Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1900-06-06
SOME CENSUS QUESTIONS.
Some of the objects for which tn

Some of the Objects for Which the
Census Is Taken Every Decade.
The objects of the federal census are
of three kinds: To furnish Il basis for
the apportionment of representatives in
the lower house of congress; to ascer-
tain the growth of the United States
in numbers, wealth. and industry; and
to investigate the social organization
and institutions which determine the
growth of population and wealth The
first is a constitutional necessity, the
a study of causes
Probably no social institution is so
Intimately connected with the growth
of population as that of marriage. In
investigating marital conditions the
law requires about each person a state
ment whether he or she is single, mar
ried, widowed or divorced; if married,
how many years the marriage has
lasted; if a mother. how many child
rem she has had, and how many of
these children are now living.
From the answers to the questions
it is possible TO determine the birth
rate. the prevalence of marriage, the
proportion Of women and children to
the whole population the duration and
fruitfulnesS of marriage. SO far as the
power and importance of nations are
dependent upon the size of the popula-
ton. to that extent is the accurate de
termination of these questions a mat
ter of public necessity
In the United States there would
seem to be little danger of a decline
in the population. But even when we
are sure that the population is growing,
it is still necessary to know how it is
growing. The millions of India are in
creasing, but it is by process of
many births and many deaths. In
good years millions are born. in times
of famine millions die, the population
increasing because a few more are
born than die. 1t is growth, but saw
age growth. There is a more excel /
lent kind of progress. that resulting
from the combination of a moderate
birth rate and small death rate.
The marital statistics collected by
the census are in many respects very
interesting. Thus. the extent and
power of the anti-marital forces can be
estimated in way by ascertaining the
proportion of people between % and
"a years of age who have never been
married. Census statistics show that I
the proportion of unmarried fetiales be-
tween these ages is greatest in the east
in North Carolina, Rhode Island ana !
Massachusetts. for instance. While the
proportion is smallest i'll the west /
South Dakota. Utah. and Oklahoma F..
bringing up the rear in the orde- here
named. Men. on the contrary, are FAR
more likely to remain single il The
west than in the east The proportion
of unmarried men between - ana "a
is lowest in the southern states, g. <.
Arkansas. Alabama, and Georgia. and
greatest in the block of western states
west of the Mississippi. In Nevada
3S.2 pee cent of the males between -
and 81 have never been married. Idaho
coming next with 32.4 per cent. Mon
tana next with 90 per cent. etc.
That marriage is prominently the
sphere of woman seems TO be indicated
by the fact that more women marry
than men. and they marry at earlier
ages Thus, only 81 per cent of fe-
males IL years of age and over are I'M
married. while among males of the
same ages the proportion is Al per cent.
Taking girls and boys between u and
20 years of age it is found that out of
every ten girls one is married while
among the boys the proportion falls to
one in two hundred. These We're the
proportions in 1890 Whether these
conditions have changed since then is
question that can only be answered
by the census of 1900.