The morning call., 1891-06-07
THE DRIFT OF POPULATION.

Observers were surprised to find, when
the final tables of Mr. POrter's census were
footed up. that in the East the gain of 1890
over 1880 was chiefly in the cities, and that
the rural districts had not increased in pop
ulatlon in anything like a corresponding
ratio. Thus the population of New ork
State was given as 5,997,S53, as against
5,0S2. $50 in 1880, the increase being, in round
numbers, $4,000 In ten years. But Of this
increase 73S, 80 was contributed by seven
cities OF the first class and the remainder by
smaller towns, the population of the rural
districts showing pretty uniform falling
off. Population, and consequently political
power, are passing in New York out of the
hands of the farmers into the hands of the
denizens of the cities.
II does not appear to be so in this State.
Here, assuming the census figures TO be APP
Droximately correct, the country gained
more than the cities in the decade of
lSS0-9O. Even in San Francisco the growth
of population is reported as much less than
was expected, and, with the exception of
San Jose. Los Angeles. Fresno and few
other exceptional cities. the towns show a
very small increase, or an actual falling off.
Our growth during the past ten years has
been in the rural districts.
The contrast with New York is suscep-
tible of a simple explanation. Mankind
drifts to the spots where subsistence is
easiest. People desert the rural districts in
New York because the profits Of agriculture
in that State are small and the lot of the
farmer is hard. They thrOng the cities be-
cause labor is. on the whole, better remu-
nerated in them than on farms. and life is
af IN he sSt
alton is reversed. There is almost always a
more active demand for labor in the rural
districts of California than in the towns.
At periodical intervals throngs of unem-
ployed laborers are seen in this and other
cities, but steady, sober man can get work
in the county. We have in this State few
manufactures. In manufacturing industry
we are handicapped by our proximity to the
East and by the narrowness of the market
we can supply. But we are large producers
of raw materials, and they are Of a class
which commands money everyw here.
Hence young men who come here from the
East, or who grow to manhood in this
State, pitch their tents in the country
rather than in the cities for the same rea-
son that the rising generation in New York
resort to the cities in preference TO the
country.
The law which governs the grow tn of
population in the various countries of the
world is not yet thoroughly understood.
Everybody understands that a country
which receives annually a large foreign
immigration-like the United States and the
Argentine Rrpuhlic-must increase more
rapidly in numbers than a country which re-
lies on natural increase. And no demon
Cfr9tiOn iS IN SbOvy thu
where wages are high and living cheap
should increase more rapidly in popu-
latiCn than country in which wages are
low and living not always ideal. But there
are some remarkable examples where these
truisms seem to fail to apply. Wages are
low in Belgium. and life on the whole is
gloomy, but the population increases at the
rate of Lilo per year, and has shown a gain
or 40 per cent in the last forty-fye years.
The movement in British India is still more
striking. In 1881 the population Of British
India proper and OF the feudatory provinces
was 2j7,O000 900; the census just taken
shows a population of $50 COO, 900, an In
crease Of over II per cent in ten years, yet
unless all travellers are banded together in
conspiracy to misstate the facts, the condi-
ton of the HindOO peasant is one OF acute
poverty and periodical fsmines have only
been ayerted by the construction of an in
tricate system of Government railroads.
The wages of a farm labOrer are about fif-
teen cents day, and yet the price of wheat
on the farm seldom falls below fifty cents a
bushel.
1t is evident that in this matter of the
growth of population there are some factors
which are not known TO our philosophy. and
that numbers enot an unyarying key to
prosperity Irishmen are pretty generally
agreed that Ireland has been in wretched
state for half a century. They have been
inthe habit OF pointing out that tho popula-
ton of the island declined from $500, 900 in
1910 to :, 100000 in 1880, but the new census
credits Ireland with a population Of nearly
100000. Does this imply that the causes of
the falling off between 1910 and 1880 have
cna spd 10 nnerata2