Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-01-25
MIGRATION FROM MAINE AND
VERMONT,
From the New York Evening Post.l

From the New York Evening Post.l
The recent publication in Maine of a
local history entitled "Eastport and Pas
samaquoddy" illustrates afresh the tend
ency of the Yankee to abandon the home
of his ancestors, the list of subscribers to
the volume including representatives from
% States, one territory, the District of
Columbia, and three Canadian provinces,
and containing names once familiar in
the region, but now no longer found
PASSPORT incident the text for an article
upon the exodus of the children of Maine,
laying stress upon the fact that, while
the census of 1880 showed that there
were living in the United States 745,272
persons who had been born in Maine,
only 563,0l5 remained in the State of
their nativity, the remainder, who con-
stituted nearly One-quarter of the whole
number, having settled elsewhere. The
Press points out that a very large pro-
portion of the emigrants, something over
one-third, had gone to Massachusetts,,
which 1t considers not unnatural, in view
of the fact that less than 20 years ago
Maine was still Il part of Massachusetts.
If it had pursued the analysis still fur
Their, it would have found that the law of
migration along the same parallel of lati-
tude is strikingly exemplified in the case
of Maine. While Ohio in 1880 had only
1856 natives of Maine and Indiana but
llG5, Michigan reported 5079; there were
1861 in Wisconsin, as against 745l in Ill
inois, whose population is more than
twice Wisconsin's; l2,5ll in Minnesota,
against 1872 in Iowa, with twice Mime
sofas population and more in Washing
ton territory, which corresponds in posi-
ton on the Pacific coast to Maine on the
Atlantic. than in any other territory.
The Press discusses the causes of this
migration, and thinks that it has been
largely due to the spirit of restlessness
which pervades the " hole nation, brought
about by the unsettlii g influences of the
civil war, the great revolution in railroad
building, and the openings afforded by
the new territories. But Il consultation
of the corresponding figures in the census
of 1850 will show the Portland paper
that there has not been a very rapid ac-
celaration of the movement since the out
break of the civil war. In 1860 there were
in the United States G7G,066 persons who
had been born in Maine, of whom 1l6,-
036 lived outside Maine-being IL per
cent. AS against a per cent. in 1880. In
the case of Vermont the variation had
been still less, the proportion of natives
of that State found outside of it being a
trifle above II per cent. in 1860, and a
trifle below AZ per cent. in 1880. The
Press does not mention one possible cause
of the emigration from New England
which has come to be recognized in Yer
mont-that is, the fact that the New
England papers have always been in the
habit of publishing the most glowing ac-
counts of the good fortune of New Eng
landers who go out West, while seldom
even mentioning the many cases of peo-
pie who come to grief by the change,
the result being that young people grow
up with the idea that the first thing for
them to do is to leave the State of their
birth as soon as they possibly can. An
exceptionally well-informed editor in
Vermont holds that the Vermont papers
have done as much as anything to drive
people from Vermont, and he has been
using his influence with his brother edi-
editors to persuade them to stop running
down their own State. Possibly there
IS room for the same sort Of reform in
Maine.