The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-02-07
TOWN VERSUS COUNTRY.
Comparative tsrowth of Urban and Rura
Population.

Comparative tsrowth of Urban and Rural
Population.
iScribneS's Monthly for January con-
tains an article ON the comparative in
crease of urban and rural population in
the United States; but it only gives the
chief cities, leaving out the large town
and village population. The Cincinnati
Commercial has tried to supply this
omission in the case of ten States, and
It points oi1t the following among the
consequences of excessive urban growth:
1. Concentration of population.
2. Concentration of wealth.
3. Breaking down the great middle
class.
4. The increase of the poor at very
much greater ratio than that of the popu-
lation.
8. The increase of the power of re-
allied wealth.
6. Increase of mortality and eifemin-
acy.
7. Increase of vice and crime.
8. Physical and moral degeneracy.
8. Increasing peril to free institutions.
Accurate statistics, carefully and hon
estly handled, are indispensable to full
understanding of our economical, social,
political, moral and educational rela-
tions. We have made somewhat tedi-
GUS scrutiny of the State of New York,
and separated the entire town popula.
tion from that of the purely rural, and
find that the grand aggregate to have
been in 1870, 1924, ,986, against 1852
BIT in 1850. We have now the follow
ing:
1870. 1850.
Total population. ........ 1882, ,750 3,097, ,394
Urban population. ....... 2,S24,986 1852 BIT
Rural population. ....... 1,557,773 1,415,077
Increase of total popula ton. ...... ,285, ,J65
Increase Of urban population. ...... LIZ, 500
Increase of rural population. 49,. 112,699
Increase per cent.-Total, 45; urban, IL;
rural 8.
A thorough analysis for the whole
State of Massachusetts gives rural in
crease during the two decades, of but
seven per cent, against an urban in
crease of ninety-two per cent. Were all
the town population of Pennsylvania
gathered up, the rural increase would be
found to have been about ten per cent. +,
and the urban 100 per cent. In Illinois,
comparatively new State that was
chiefly settled during the two decades,
we find thirteen cities and towns of over
1000 people in 1870 that can be COM
pared with 1850. The aggregates are:
State population. ....... 2,599,891 lao
Urban ................... 44S,475 &C. 1S7
Rural l...;;;.;......;.;. .. 2,O9l,4ie aa85, ,2S3 2S9
Increase of State population. ........ $751; 42l
| Increase of urban population. ....... 382, 2SS
| Increase Of rural population ....... 1906, 1873
Rural, 166 per cent; city, $40 per cent.
Were all the towns and villages Of the
State sifted out, the rural increase would
| be found to have been much less than
1855 per cent. Ohio is fair average be-
| tween the old and the new States. After
scanning all the townships of Ohio, and
separating the village, town and city
population from the grand total of the
State, we have reached the following re-
suits:
Urban population ....... 100000 48O, 000
Purely rural. -. 49,. 1,G55, 26O 1.5)O ,329
| Urban increase, .... 2p,000 j Sper ct.
Rural increase. .......... 164,9St u per ct
The aggregates for ten of the princi-
pal northwestern States are as follows
Ten States. ........... 90, ,ess, ,ie7 l2,iS2,o2l
Seventy cities. ......... 5,141,925 2,l9s,T
Cities deduct d.. 15,s46,si2 9,993Io7t
| Increase of population. ............ S,796, 13!
Increa 3 cf urban population. ...... 2,9i3,76
Increase of rnr i population .....;. h,S52 96'
Increase per cent. total popnl ton, So !
city, 1877; rural, So.
These States are New York, Massa
chusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio
Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin
and Michigan. The great lesson from
these facts is that efforts to prevent the
increase of vice and crime, and to miti
gate the calamities of poverty in oul
cities, should be increased in proportion
to the increase of concentration. The
philosophers and philanthropists Cal
study the problem at their leisure, ant
the more they study the more they vii
find it necessary to do in order to coun
teract the unfortunate results of thi
tendency of population.