Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-11-09
THE FAMILY IN THE CENSUS.
Interesting Facts Cleaned from the
Census Tables.

Tie CasTent.
! One OF the most instructive, consistent
/ and reliable tables supplied by the census
/ of 1880 is that showing the average size
! OF families in the United States, ana 10
| each of the States, at that date and IN the
| three preceding decades. II illustrates
/ the effect upon the natural increase Oh our
| population, Of the progress OF settie'
! ment, and of other changes OF CONDITIONS
| 1t points US TO some OF the causes
| which govern the numerical advance
| of a people. It shows strlkiEgly Ihe
| preparatory forces which come INTO
/ play upon the heels of g destructive war
| 1t compares. succinetly, the history ol
! the individual family for 80 years IN :
/ communities, united under one general
| government, yet in their Internal poIltlcai
/ life almost as independent as an equAl
number Of European states, anG en-
! bracing a greater diversity OF SOIL ana
| climate than can be found or that cOnu-
nent. The single paper upon Whlcn thls
exhibit is presented is CONDENSED
volume.
The number of persons to family was
In 1890, 5.56; in 1860, 5.2o; III loiU, O'VS'
| and in 1880, 5.04. This shows a-steady de-
crease in the United States, as whoie,
of O.52, or about 81 per cent. But the
rate of decline was not steady. In the
first decade it was almost exactly . per
cent, or more than halfOf the entire loss.
In the second it was Clio per cent? while
in the third ii further fell to little under
l per cent. For the principal ezRlana-
ton of this fluctuation we must look TO
the war. The fact, long ago established
by statisticians, of the impulse given to
the rate OF the natural increase
by great cataclysms, such as
war, pestilence and famine, Is
eXemplified by a comparison among the
several States according 10 the degree IN
which they relatively suffered from the
devaStatiOns of 1S6l-65. In the Southern
States, which were the seat of operations,
or which lost most heavily in proportion,
in men and property, the normal strength
of the family, which declined in the first
decade at about the same rate with the
rest of the Union, in the third, from 1870
10 1880, when recuperative power trst
began to show itself, actually increased.
This positive reversal of the downward
movement does not, it is true, appear
in all the States of the late Confederacy,
but we may say, roughly speaking, III
avoidance of detail OF figures, that the
check is far more marked in each and all
of those States than in any of the Northern
States east of the Mississippi. In Georgia,
for instance, the family rose from 4.9S TO
800, in South Carolina from ACT to 4.93, in
Mississippi from 496 to 5.26, in Virginia
from 5.29 to $50, and so on. Tennessee
shows a slight loss, from 5.44 to 5.3S, and
North Carolina from $40 to OH; but
Louisiana, Florida, Arkansas and
Alabama all show heavy gains,
and Texas slight one. In
each and all of the old Northern
States the decline is greater than the
average in the whole Union, showing that
at the South has been arrested the ten
dency of the family to fall off in number.
There is n slight define of the rate at the
North also, taken as a unit, due, doubt
less, to the same cause. Some Northern
States, on the other hand, show an in
crease in the rates, the average family In
Illinois, for example, beng go in 1880,
against 5.35, 5.43 and oil at the three
preceding enumerations. New York,
Ohio and Massachusetts, again, have
somewhat checked the rate of their de-
cline.
The effect of the war in this regard may
now, perhaps, be said to have been near
ly ''discOunted." That influence elimin-
ated, tor the future-and for the present
as relates to those States which so far we
have thrown out of our calculatiOns-we
must seek other causes as governing the
members Of the household.
In the mining States Of the far West
the family at first was hardly known.
The "FOrty-niners" were as desolate in
their domestic surroundings as the
builders of Rome, although their dance
around cast-Off bonnet was a more de-
cOrous, if less romantic, expression of
their loneliness, than the raid on the Sa-
bines. The California family, beginning
in 1850, at 3.7T-say three-ffths of the
average in the UniOn-rOse in 1860 TO the
very slight improvement of 3.S5, and then
as society rapidly gained in stability
and culture, to 4.35 and 4.87 in
1870 and 1880. Montana had in
1870 even an humber start, rising from
2.92 to 394 in 1880. We observe some
thing like this, in a less marked degree
throughout the newStateS OF the tar West;
the solitary pioneers being gradually re-
infOrced by emlgrating households, among
whom they were themselves absorbed by
alliance. The case of Utah is excep-
tiOnal. The average Mormon family, 80
years below the ratio of the Union, rose
steadily, unaffected by ''malice, domestic
or foreign ievy," from 400 to 5.07; in the
latter figure slightly exceeding the rest of
the country Besides Utah, California,
Idaho, Washington and Wyoming,
are the only ones or the torty-seYen-
State, Territory or district-tO show an
absolute gain within the period for which
returns are given. The loss, during this
as Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont,
where population is at a standstill, and
where the muster-rOll OF the fireside has
within the generation fallen off about one
sixth, or nearly twice the average rate of
decline. In Maine the family has lost
1.06, in New Hampshire 0.S3, and in YER
mont 0.S1. In no other States but New
York, Ohio, Alabama and Indiana has the
decline reached GO.