The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1920-09-03
COUNTING NOSES
IN MARION COUNTY

When a city or county is credited
by the census takers with popula-
ton less than the optimists of said
city or county expect there nearly
always goes up a yell of protest and
often demand for recount.
The census bureau has announced
that the population of Marion county
is 1865, less by 1913 than ten years
ago.
The Star isn't going to protest nor
ask for a recount. There is no reason
to believe that the recount would be
better than the count.
But all the same we don't believe
there are less than thirty thousand
people in Marion county.
Florida has a national census at
the end of every decade, and state
census in the middle of every decade.
We have reason to believe that the
counts taken by the state are more
reliable, so far as population is con-
cerned, than those Of the federal gov
eminent, the reason being that the
state census takers are generally bet
ter acquainted with the country and
people than those of the federal gov
eminent.
The censuses taken the last Is
years resulted as follows:
State: 1895, q, 875. 1905, 26,725.
1915, 2S,75S.
Federal: 1910, 26.941. 1920, 23,96s.
Since the war broke out in 1914 a
good many people have removed from
Marion. They went by the hundreds
late in 1914 and in 1915, yet the state
census taken in 1915 showed more
people here by 2017 than the federal
census showed in 1910.
There were many changes caused
by the war, and many people went
away, but in the year and half be-
tween the armistice and the census
many returned. Also many new set
tiers have come in. We think that
it is indisputable that Ocala has more
people here than at any time in it's
history. 1t certainly has more houses,
and they are nearly all filed.
The people who have left this coun-
ty are mostly of a class that are as
likely to come in between two CEN
have mostly been men in calling that
require them to shift their homes ac,.
cording to business conditions. Of
the negroes. they have mostly been
men who move around the state or
go to other states in search of the
best paying work. There is no GER
tainty in counting them, for between
the time they are counted and the
census report is published they have
often gone elsewhere.
Comparatively few of the people
who had homes here, white or colored,
have gone except to return, and many
new residents have come in.
What then is the trouble? 1t is
partly with the census takers but
mostly with the people. There are
many families that the census takers
overlook. There are many men who,
knowing the census taker is on his
rounds, will not take the trouble of
putting themselves in his way. We
know number of good citizens here
that acknowledge it. They were not
at home or their regular places of
business when he called, and wouldn't
take the trouble to hunt him up.
There is not much doubt that Mar
ion county had over 10000 people in
1896. That being the case, nothing
less than some awful epidemic or
widespread emigration (neither of
which we have had) could have held
the increase down to less than three
thousand in twenty-five years. The
natural increase in any section under
normal conditions, doubles its popu
lation in thirty years. Conditions in
Marion county have been normal, ex-
cept for two or three years, and we