Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1893-05-13
A YARD AN HOUR.
REMARKABLE GROWTH OF THE
WEST IN POPULATION.
Interesting Facts and Figures by Sem
ator Dawes, of Massachusetts, = A
Wonderful Development.

In his speech at Pittsield on Monday
evening, Senator Dawes made pointed
reference to the marvellous growth which
the western section of the United Sgates
has achieved since bis 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 10
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 Mr.
Dawes public career began the center
OF population was located at point
twenty three miles southeast of Parkers-
targ, 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 nate of 572 miles per year
If the measurement is carried sixty
years further back, to the the first census
of 1890, we find that there has been in
the hundred years movement westward
of sos miles, the center of population
having passed from a point twenty-three
miles east Of Baltimore, MdLy to the loca-
ton in Indiana noted above The rate of
progress for the whole period averages
5.05 miles year, or seventy-three feet a
day. In other words, for 9 century the
center has been moving westward at an
average rate of yard an hour, with one
loot thrown in every twentY-four hours
for good measurement. The slowest
progress was made in the second decade,
from 1900 to 1910. lnthis 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 irsthe seventh
decade, from 1850 to 1850, when the
center moved westward no, less than
eighty one miles, ar at the rnte of about
four feett ten inches per hour. During
the last decade of the census enumera-
ton, from 1880 to 1890, the rate dropped
a little below the average, forty eight
miles Of westing being made, which
would berabout 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 mies,eas 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 acurious fact that, while the
westward movement of the population
has covered no less than 8 1r9 degrees of
longitude (9degrees, 81 minutes, sec
onds), this movement has run almost on
a straight line, the extreme northern and
southern. variation embracing less than
one third of o, degree of. latitude rs min
utes, 81 seconds). To put the contrast
more distinctly, we may say that, while
the western movement for the century
aggregates 800 miles, the extreme north
ern and southern variation,is little I'M
uer twenty-five miles; anu. Ine HnlSnlng
point Of the line is only sSme 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-Hinhh parallel of
north latitude, the growth of the pop1-
lation in the two sections, thus made has
been very near equal during the hundred
Hraa onupro6 hV fhp al oxro,N II,
view of the fact that the tide Of immigra-
ton from foreign countries has set mainly
Into the northern section, such an equal
ity in. the growth of tha population IS a
development that would hardly have
been locked for Il Boston Herald.