The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1926-06-17
So-CalIed Declining" Vii
lagos Rival Biggest Cities
in Rate Of Growth.

An NaIe or NJrOWIns
New York.-C Contrary to fhe prevail
ing notion that rural America is los
ing ground against the city, the In
stitute Of Social and Religious Re
search has analysed hitherto unpub-
lished census data which cut the rate
Of city increase, 1900 to 1920 from
$40 per cent to 81 per cent and ac-
tually pushes the rural rate of growth
up to 20.7 per cent.
The facts are brought out by
Robert w. McCulloeh in a recent issue
of The Survey. One explanation lies
in the governments bookkeeping
when village reaches $500 people it
automatically becomes city accord
ing to census categories, and without
moving an inch from their own door
yards its villagers get into the urban
column. Even so, between 1900 and
1920, the villages in this country with
$50 and $500 Inhabitants increased
1914 in number. To quote in advance
from Mr. McCulloch:
"The recent report of the National
Industrial Conference board showing
that radical tendencies have shifted
from the Industrial workers to the
farmers, is only one of many warnings
that have reused interest in the rural
situation and caused an increasing de-
mand for facts about the countrys
rural people.
'The people of the industrial centers
have been studied from every view
point About the rural folk, there is
an astonishing dearth Of trustworthy
information. More than this, a study
by the Institute of Social and Religi-
Gus Research, some of the results Of
which are now available, indicates
that actual misinformation concerning
rural conditions is very general.
1T is believed, even by the~experts,
that the rural areas of the United
States are being depleted by a great,
nationwide migration of country folk
to the cities. In support of this,
stories of the decline of Americas VIII
lagos are circulated with dishearten
ing frequency.
But is the cityward migration SO
great and SO menacing a population
movement after all? And are Ameri-
can villages really declining?
nDecline" Is Explained.
IF one turns to the census, one is
impressed by the relentless decline in
relative Importance of the rural ele-
ment of the population from decade to
decade. AS recently as 1880 only 28.6
per cent Of Americas total population
lived in Incorporated places having
$500 or more, the boundary line be-
tween rural and urban as defined by
the census. In other words, TIA per
cent of all Americans were, in 1880,
rural folk. In 1920 this proportion
had dropped to 1876 per cent.
'Even if there were no movement to
the cities, there would still be, from
one census period to the next, a steady
decrease in the number of people class /
flied as rural because this is a grow
ing nation, and many places classified
as rural at the end of one decade
grow sufficiently to cross into the ur-
ban class by the time the next census
is taken.
''In Alabama, for example, Alabama
City, a village with 2,276 inhabitants
in 1900, passed into the urban class in
1910 with a population of Abb; and
Andalusia City, with 551 in 1900 and
2,4S0 in 1910, got over the line with
4,O23 in 1920.
Here then we see how some thou
sands Of people in two villages ceased
to be villagers and became urban folk;
not by migration cityward, but by
process of governmental bookkeeping
that did not move single villager out
of his own dooryard
What Figures Show.
"The Institute of Social and Re-
ligious Research got returns from the
villages of all the states. These fig
ures show that between 1900 and 1910,
476 places which had been classified
as rural in 1900, passed the $500 mark
and entered the urban class; while
during the next decade, the number of
places that passed from the rural to
the urban class was 474. In addition,
11S places in the earlier decade and
70 in the last, entered the urban ranks
because they became Incorporated 1t
fe tbo census nrocedure ia classifv.un-