The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-07-01

| parson of the per capita wealth of the
u wH sectTh hss according to the assessed val
tlons each individual in the East is COM
puted to be worth on the average 1925;
nose nose OF the middle West. ranging from
West, in Colorado and on the Pacific slope
are computed to have 1886 each. In this
view the people of the section which has
been settled last, where many Of the states
have gained the greater part Of their pop
ulatlon within the last ten of fifteen years
are individually richer than those of the
East which has been settled for more
than two centuries.
The absurdity is apparent.
Inere Is yet another field which the
s student Of economics has not failed to
mere; That is the drift to the cities. At
the beginning of the century only 4 per
cent OF the population of the country
tants. In 1860 this had risen to Is per cent
In 1890 to % per cent. Very suggestive was
the comparative increase of rural and ur-
1890. In the country 100000 people gained
only 5,50OOO0 in ten years; in the cities
II, 100000 people gained nearly 7,OOO, 900. The
proportion OF gain was. for the rural pop
cent.
In several states the rural population
showed an actual decrease. This is true
strikingly true of the rich state of Illinois,
which, while showing total gain in popu-
lat 1ation Of 74sOoo, placed all of this and q
people on the farms and in the villages
showed an actual decrease.
Now, the great cities. it is to be observ-
within the eastern half OF the United
States. Of twenty eight cities in the coun-
try having population Of 100000 or
oyer; only ally o me, Francisco-lies vest
half. OF fifty-eight cities having a popu-
lation of $4,000 or over. only nine lie west
of the Mississippi river. 1t is where the
ried on, where there is shipping and trade.
that the great cities are to be found, and
it is to be noticed that the gain in popu-
| lation of some of the Eastern cities was
hardly less rapid than those of the West
ern cities which sprang up under the won
derful era Of expansion which followed 1880.
people of the East live in cities-more than
one-half; of the West. about one-fifth.
1t is no part of this article to attempt
deductions, but simply to set out the vari-
So far as am aware this is the first full
grouping of these facts which has been
made It remans for the read der the stu.
lessons which they teach. Broadly stated,
the facts show
|. A congestion Of population in the East,
with an increasing tendency to congestion,
particularly in the great cities.
2. A disproportion of wealth, amounting
to probably more than one-half for the nine
states of the East against thirty-six 9TH
ers; disproportiOnate share of the wealth
gained tendency to high taxation per
capita and to heavy public Indebtedness.
3. A share of the total manufacturing of
the country out Ct all proportion to either
it's population or it's ability to produce the
raw material required a comparatively
small amount of capital engaged in this
work, as against the farm capital of the
country, but developing product four times
as great in proportion to the amount of
money invested in farming; probably a
in farming a fact no doubt which assists
in the general drift of population to the
cities.
4. In proportion to it's population the East
has a disproportionate share of crime in
sanity and poverty, together with SINH