Today's Opinions

By Toni C. Collins
Levy County Historian
In March of 1933, as many as 15 million people - a quarter of the nation’s workers - had no job and no hope of finding one. Factories lay idle, storefronts vacant, fields plowed under. State governments, cities and towns had exhausted their meager relief funds.

By Toni C. Collins
Levy County Historian
The Federal government has conducted a census or account of its population every year since 1790. In that year the census takers, who were U.S. Marshals on horseback, counted 3.9 million inhabitants.
Why did the government undertake such a huge project? As America expanded, the nation’s interests grew more complex and the government needed to plan for that new growth.