The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-11-24
SOME CENSUS FIGURES.
CRailroad Gazette.)

The census of 1900 finds the pOpula-
ton of the United States to be 1885,
! 22O, an increase of 600 over the
/ population in 1890, or a little less than
/ u per cent, while the increase from
/ 1880 to 1890 was % per cent and from
/ 1870 to 1880 80 per cent. Even in the
! decade from 1860 to 1870, when the peO-
pie of this now united country de-
voted their chief energies for four
years to killing each other, the in
/ crease in population was 22.7 per cent.
/ 1t was simply impossible that the in
/ crease could continue at its old rate;
but few suspected that the rate of in
/ crease would decrease so fast, and Of
/ fetal estimates generally gave the
/ population as larger in 1898 than the
/ census shows it to have been this
year.
immigration has been less in the
/ last decade than in the previous one,
/ but this accounts for only a part Of
! the change. The chief factor is a fall
/ ing off in the birth rate, which al
/ most always occurs when an agricUl-
/ tural country, with a great extent of
unoccupied land. is transformed into
a manufacturing country. If the rate
/ of increase between 1870 and 1880 had
/ continued we should have had about
/ S5,O00,000 people in this country now.
As it is, the growth of population here
/ is still much more rapid than in any
/ other large country, but the change
! in the rate is a significant fact, to be
J held in mind in all industries. and not
Z least in the railroad industry.
g g g
I We had here last June about 1896 peo-
/ pie to support each mile of railroad;
1 II the old rate of increase had cOntin-
ued we should have 442, which would
have made it come easier. Fortunate
I ly, after long and s0rTOwfuI expert
ence, we learned about ten years ago
/ that we can build too many railroads.
! 1t is we'll to bear in mind that the in
/ crease in population in the last decade
! was just about 1.9 per cent per year.
and that an addition the current year
of 1858 miles in our railroad system
viii keep pace with the population.
But there have been years when we
have built 5000 to 1900 miles, and
suffered for it. From 1890 to 1899 our
railroad mileage increased less than
Z 10 per cent. the population 10 per cent.
The census figures give a solid basis
| for computations of the amount of
traffic per inhabitant in this country,
/ which We have made heretofore for
the estimated population. The DOpu-
latiOn in June. 1899, was "A 1870 600. Dur
! ing the year then ending the aggregate
. traffic on the railroads of the country
was 1881, 600 of passenger miles and
900 of ton miles, which is at the
rate of 191 passenger miles and 62I
1 ton miles per inhabitant.
The passenger traffic per inhabitant
is lighter now than formerly. In 1890
even, it was 1873 miles per inhabitant:
in 1898, 213; in the following. year
which included most Of the Worlds
fair traveD, 210. This figure fell to 176
in 1895, and to 10 in 1897, so that the
recovery since is notable. Without a
dOu&t hard times reduced the amount
of travel Immediately and greatly. but
the effect of the collapse in 1898 was
not so great as the above figures indi-
cate, because this was a period of a
very great extension of suburban
street railroads, on which the travel
has increased immensely. All the more
is the recent increase in travel on the
steam railroads significant. as it has
been coiRcident with a great growth
IN street railroad travel. The 191 miles
OF travel per inha bitant may be COM
pared with the POI miles in the Ger
man empire in 1898. Very likely if we
included suburban street railroad traf-
nc, which is of the same nature, we
would find more travel per inhabitant
in this country, but it remains re-
markable that this amount increased
80 per cent in Germany in the last
ten years and scarcely at all here.
g y .
But the significant, the astonishing
h6ureS, are those showing freight traf-
fic per inhabitant. That for every
man, woman and child in this country
ton, of freight should be carried 621
miles seems almost incredible and
marks this country as pre-eminently
the country of transportation In Ger
many, which has more railroad freight
traffic than any other European coun-
Try reporting, and per inhabitant prob
aoly more than any other, except, per-
maps little Belgium, the amount in
1888 was 38S ten miles per inhabitant
me great amount of transportation
mere Is largely due to the distances
freight is carried, but largely also to
the great average production per in
haoItaht which naturally is greater
Where the population is largely en-
gagged in mining coal and iron ore
duaffylnS stone, producing the cOarser
manufactures and the raw products of
the soil than where they are mainly
engaged in the finer industries Aside
from which, doubtless. the average
man Is more efficient producer here
imam IN Europe. He makes more goods,
consumes more goods and the goods
are carried further.
Heretofore we have had no means
OF knowing the total average distance
Irelghts are carried in this country:
edch railroad. reporting for itself
alone gives the number of tons hauled
ana the aggregate distance hauled on
its own lines. but as a very large parr
OF the freight passes over two or more
ROADS, this bears but a slight relation
TO the average haul for the country.
IN the 1899 report, however, the inter
state commerce commission has had a
separate statement made of the tons
received from connecting routes. and
the remainder, SO, 900, coo. is approx
nately the number of separate tons of
Ifelght. The average haul of these
was z4zt2 miles, which is nearly four
cIiles as great as the average haul in
eIeIlIlahy' evidently here, more than
anywhere else. railroad transDortat ton
IS an element in production