The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1926-06-17
Rural America
Holds It's Own


what their size.
'The institute compiled a special
tabulation showing the growth in pop
ulation since 1900 of the territory that
was urban and of the territory that
was rural in that year. This was done
to eliminate the confusion due to the
constant shift of villages to the urban
class. New England was eliminated
from this calculation because the
township form Of government makes
it difficult to divide the population
into groups comparable with the urban
and rural groups in other sections.
but for the rest of the United States,
this special tabulation showed that
4,620,055 rural people became city folk
between 1900 and 1920, not because
they migrated but because the places
In which they had been living grew
sufficiently to be lifted from the rural
into the urban class.
"The Institutes report of this study,
American Villagers written by DR..
@. Luther Fry, shows that with the
differences in classification eliminated,
the rural increase becomes 23.6 per
cent, which is the normal increase of
births over deaths and nearly twice
as large as the increase based upon
the ordinary census figures. When,
for purposes of comparison, the
growth of cities between 1900 and
1920 is limited solely to the places that
were cities in 1900 the rate of growth
for the period is 1914 per cent instead
of $40.
This rate of actual growth for the
places that were cities in 1900 needs a
further correction.
Explains City Growth.
'In 1920 there were 1920 92 for
eign-born people living in the United
States. OF this number 1O,500,942
lived in cities, while only g, 419,75O re-
sided in rural areas. Of these-10, 5OO.-
942 urban aliens, 5,47S,9S9 are known
to have entered the country after
1900, while only 1,416,1O6 of the immi-
grants in rural areas fall into this
group. The fact that during the
last twenty years 100000 more i'm
migrants settled in our urban areas
than in our rural areas helps explain
the relatively rapid growth Of cities
When corrected for this factor, the
rate of city increase. drops still fur
Their from 1854 per cent to 52.1 per
cent, and the rural rate Of growth,
corrected in like manner, becomes POI
per cent.
The Institute DEVOTED particular at
tention to the question of the growth
and decline of villages. In 1920 there
were 10,239 Incorporated villages, with
a population of $500, 1859 and in rela-
tion to the population of the remain
ing rural area they are growing very
rapidly indeed.
From 1900 to 1920 the Incorporated
villages increased Al per cent, both in
number and in population. During the
same period the population Of the
United States as a whole increased 80
per cent. During these twenty years,
therefore, Incorporated villages in
creased in population more rapidly
than the nation as whole.
Despite the fact that nearly thou
sand incorporated villages, with all
the people who dwelt in Fem, were
lost from the rural class. fcation be-
cause they grew into the city class,
the number of villages increased 1914
from 1900 to 1920 Thousands of little
open-country population centers, there
fore, became villages as a result of
actual increase in open-country popu-
lation; and their growth, by sending
them into the village class, checked
them out as a loss to the open country
in this analysis of open-country and
village populations.
Village Growth.
ITO find out whether the village In
crease in population might be ex-
planned by this Increase in the number
of places classed as villages, the in
stitute worked out the rate of growth
since 1900 of all the places that in 1900
were Incorporated villages. This com
putation revealed that the places that
were Incorporated villages in 1900
grew 51.3 per cent during the next
twenty years, compared with So per
cent increase for places that in 1900
were cities of 100000 and over; 81
per cent for cities of $4,000 to 10O.-
600; 81 per cent for cities from 10000
to 25,000; 50 per cent for places of
from $500 to 10000, and 1915 per cent
for the open country. Here is the in
fo,.