National Republican., 1880-08-16
EXPLANATIoNs WHICH DO NOT Ex-
PLAIN.

ENPLASArIoNS WHICH DO NOT EX-
PLAIN.
The southern press is beginning o apollo
gize for the census and its surprising reve-
lations. Commenting upon the presumed
results of the census some time ago the
New Orleans Times said:
The growth of the northwest during the
last ten years has been phenomenal, and has
been favored by every external circumstances.
The south, on the contrary, has continually
felt the heavy hand OF disaster, and its good
name has been blackened by thousands Of par
tisan presses great scourge has once
swept over the country and carried off thou
sands of victims. A new system Of labor had
to be devised, and society has undergone
revolution of the most radical nature. II Ia,
therefore, wonderful that, despite these ad-
verse circumstances, the south has steadily
gained in wealth and population.
Truly, it is wonderful! Any advance of
the south in population would be cause for
congratulation, but when q section thus
drained devastated, cut off from the stream
of foreign immigration and weakened
by the negro exodus, advances in
population at double the ratio OF
Ohio, three times that of Michigan and
five times that of New England, the fig
ures, as the independent and cautious Bos-
ton Herald puts it, ado not look reason
sable"
The Augusta (Ga) Chronicle offers as an
explanation of the phenomenal returns the
greater fecundty of southern women. 1t
asserts that families are much larger in the
south than in the north. If this is to be
accepted rs q satisfactory explanation it
becomes necessary TO believe that it only
began to operate in 1870. Take South
Carolina, for instance. Her increase from
1920 to 1870 was at n rate of something
less than 7 per cent. per year, or 3i.2 per
cent. in fifty years. From 1870 to 1850 we
are asked to believe that her population has
gained by natural increaso-oxcess of births
over deaths-at the rate of 35 per cent. in
ten years. The women of the state must
then have taken to bearing children five
times as fast in the last decade as in the
decades from 1920 to 1870. We suppose
the Chronicle will not claim that such an
astonishing increase in fecundity is "a re-
suit of the war; If it is, it is one which
seems to have been universally accepted
Then what becomes of the theory that the
blacks have been dying Off since the wal
made them free? There has been some
grounds for believing that the colored pop
ulation would remain at least stationary
In the first place. when the older slave
states were breeding-pens for human cattle,
all possible encouragement was given to
the negro increase. Every slave child was
welcomed as q source of profit to the
owner. Under such circumstances the in
crease of the slave population from 1910 to
1850 was Is per cent faster than that oil
the whites 1t is certain that since the war
the negro has had no such encouragement
to increase. 1t is certain, also, that the
death.rate has been higher among them
than among the whites, and higher per.
haps, than it was under tho slave system
The vital statistics of all the cities of the
south prove that in them the ratio of deaths
among the colored population has been
nearly double that of the whites. Never
theless, in all the statistics we have seen
from the south there has been an excessive
increase of the cOiOred population.
The Virginia papers in their comments
upon the revelations of the census fall back
upon the assertion that the census of 1870
was incorrectly taken. We might leave
General WALKER to reply 10 This charge,
but we will take the liberty to point out
that there was every inducement TO enlarge
thenumbors in 1870, rather than tounderrate
them. The enumerator was paid so much
for each name taken. There were many in
stances of fraud discovered, in which men
sought to increase their pay by reporting
suppOsitious names In one district ofYir-
ginia we remember that whole pages were
taken from directory of south ern city TO
swell the return and increase the pay of the
enumerator The fraud attracted attention.
we believe, by the superabundance of
Smiths set down. In St. Louis it is now
conceded that 10000 names were fraudu-
lontly added in 1870, We do not see that
any thing will be gained by attacking the
census of 1870. The attack would have to
extend to every census since 1920, for the
ratio of increase claimed in the last decade
for Virginia is five times that made by the
state in any former decade from 1920 to
1870.
Let it also be noted that wherever in the
north and west the population has rapidly
increased, there has been corresponding
increase in wealth, The taxable property
in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois has increased
year by year in direct sympathy with the
increase in population, This has not been
the case in the south. In nostate has there
been an enormous increase Of wealth to cor
respond with that of population, In most
of them there has been decrease since
1870, if we may trust the returns of taxa
Bile property made from year year Take
South Carolina as n sample. Thereports Of
hercomplroller general show q sieody falling