Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1905-12-30

Empire States Great G~owth IN Pop~
ulatiou, the Most Of which Is
ia ,stlie Cities.


The census which the state 0
New York has just completed
gnusi be gratifying to its citizens
iThe total population is returned
as S,066,6T2, an increase Of 797, az
over 1900, when the inhabitants
were found to number 7,26S,S94
No other state in the union has
80 large a population, pennsyl
vania coming second FIVE years
ago with 6,302,1l5. The third
state ia 1900 was Illinois, Will
1927 500 inhabitants, and the
fourth Ohio, with 4,157,545. The
long lead which New York has
over her nearest competitor is one
it bids fair to hold for some time
to come, for the natural increase
of community Of 5000, 900 souls
is Of itself a most powerful factor.
while the Empire State is so sit
mated as to hold for itself no in.
considerable portion of the great
immigration from lands over the
sea. Its destiny is still imperial,
and its power in the commerce
and trade of the country is bound
to grow with the increase of its
population. TO day probably one.
tenth Of the people of the United
States dwell within the borders Of
New York. Greater New York has
4,O14,304 inhabitants, far more
than are to be found in some SOW
ereign states of influence and inn
portance, say Massachusetts or
Missouri.
But while everything assures
New York of long continuance
of its present primacy of popsla-
ton, it is evident that tendencies
which check the rate of progress
sion are at work there as we'll as
elsewhere. The increase is very
far from even, taking the state as
a whole, and great as are the fig
ures of the final total they disap-
point expectations formed previ-
GUS to the census. OF the total
gain, 577,102 is to be credited to
Greater New York, and but $780,
GIG to the rest of the state. Tween
ty counties distinctly or mainly
agricultural show positive losses
of population ranging from 219 in
Wayne to 2,45S in Chemung. In
the minor cities that report
growth it has been only normal,
save where new industries have
been established. AS whole, the
most marked tendency is urban
growth, and that as a condition
that owing to the operation of ia
miliar economic causes is not ia
vOrable to rapid increase of popu-
IatiOn of a state as a whole. In
congSsted cities where the strug-
gle rapidly changes from one for
profit to one for existence, small
families are the rule. The
country, with its less expensive
life and its humber needs, is the
region for large families, and
when we find in a state the rural
counties steadily losing we can
see that the era of a tacitly reg
ulated growth is at hand.
When we turn to the census
data of Greater New York we find
at work another agency that
checks the rapidity of growth;
that is, the desire for comfortable
surroundings and for a generally
higher range of living. This is ex
pressed in the greater increase
percentage in the sections more
distant from the business center.
The push of the better element of
wage-earners is toward the Bronx,
the outermost districts of Brook
Ign and kindred areas open to
home seekers who can pay but lit
tie down. Thus while the per-
centage of gain in Manhattan
borough is shown by the census
to be 14.2, in the Bronx it is
$50, in Brooklyn 1865, and iiN
Queens 29.6. The increase of pop
ulaticG IL Manhattan for the five