The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-04

contrary, every square mile contains an average of I0.ss7 people. and 1T
 some of our wards and especially IT
 certain portions of these wards the
 density is even greater. Among the
 five cities of the State Central Falls
 ranks easily first in this respect. for
 on its mile and a third of territory
 are quartered nearly twenty thousand
 inhabitants; the square mile figures arc
 14,95S. If one were permitted to choose
 between living on the most thickly
 populated block in Central Falls and
 spending hise days on the decadent slopes of West Greenwich which would
 he select? In these two extremes we sec forcibly illustrated the mutual dis- advantages or overcrowded factory towns and diminishing rural communi- ties.
 Figures are proverbiaiIy dry. but a little imagination injected into them sometimes relieves them of excessive aridity. We can obtain q good idea of in Rhode Island if we compare its square mile average. 442. with that of the CoHtinents, for instance. These are nod based on the latest computa- tions Of population indeed. but are new enough to serve the immediate pur- pose. According to Ravenstein, the square mile average in Europe is I01; ih &AEta it AS AE5S AhnH III AIIlGs& IL Is eleven: In North America 1t rises to 1s.s; in South America it falls to little more than 5; in Australasia 1t drops to IA and in the Polar regions there Is only one person for every TOO square miles. The Federal census of 1900 shows that there are 21.4s persons to the square mile in the United States, while in Belgium the figures rise to some six hundred. In Prussia, a thick iy settled country as European coun- tries so, the proportion is 256.2. Thus Rhode Island is much more denseiy populated than Europe as a whole and is exceeded in this regard by those smaller principalities only where large communities have thickiy dwelt for centuries.
 Massachusetts, the next State of the Union in point of density. iags far be- hind us, while Connecticut Is only one. half as densety settled as Rhode Island. Our forest area--and 1t is proportion- ally very large--is witnessing the con tinual draining away of people from the ciearinRs In the scrub oak woods and the returning underbrush: but tho concentration of population in the cities and larger towns Is becoming constantly 11ore impressive. Of the thirty-eigft2 cities and towns of the State twenty-fve have increased In the number of their inhabitants since 1o9O tniFtGcH udtG iOHLs or, we include Johnston, whose decline is due to the annexation of U large portion of it's area by Providence, among the growing towns. tho proportion is twenty-six to twelve. The dozen de- creasing towns are where we might expect to find them, fin the remoter interior--and the phrase remote is jus tifed in this sense, even in diminutive Rhode Island-and. in two instances, on the ocean, These maritime cortrau mites that have talien away are turbu- lent New Shoreham and staRnant while North Kingston. on the shore of the bay. was decreased for the first time in several decades. q In general the losing towns are tbose where agriculture is discouraged and social life has ebbed. The twelve de. lfnquents are West Greenwich, New Faster. Glocester. North Scituate, Charlestown, Exc ter. Hopkinson. North Kingston and Richmond.