Arizona weekly citizen., 1890-12-27
aENsus hED POPULATION

CENSUS AND POPULATION.
 Census bulletin No. I6 gives the po- pulatioD of the United States on June 1. .Sg0, as shown by the final count of persons and families, exclusive of white persons in Indian Territory, Indians on rs=ervadons, and Alaska, Fas 62622, ,25O; including these persons the population Mi probably reach ID round numbers 63,O00Gc0. In 1880 the population was 5o.l5j..S3. The absolute increase of the pcrUiation in the ten years intervening was T., ,=GG, ,4G7, and the percentage of in crease was 2466. ID 1870 the population Was stated as 38.558,371. According to these figures the absolute increase in t.e decade between 1870 and 1880 was 1l.591,4I2, ana thepercentags of increase was 30.OS.
 Upon their face these figures show that the population has increased be- tween 1880 and 1890 S69O55 more than between 1870 and 1880, while the rate of increase has apparently diminished from 30O6 ts 2+S6 per cent. If these figures were derlved from correct data, they would be disappointing. Such a reduct- ticn in the rate of increase in the face of the heavy immigration during the past ten years would argue diminu- ton in the fecundity of the population or corresponding increase in its death rate. These figures are, however, easily explained when the character of the data used is understood. It is well known, the fact having been demon strated by extensive and thorough in- vestigatiOn, that the census of 1870 was grossly deficient in the southern states, So much So as not only to give an exag- gerated rate Of increase of the popula- tiOn between 1870 and 1880 in these states. but to alfectsvery materially the rate of increase in the country at large
 These omissions were not the fault nor were they within the control of the census office. The census Of 1870 was taken under a law which the Superin- tendent, General Francis 4. Walker characterized as clumsy, anticipated and baroarOus." The census office had no power over its enumerators save a barren protest, and thIs right was even quss- toned in some quarters. In referring to these emissions the Superintendent of the Tenth Census said in his report in re- lation to the taking of the census in South Carolina: Ut follows, as a con- cluEiCn of the highest authority, either that the census of 1870 was grossly de- fective in regard to the whole of the state or some considerable parts thereof. or else thao the census of 1880 was fraudulent" Those, therefore, who be- Heve in the accuracy and honesty of the Tenth Census-and that was thoroughly established-must accept the other alternative offered by General Walker. namely, that the Ninth Census wa. grossly defective" What was true of South Carolina was also true, in greater or less degree, of all the southern states.
 There is, of course, no means of ascsr taining accurately the extent of these omissions, but an approximation to it | may bs obtained by the following method.
 It is fair to assume that the rates of increase Of population of the northern states between 1860 and 1870 and be- tween 1870 and 1880 were related to one another in a population similar to the corresponding rates in the northern states during the same periods. In the | torLa 'seuthern states Ls here included the two Nirzinias the two Carolinas. Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi. LJuisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee an Kentucky. The census of 1870 is known or is suspected to be deficient in ali these states. In the other states and territories there is nosuspicion of in comp.eteness- The population of the southern states in 1860, 1870, and 1880 was as follows:
 Io0J.--.-..-......... l0,259,016
 Aott---- -..-...... ll.20u4ll
 looJ.---- 15,257,393
 The population of the other states and l territories in 1550, 1870, and 1880 was as follows: