occu-p

tions of the whites and Negroes 0 Wilson. he census

figures were studied, b" t oun to e inadequate for the

wh te population only.

The interviewers did not select the residel'ltal zone of

t~ e city that they covered. e zones were assigned by the

committee. The interviewers pi~ ked at rand m the inter­viewees

in the assigned zone$ only according to age and sex.

It was i~ possib1e to select tnt rviewees accordinp to

occlJpatton or education. Ther. was no chan e of t ' e back­ground

of the interviewers inf1u ncing the s01ection of the

interviewees. The interviewe s were anybody in the a e and

sex group in' . he re ident a1 zone that co - lr. be found at -.

hO"' 1e.

We regr t that we cO' 11 not incll de the economic t · tus

of the inter 1e," e ~ s, 1 t we kn w 1" 0;' 1 other S1.1rv S in t'be

c'ty hat pnople rese ~ beinp asked the~ r inc ~ 8 ~~ i often

do not give a t ' e answer. owever, sin e all the res . e tia1

sections were even1 covered, we e, l th't the inter~ iewe~ s

were r'epres0nti've of the . i te popnla to 0 +- he ('; y.