Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-15
An American Every % Seconds
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN.

Down at the ONCE Of william M
Steuart director Of the Census, Is 4
huge speedometer, which every % Sec
onds punctuates that official's working
hours with q distinctly audible "clunk."
1t Is q speedometer registering the
increase In the population OF the United
States Just as an automobiles speedorrl-
eter ticks of the miles traversed by the
motor car. Each 23-second Chunk"
means another unit, another person,
presumably another soul and pro-
spective taxpayer added to the total OF
Americans. The figure now stands at
more than 1872 ,421 900.
1t probably Is the largest speedom-
eter in the world. II must be 2 yards
long and the numbers, arranged on
squares. precisely as they are on an
automobile speedometer, stand at least
inches high. Every % seconds new
figure drops into place at the extreme
right and when 230 seconds or min
utes and so seconds have passed, two
new figures drop down: when another
100 OF population has been added, then
three figures move into place, and 30
on. It is an event when the whole
thing rolls OF another million.
OF course, the 23-second interval
represents an estimate, but IL is as close
as the very expert statisticians Of the
Bureau OF the Census can calculate.
Even the method Of calculation Is
graphically shown. Below the big
map of the United States and on 1t a
series of electric light bulbs The lights
are of different colors. Every 13 Sec
onds one of these bulbs lights up. That
means that a baby has been born.
Every % seconds bulb Of another col
or glows for an instant. That means
that death has overtaken an Amer
lean. Another light burns every ia
minutes and that means that a new
immigrant has landed on our shores,
possibly a Russian Red. Every 51z
minutes there Is q glow from another
lamp meaning that some American has
tired of prohibition or for some other
reason has become an emigrant and left
US fat.
The Growth Of q Nation.
with additions and subtractions all
calculated, this brings about O net gain
Of one new radio listener added to the
American population every AZ seconds.
To stand before this electric sign,
watch these flickering tokens Of life
and death and hear the interminable
clunking Of the Speedofneter Is 70 be
tremendously impressed with the vast
ness Of the American Nation and the
brisk tempo Of the progress Of q people
which only few generations ago con-
sisted Of but d few handfuls Of sniv-
ering seafarers huddled on the bleak
shores Of an inhospitable wilderness.
The beholder cannot but be impressed
with the idea that nothing he could do
could stop that inevitable clunking.
That particular ingenious machinery
might be wrecked and its parts strewn
over the acres Of buildings used by the
census enumerators now engaged In the
computation Of the fifteenth census, and
even their millions Of cards and papers
might be destroyed, yet that teenine
life. which Is America would 60 mex
orably on. Clunkl Clunkl Chunk
Every % secondsl And, our form of
government being what 1t is, any one
OF those chunks may herald President.
Or, better yet, d Charlie Chaplin or q
Babe RUTH Or Clara Bowl
During these 10-year intervals be-
tween census eflumerations there "a
going on in the Nation q constant fer
| ment. Not only are people born and
die, but they move about. Each 10
year period marks some fundamental
change In the whereabouts and manner