The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1891-09-17
CENTER or POPULATION.
How It Shifts with Each Succeeding
Enumeration.

CENTER or POPULATION.
How It Shifts with Each Succeeding
Enumeration.
The center Of population in the United
States was located by the recent census
in southern Indiana. It's exact point,
in Decatur county, little west Of south
OF Greensburg, and twenty miles east OF
Columbus. Ind. has been marked by the
erection there Of q pillar OF limestone.
This is only the second time that one
OF these points, which have indicated
in such forcible manner the growth
OF our nation, has been marked by a
monument. There is still to be SEN, at
a spot about forty miles to the north
west OF Washington, d. c., a fat stone
with the words Centre of Population"
cut on it, which was placed there in
1870
Every observant person is aware that
the center of population shifts with
every new census. and that this move
ment has been from eastto west, some
times bending south and then again
north. but always trending westward.
One hundred years ago it was twenty
three miles east of baltimore, and
twenty years later it had moved to .
point forty miles northwest by west
from Washington.
In 1920 it was near Woodstock, Va !,
and in 1880 it was nineteen miles south
west Of Moorefield (now in West Vir.
ginia). In 1910 it was near Clarksburg,
Va, and ten years later it had nearly
reached Parkersburg. In 1860 the
center was twenty miles from Chilli
cothe, O., and in 1870 forty-eight miles
east by north of Cincinnati, O. In 1880
the center had returned to the same
latitude as in 1860, and in 1890 was To-
Gated as above described.
The popularity of the movement is
the adherence to the thirty-ninth paral-
Ell and the steady march westward at
the average rate of five miles a year,
or Ave hundred and Ave miles in a
century. But the greatest curiosity
expressed by the ordinary reader is to
find out how this center Of population
is determined. The explanation is not
by any means an easy one, and if the
official explanation in mathematical
language is given, it is quite incompre.
hensible.
Perhaps the answer is best arrived at
by putting supposititious case. If we
take plate Of wood or metal, four
inches square, and divide it into four
equal parts by two lines. it is evident
that the plate would exactly balance
If stuck on pivot at the point
where the lines intersect. That is
plain enough, and SO also If the plate
is circular or oblong; and it is also evil
dent that the plate would balance, no
matter how much weight was placed
on it, SO long as that weight was equal
" distributed over the surface. But
suppose one quarter section has twice
as much weight as any other section?
Then, to balance the plate, the pivot
must be advanced toward the excess OF
weight. Now, instead of circle, square
or oblong, suppose we have an irregu-
lar figure. 1t is seen at once that the
problem becomes more difficult, al
though the principle remains the same.
In practice you would experiment with
your pivot until you found the center OF
gravity; but If you had plate SO large
that you could not handle it you would
be obliged to resort to mathematical
computation.
This is what is done in finding the
center of population. The surface
area of the United States is con.
ceived to be smooth plate, and
all the inhabitants, big and little,
are imagined to be units of equal
weight. If this great plate could be
suspended in the air, as you would a
sheet of tin, there would be some point
on which the plate would exactly bal.
ance on pivot, and that point would
be the center of population. To find
this exact point is a mammoth mathe.
NAUTICAL task, and can only be found by
long and patient calculation and the use
of the highest branches of arithmetic.
Even then, as the center of population
is moving every day, the result can not
be exactly correct. but it is sufficiently
accurate for all practical purposes.
1t is idle to conjecture where the cen.
ter of population will be ten years
ence, but it is probable that it will
eventually rest somewhere in Kansas.
But it may be another century before
the states become SO settled that the
center of population shall remain sta.
tionary, or huctuate only within incon,
siderable limits.-Golden Days,