The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-09-23
philadelphia press.1
lPMlauelphla PreSs.
The Growth of the United States

The Growth of the United States.
The superintendent of the late census, Gen
eral Francis A. Walker, contributes an article
to the October Century under the above cap
ton. The writer's studies and labors in SUPER
intending the last two census reports have di-
rected his attention continuously and partiou-
larly to the marvellous growth of the country,
as show in every department and in every
direction in the ten successive census reports.
In this article General Walker invites atten-
ton to the condition of the country at each
successive generation or interval of thirty
years, beginning with 1850 and ending with
1880, leaving the census figures for the most
part to tell their own story.
The United States in 1890 comprised tract
of about $4,000 square miles, lying between
the Atlantic, the Mississippi, Canada and the
Gulf. Its population was 3,929214 being
about 40 inhabitants to the square mile of the
territory of that date, about / 8 inhabitants to
the square mile of the territory of to-day. This
population was almost wholly on this side of
the Aileghanies. About 125 900 pioneers were
10 pc found In Kentucky and Tennessee, and
!4,OOo IN the Ohio valley. There were then
put SIX cities with population of 5000 or
nuoAo, anu tuolr aggregate pOpulatlOn was one
thirtieth of that of the country, or about equal
TO thai OF Newark of to-day. The census of
lo2U shows territory extended to the Pacific
comprising &c 0Cc0 square miles and having
9,b53,022 inhabitants. The area of settled ter
ritory has doubled, and the great Mississippi
valley has already population of 2CCJ,Cc3.
About ope-twentieth of the population lived in
the thirteen citieJ, having 5000 or more inhabi-
tants and an aggregate population little less
tnan that OF chicago OF to-day. The population
nad a smaller admixture 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 acquisitions from Mexico
to nearly 100000 square miles and containing
population of 23,c57 1852 or about III people
to the square mile. Only about one-third of
this domain was settled, making the average
density in the populated region to be 1877 to
the square mile. A most striking fact shown
by the census is the increase of city population.
The thirteen cities of 1920. with 5000 or more
inhabitants, have in 1850 become eighty-five,
with an aggregate population of nearly 3,000,-
coo. 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 50O,C~o inhabitants. BY 1880 our territory
had been increased by the cession of 1900
square mill BY Mexico and 577,Ct) by Russia,
and our population had grown to over so, 155,-
1888. The eighty-fve cities of 5000 inhabitants
had lncrea a to 285, with an aggregate popu-
lation of IL ,30S, 756, 22.5 per cent of the to-
tai population of the country. Four-ffths of
the population now inhabt that vast region
west Of the Alleghanies, which at the first CEN
sus returned less than 10000. This increase
IN population, great as it is, fails far behind
the material development of resources and
wealth which has marked this ninety years
OF phenomenal national growth. This ma
terial growth cannot be shown within the linn
mlts OF magazine or newspaper article, but it
is set forth in painstaking detail in the great
tones in which the mines of census informa-
ton are buried.