St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1893-06-24
A YARD AN HOUR.
REMARKABLE GROWTH OF THE
WEST IN POPULATION.

Interesting Facts and Figures by Sem
ator Dawes, of Massachusetts -
Wonderful Development.
In his speech at Pittsfcld on Monday
evening, Senator Dawes made pointed
reference to the marvellous growth which
the western section of the United States
has achieved since his entrance on public
life. "The country" he said, "has been
widening and going westward and west
ward, to the Pacific Coast and then on
beyond, until the latitude itself fails to
chronicle our onward march, and west
ward falls into the eastward. SO that the
sun will not go down tonight upon our
westward border until it shall have
arisen upon the coast of Maine" The
continuousness of this growth is shown
by the steady westward movement of the
center of population. When the census
Of 1850 was taken, two years after MIR.
Dawes public career began, the center
of population was located at point
twenty-three miles southeast of Parkers-
burg, w. Va The census of 1890 puts
the point twenty miles east of Columbus,
Ind. Here is westward movement of
229 miles in forty years, giving an aver
age rate Of 512 miles per year.
If the measurement is carried sixty
years further back, to the the first census
of 1899, we find that there has been in
the hundred years movement westward
of 500 miles, the center of population
having passed from point twenty three
miles east of Baltimore, Nd, to the loca-
ton in Indiana noted above. The rate of
progress for the whole period averages
sos miles a year, or seventy-three feet a
day. In other words, for century the
center has been moving westward at an
average rate of yard an hour, with one
foot thrown in every twenty-four hours
for good measurement. The slowest
progress was made in the second decade,
from 1900 to 1910. In this period the
population center achieved only thirty
six miles of westing, or at the rate of
about two feet, two inches per hour.
The swiftest progress came in the seventh
decade, from 1850 to 1860, when the
center moved westward no less than
eighty one miles, ar at the rate of about
four feet ten inches per hour. During
the last decade of the census enumera-
ton, from 1880 to 1890, the rate dropped
little below the average, fortyeight
miles of wcsting being made, which
would be about two feet eleven inches
per hour. We may add, to bring the
estimate down to the beginning of 1898,
that, if the rate of progress noted in the
last census decade has been maintained
in the two and one-half years since the
census was taken, the present center is
found at point eight miles east of Col
umbus. Ind, about halfway between
that city and Waynesburg. And the
census of 1900 will, at the same ratio,
bring it to point nearly two miles south
of Unionville, Ind.
1t is a curious fact that, while the
westward movement of the population
has covered no less than 1-3 degrees of
longitude 60 degrees, 81 minutes, sec
onds), this movement has run almost on
q straight line, the extreme northern and
southern variation embracing less than
one-third of degree of latitude Us min
utes, Sc seconds). To put the contrast
more distinctly, we may say that, while
the western movement for the century
aggregates QUO miles, the extreme nOTtn-
ern and southern variation is little un-
der twenty-five miles, and the finishing
point of the line is only some six miles
south of the starting point. The slight
ness of this variation may be taken as
showing that, if you divide the United
States by the thirty-ninth parallel of
north latitude, the growth of the pop
lation in the two sections thus made has
been very near equal during the hundred
years covered by the eleven censuses. In
view of the fact that the tide of immigra-
tion from foreign countries has set mainly
into the northern section, such an equal
ity in the growth of the population is
development that would hardly have
been looked for.-[Boston Herald.