The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-07-23

ok0o VI bDou S0coEOu, ma ~ un00t oOueU-
ton new md vast sources a wealth, easoE rise
has not been wanting to promote the erow4 Of
their cities and towns No country In the
world, Great Britain not excepted, has sue
ceeded more signally in directing its natural
advantages to the promotion Of commerce. Its
| abundance of water power has been promptly
seized upon for manufactures Of every descrip-
| ton. Machinery of the most perfect kind has
been applied to all their processes, ecOnomizing
labor, facilitating locomotion, and gliding in
surmounting those difficulties which have
ever impeded the progress of young ma
tons The gigantic power 0fsteam has nowhere
been more abundantly and usefully employed
in the mine and la the mill on its rivers and
its lakee. its canals and its railroads. going the
work of millions of hands, and OF human and
animal sinews, yet without creating vacuum
in the market for labor, or diminishing at all,
perceptlbly, the rewards Of industry In any
portion OF its territory. From 1880 to 1640, In
period Of only ten years, the increase in the
population Of twenty Of the largest towns in
the United States, from New York to ST. Louis,
inclusive, was 55 per cent, and we shall show
hereafter that this rate of increase has been
fully Sustained. especially 10 those situated in
the region of the great lakes; towards which
the influx of settlers has lately been drawn, both
from Europe and FROM other portions of Ameri-
ca herself Yet she has been enabled not only
to employ prOfitably the natural increase
which has taken place in her population, bat
also to absorb, without apparent effort or
Inconvenience, the vast tide Of emigration
which Europe has for years been directing
to her shores She possesses foreign COM
merce second only to that of Great Britain, o
powerful mercantile marine, a we'll appointed
and powerful feet-every element in fact,
which is required to insure nations greatness
All this she has achieved mainly through the
well directed energies and the persevering
hardihood of her citizens. whose guiding rule Of
action has ever been to look and struggle for
ward, whilst elder nations have been content to
loiter upon the beaten track Of mediocrity. and
hesitate and count the cost of every step of pro-
gress beyon that beaten track.
Years ago. before the amazing develope ment
of her resources which we have witnessed dur
ing the past ten years American statesmen and
writers saw and predicted the future. and at
tributed ii mainly to the facilities which had
been provided in her railways aud canals, for /.
the encouragement of the commercial and agrl-
cultural industry Of her population. One of
these, Mr.. Scott, of Ohio, in an able series of
articles on the internal trade of the country,
published in 1643 in Hunts Merchants Maya
ssae. made the following extraordinary calcula
ton OF the probable rate of increase of that
II 06s 666. Allowing its future increase to be at
the rate of thrty.three and onethird per cent for
each succeeding period of ten years, we shall num-
Der in 1910, 30S, 10l SAL Past experen, warrants
number was 5, 927, S27. = = But, lest hundred
years eeem too long to be relied on, in calculation
having so many clements, let us see how matters
will stana fifty years from 1910, fortyseven years
from this time. The ratio Of increase we have
adopted cannot be objected to as extravagant fer
this period. In 1890, according to that ratio, our
number viii be u 100000 or these % 900 900 will
be fair allowance for the Atlantic slope. Of the
repno pio MAJ osid nf
the Rocky Mountains, leaving $4,000, 900 for the
great valley within the States.
This will naturally strike most persons as an
extravagant calculation. 1t ignores, in the
first place, the natural tendency of popula-
ton, increasing il density, and Of which large
masses are congregatiDg in cities and towns, to
assume higher rate of mortality. 1t over
looks, too, an important, but well ascertained
fact, that the climate Of some portions Of the
American continent is unfavOrable to longevity
and to the maintenance of the human species In
its abolig inal gor and hardihood. The native
born Yankee rarely possesses the corporeal sta
nina of his ancestry of few generations past
But on the other hand. it must be borne in
mind that America has of late received many
additional elements of strength, which were not
within the contemplation of the writer who thus
estimated her future progress. For the twenty
years from 1926 to 1874, upwards of year sub
sequent to his estimate being formed, the total
emigration to that country from the United
Kingdom amounted only to 569, 633 adults. the
a, crage being 2S 4Sl per annum. In the two
yeas Of 1851 and 1852 we find, from the return
of the Government Emigration Commissioners,
that the emigration from the United Kingdom
amounted to 5l1 ,6lS adults, or very nearly
equal to the entire emigration of the twenty
years ending in 1874 The impetus given by the
discovery OF the golden treasures of California
to emigration. not only from the country and
from Europe. but also from the countries Of the
Pacific, could not have been foreseen by the
writer in question, otherwise he would certainly
have set down more than 100000 for the
population west Of the Rocky Mountains in
1870
Let US, however, come to the actual results.
so far as population is concerned, of the decade
from l840 10 1850. We take our data here from
"a Communication from the Secretary Of the
Treasury, transmitting, in compliance with o
resolution Of the Senate Of March 8, 1851, the
the Report of Israel d. Andrews, Consul of the
United States for Canada and New Brunswick,
on the Trade Of the Great Lakes and Rivers of
the British North American Colonies" printed
at Washington, by order of the United States
government in 1853, to which is added most
complete statistics Of the growth of that coun-
try itself.
la 1870 {as made up TO Sept. 800 the population
OF the Union was. ..,....... IL 0oa 453
lSa1 ..... Observation-Disclosures 6l2507
Is42 49,. ...'..s....,. .lo ,lo2oel
1913 Ito June 30) ..............ls,69 a,5l5
1874 ............. .l9,24l go
l345 ................l 9,754,72j
Is46 .................2 0,227,Ts0
lSA7 .........-......2 0,sT0,sS5