Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-03
"'Trade Territory" Outside
Boundaries, to Be Basis
of Count.
WOULD INCLUDE TOWNS
OUTSIDE DISTRICT LINE
New Classification Being Consid-
cred as Result of Nationwide
Complaints of Limitation.

A new and modern concept of city,
that it is the sum of itself and all its
suburbs, commercially speaking, may
result in the Census Bureau listing.
Greater Washington, SO that the Capt.
tai may be considered from its trade
territory aspect as well as according
to its geographical boundary.
This new concept of a city has
brought an avalanche of requests for
such announcements by the Census
Bureau and William Z. Steuart, the
director, said today he intended to give
the cities the advantage Of the an
nouncementS of the larger community"
which indicates the buying power"
insofar as 1t is possible for him to DO
80.
With that in mind, j. Sterling Moran,
supervisor for the District, has re-
ouested supervisors in nearby census
districts In Maryland and Virginia to
report to him the population of the
area which Is, to all intents and pur-
poses, a part of Washington. Fairfax
and Arlington Counties, the City OF
Alexandria, in Virginia, and Prince
Georges and Montgomery Counties, in
Maryland, comprise this area.
Penalized BY Boundary.
Director Steuart mentioned Wash
anEton as one of the cities penalized by
insurmountable boundary barriers. The
Capital City cannot claim credit for
much of her growth in the past decade,
since it has been in the residential sub
urbs of Virginia and Maryland.
And yet for practical purposes, it's
all washington" said Mr.. Steuart.
The population of Washington and
the District, within its geographical
boundaries, was annsunced recently by
Mr.. Moran as 485, 716, which Is gain
of IL per cent over the population In
1920. Mr.. Moran is confident, however,
that the population Of Greater WASH
ington is between 10000 and 100000
and a definite check on this estimate
awaits the response OF census superVi-
sors in the nearby counties.
The listing of Greater washington
as having a population Of $4,000, to
take the mean figure of the estimate,
would have a value to business in the
District OF thousands Of dollars. This
value is factual, and is suggested by
requests which have been made to Mr..
Moran by business men and the ex-
plantations offered IN support Of them.
The Washington representative Of a
business which operates nationally ex-
planned that he had prevailed on the
home of1ce to include within its budget
an advertising program for Washing
ton based on a population of $4,000.
The home office, in other words, was
willing to advertise in the Capital ter
ritory on the theory that its potential
market encompasSed $4,000 buying
power units.
Buying Power Bigger.
When Supervisor Moran's announce
Ment Of 4S5,716 population was made,
the apparent buying power units for
that particular business man had drop
ped by 5000, with the result that the
home ofice began asking pertinent
questions.
The plaintive complaint to Mr.. Moran
was that the home office couldn't be
made to understand that thousands of
people who do their business in WASH
ington live across the District line in
Maryland and Virginia and yet remain
as permanently unit of the Washing
ton consumers market as the resident
Of Sixteenth street.
Similar conditions prevail in many
other cities. among them Cleveland,
Louisville, Miami and San Francisco.
The new concept of the city may re-
suit in each being listed separately as
Greater :"
The trade territory theory of cities
was precipitated rather violently into
the 1880 census by the bitter argument
which arose among the Southern cities
over the Greater Atlanta" census fig
ure claimed as Atlanta'S population I'M
der the act of August II, 1929, by the
Georgia Legislature. This act added to
Atlanta the boroughs of Avondale Es-
tates, College Park, Decatur, East Point
and Hapeville, without destroying their
eolitical entities and police powers.
Louisville, KY, among other cities
protesting this action, avowed she would
have to reach across the Ohio River
into the State of Indiana, to put her
self on equal footing with Atlanta in
annexation of suburban obvious i'm
possibility.