Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-09-26
The Growth of the United States.
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The Superintendent of the late census
General Francis A. Walker, Contributes
an article to the October Century under
the above caption. The writer's studies
and labors in experimenting the last
two census reports have directed his at.
tentiOn continuously and particularly to
the marvellous growth of the country
as shown in every department and in
every direction in the ten successive cen.
sus reports. In this article General
Walker invites attention to the condition
of the country st each successive gen.
Grafton OF interval of thirty years. be-
ginning with 1890 and ending with 1880.
leaving the census figures, for the most
part to tell their own story.
The United States in 1890 comprised
a tract Of about 500 600 square miles.
lying between the Atlantic, the Missis-
sippi, Canada and the Gulf Its popu.
lation was 3. 929 pa being about 4 g ia
habitants to the square mile of the terri
tory of that date, about 3 inhabitants
to the square mile Of the territory of to.
day. This population was almost wholly
on this side of the Alleghenies. About
125. 900 pioneers were to be found in
Kentucky and Tennessee, and $4,000
in the Ohio valley. There
were then but six cities with a
population of S 600 or more, and their
aggregate population was ne-thirtieth of
that of the country, or about equal to
that OF Newark Of to-day. The census
of 1920 shows a territory extended to the
Pacific comprising 10000 square
miles and having 0 633, S22 inhabitants.
The area CT settled territory has doubled,
and the great Mississippi valley has
already population of 2, 900, 900. About
one-twentieth of the population lives in
the thirteen cities having 5000 or more
inhabitants and an aggregate population
little less than that of Chicago of to-
day. The population had smaller ad-
mixture of persons of foreign birth than
ever before or since, and the wealth of
the country was distributed among the
many.
The seventh census, taken in 1850.
shows a territory swollen by acquisi-
tons from Mexico TO nearly 5000 900
square miles, and containing a popula-
ton of %, 067, 1862, or about ~ people to
the square mile. Only about one.third
of this domain was settled, making the
average density in the populated region
to be % to the square mile A most
striking fact shown by the census is the
increase of city population. The thirteen
cities of 1920 with s, 600 or more inhab-
ltants have, in 1850, become eighty. five,
with an aggregate population OF nearly
5000, 600. Instead of one-twentieth, one
eighth of the population reside in cities
of this grade, and for the first
time the census records city
Of 10000 inhabitants. By 1880 our
territory has been increased by the ces.
sion Of $4,000 square miles by Mexico
and 577, 900 by Russia and our popula-
ton had grown to over so, 155, 783. The
eighty-fve cities of 5000 increased to
265, with an aggregate population of
II, 308, 756, or % 5 per cent. of the total
population of the country. Four-ffths
of the population now inhabit that vast
region west of the Alleghenies, which
at the first census returned less than 15O,-
000 This increase in population, great
as it is, falls far behind the material de-
velOpment of resources and wealth
which has marked this ninety years of
phenomenal national growth This ma
terlal growth cannot be shown within
the limits Of magazine or newspaper
article, but it is set forth in painstaking
detail in the great tones in which the
mines Of census information are buried.