Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-08-27
O'St~e, sss1
1922

| (Ax2 s>- Deeu taDulateQ. An ex
| animation and ANALYST
OF the statistics already obtained and of tn,
bulletins pu: out by the census Office leads t.
and warrants some interesting deductions ant
conclusions respecting the subject of home and
farm ownership and mortgage incumbrance ir
this country. The labor involved in this in
quiry will never be comprehended outside Of
the census office itself. Many hundreds Of
special agents have been employed in every
| county in the United States hundreds upon
hundreds of clerks have been employed in the
| office and many millions of schedules and slips
| containing the returns have been received and
| filed away. 1t has been found that during the
| ten years 1880 to 1889 the real estate mort
cages made in the United States numbered
5000 900, but these are not all existing mort
cages, as has often been enormously stated. In
| regard to every one of these mortgages a report
was obtained covering variety Of particulars
ana In the aggregate requiring an incalculable
| amount of labor
1t has also been ascertained for nearly all OF
the 1850, l52 families Of the United States
whether each one owned or hired the farm or
home 1t occupies, and, il owned, whether it is
SUBJECT to membranes; and, il so, report has
been received In principal proportion Of cases
as to the amount OF incumbrance, the rate of
interest borne by it, the reason why it was in
CURED, and also the value Of the farm or home.
regard to each owner and in regard to the head
OF each hiring family. When tabuated this
description will disclose, among other things,
to what extent the colored people have become
owners Of farms and homes; how far ownership
Is invested in wives; at what age ownership has
more generally been acquired; whether the cir
cumstances OF unmarried persons are such as to
lead considerably to ownership; whether the
Irish or Germans have been more successful in
becoming owners, and 80 with the Italians the
Swedes, &c. whether the Germans have ac-
CURED longer or shorter residence In this
country than the Irishman has before owning
his farm or home, and so with people of other
nativlties. The tabulation will disclose to what
extent the citizenship of the foreign born is
related to their ownership, and establish COM
parison between the sexes in the ownership of
farms and homes and the dependence of owner
ship upon the various occupations of the peo-
pie.
This is the richest field for statistical work in
social science that any government has ever
before entered. 1t calls for as much labor as
was involved in any United States census pre-
vious to that OF 1850, and in this respect is not
exceeded by any census previous to that of 1870.
The units for which description has been OBJ
tanned. are SO numerous that the printing of
about seventy millions blanks has been neces-
sary, all Of them to be handled at least a few
times and large proportion Of them many
times.
HIGHLY INTERESTING RESULTS.
Highly interesting and useful results will
come from this investigation in regard to the
affairs of the people within a domain never be-
fore entered by the census Office. There has
been much popular assumption that mortgage
indebtedness is forced upon debtors and that
they have had a sort of Hobsons choice with
the terrors Of the mortgage as one alternative
and some misfortune otherwise to be suffered
q he Off inv ticaf tod 4,
in all parts of the country and enough has
already been published completely to dispel
these popular notions. 1t is now demonstrated
that the making of a real estate mortgage is Just
as voluntary an act in almost all cases as the act
OF man who begins business undertaking.
the result depending chiefly upon his judgment
and foresight. as we'll as upon his equi Dment
for success Reference to the bulletins that
have been issued by the census office shows that
generally speaking from two-thirds to nine
tenths of real estate mortgage Indebtedness
was incurred to secure the purchase money of
real estate and to pay for real estate improve
ments, the chief item OF which consists of new
buildings. Even in the older parts of the coun-
try the real estate movement ia SO active that
these proportions hold good. When to these
purposes Of Indebtedness are added business
purposes and the purchase Of various articles
of personal property, such farm stock and
machines, tools of trade. &C., almost the entire
real estate mortgage Indebtedness is accounted
for. The percentage OF the debt incurred for
these purposes is generally from IS to 50 per
cent. The real necessities that are discovered
in these statistics are expenses incurred for
sickness and food, to replace losses incurred in
farming and various other items which are in
cluded in the description of farm and family
expenses. The proportion of the Indebtedness
due to these cases is rarely as great rs per
cent and generally ranges from l to per cent.
Having established the voluntary character
n Ip1ahtatpaas fha OF
next establish the fact that the purposes of this
indebtedness are, for the most part legitimate
that it is incurred for the purpose of ac-
comprising undertakings and promoting enter
prises which are generally undertaken by sensi-
BILE men endeavoring to support themselves
and their families and to accumulate property
for n rainy day: that is to say, these statistics
warrant the conclusion that Indebtedness, if
entered into with moderation and Judgment, ia
good thing, and that the development of the
United States has been promoted beyond cal
culation by means of it. Take the marvellous
growth of Chicago. for instance From 1850 to
1889 the real estate mortgage debt incurred
yearly in Cook county. in which Chicago is
situated, increased about five times, until in
1889 a mortgage debt of $50, 123, 1865 was in
CURED. The existing mortgage Indebtedness
In that county Is Sl61 per capita. while in the
state of Illinois outside of Cook county it is
$73. The increase in the population in that
county during the last decade was sc. 10 per
cent, against general increase of a. SO for the
whole country. st. Louis presents the contrast
Of city whose growth in population has been
only slightly greater than that of the whole
country, the percentage for the decade being
2S.s9. In this city the existing debt per capita
is S91, or not moro than half Of what it is in
Cook county, LII.
MORTGAGE INDEBTEDNESS AND CITY DEVELOP
In rapidity Of growth Chicago has been out
done by Kansas City, and if no census of popu-
lation had been taken in those two cities it
could safely be inferred from the mortgage
statistics that such was the fact. The popuia-
ton OF Kansas City increased 1882 per cent
nom 1870 to 1880 and 137. 81 per cent from 1880
to 1880. md at the present time the per capita
real estate mortgage Indebtedness in the county
in which Kansas City il situated il $44h Ref
erence might be made to many other cities to
show the connection between mortgage in
debtedness and the development OF city growth
and business.
or course mortgaging may be overdone, and
the inference may be drawn from some Of the
census figures that such has been the fact in
some mushroom towns and in some of the
newer agricultural regions where the obstacles
encountered by the settlers have been too great
to be fully overcome. There are regions where
the people have gone mortgage mad, particu-
larry In the newer portions Of the west No
government has ever offered such Inducements
to settlers a. this has, and land has been OBJ
tanned easily and cheaply. and the prospect has