Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-02-02
CENTER
is NEAR ABE MARTIN

their own Speaking of Spearsville
not all the people there are advised
that Charles Fairbanks no longer holds
the office of vice president of the
United States. He gets a few votes for
that office every year in the county.
Columbus. Ind, which is on the rail-
road n therefore called out by the
brakemen on the afternoon local, has
for three decades had the n of be-
ing the nearest town to the center OF
population. Once it was a little tc
the east. Then it jumped across town
and got on the west side. Columbus
first became the population center in
1880 and held it until 1890. when il
moved a mile or so east. Ten years
later it shifted toward Brown county.
although the people there didn't enc
anything abou it for years.
In the census office the entire United
States is marked off in 4O-acre tracts.
The population of each of these tracts
is taken, and BY Il process of calcula-
tlon winch is, strange to say, both COM.
pick and comprehensive. the center.
most 4O-acre square is selected, and
the center of that square is the ma
tlonal center of population. There are
other ways of doing it. but the result
is always the same. Salt creek simply
can't escape.
Owing to the tremendous rapidity Of
the growth of Pacific slope states. of
oregon, California and Washington,
there has been a distinct westward
pull. This was counteracted i'm a meas
ure by the ponderous increases in the
population of New York, New Jersey.
Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The
rates per cent Of growth of these older
states ran nowhere near SO high as did
those OF the sisters of the Pacific.
but the pull was there just the same
a pull that held back the westward
movement of the center of population
so that 1T is not more than IL or Is
miles west of the old stand at Colum-
bus, Ind.
Even now Illinois is planning to get
the center 10 years hence. Hence the
states activity. A committee will be
appointed-men with pull-to encour-.
g marriage and frown ON Reno. New
sign posts will be placed where they:
Will do the most good, and the price,
of marriage licenses will be reduced
10 a nominal sum. For instance, it ia
proposed to furnish license, marriage;
c~ertlncate and a supper for $1.25. In;
dlana's rates are $1.35 in the lower
counties.
According to statistics compiled by
Lieutenant Governor Hugh T. Miller.
OF indiana the center of population
ought to he in Washington township.
near the line of Monroe county. This
Is In longitude Sc degrees, 81 minutes.
4 seconds, west, latitude 80 degrees. III
minutes. i second. north. The point is
80 miles west and two miles north of
Columbus. New York has a center Of
population as well as the United States.
but 1t is more shifty. On the Both dav
Of April it may be in one place, and
when h furniture truck with the
painting of the battle of Manila bav
has carried it's last load on Nav movins
day the center may be found around
the or w a side street. All
the evidence at hand shows that New
York itself. meaning the borough 81
Manhattan, has lost out, and that the
center of municipal population was
last seen on the Williamsburg bridge
with the truck horses pointing noses
to Brooklyn. In 10 years the center has
le1t Ludlow street Jail. where Boss
Tweed once had apartments and where
that patriotic organization known az
the Alimony club now plays solitaire.
and moved year by year to the east
| ard.
By the 4O-acre tract method the cen.
sus office may show that the present
center of New York is in the Fasf
river, a hawser-length out and dowr
from the Williamsburg bridge pier. or
the Brooklyn side. This particular mari
of New York has a popularity among
tugboat men. but otherwise it is as un.
inspiring as Brown county, Ind. Tn
the matter of salt. however. the Easi
river and the Indiana creek have
something in