The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1899-07-14

an Acre TO One Person.
II the population Of the United
States continues to increase at the rate
that has prevailed during the last TWEEN
ty years In the year 2OOO It viii reach
30 great a density there will be room
for an average Of only one person to
an acre In the vast area. II the rate
Of Increase shall advance as the rate
has advanced during the last fifty
years, that alarming density will have
been reached many decades earlier.
II seems impossible to believe that a
territory which a century ago seemed
80 Immense that no prophet could have
foreseen that 1t could be filled up with
In many centuries by any ordinary MI
gratory phenomenon, has already come
to the point where standing room
only" is only a question of years. Yet
the pregnant totals of the census de-
partment for the last century impose
that Inevitable conclusion.
These figures I'm round numbers) are
as follows:
1900. 100000 1860. ..3l, 900, 900
1900. 80. 100000 1880. 80. 80, 600, 900
1880. &c. 100000 1899. 10, 100000
1850. -. .23,000,OOO
In the time Of Washington, with a
population of only 100000, and with
n total area less than at the present
time, there was yet only one person to
the square mile. In Jefferson's admin
istration in 1900 the density had grown
to an average of two to the square
mile. Thirty years later in the Jack
sonian period, it had doubled again to
four persons to the square mile. Two
decades later, in the time of Fillmore
1t had advanced to seven. When Lin
coin was President his people We're
scattered at the rate of nine to the
square mile. In Garfelds time it had
advanced to fourteen, while at the
present time it is computed that the
population averages about twenty-one
persons to the square mile.
When the first census was taken,
on the first Monday in August, 1890,
the population was confined entirely to
the Atlantic seabOard Not more than
8 per cent. Of the population was west
of the Appalachian system. The great
est density was in eastern Massachu-
sets, Rhode Island and Connecticut
and about New York City. Twenty
years later, at the census of 1910, the
population had begun to spread west
ward. The central portions of New
York State were filling up, the Ohio
River was lined with settlements, and
ST. Louis had grown into an important
center from a mere fur trading post,
which had been its previous status. In
this decade, however, in 1903, the pop
ulatiOn had taken a stride forward by
the transfer to the jurisdiction of the
United States of the section now
known as Louisiana. The territory in
cluded in this transfer was immense,
comprising close to 100000 square
miles. In the same time the nation
had acquired from Georgia the terri
tory comprising the larger part of the
State of Alabama and Mississippi, and
the Territory of Illinois had been form
ed, including all Of the present State
and that of Wisconsin ana a part of
Michigan At this time the accepted
western frontier line of the country
was about 5000 miles long and en-
braced an area of about 100000 square
miles.
In the period between 1910 and 1920
there were many territorial changes,
causing a marked alteration in the
frontier line, the surest index to the
giant strides in the population. a sta
tisticlan thus describes it at the end
of this period: "The frontier line in
1920 extended from southeastern Mich
igan on Lake st. Clair. southwark into
what is now Missouri; thence making
a great semi-circle to the eastward, it