The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1932-05-06


brief moment throws the limelight on
some little municipality. The reason was that
the United States bureau of the census having
completed the compilation Of certain statistics
OBTAINED by the 1880 census, announced that
the center of population of the United States
is near Linton. Ind.
AS matter of fact, this center is located at
q point in Stockton township. Greene county,
Ind, which is 90 miles northeast of Linton, 81
miles southeast by south of Terre Haute and
1875 miles northeast by north of vincennes. But
since it is nearest Linton that town received
whatever distinction there accrues to being
known as 1.-THE center of population" and 1t be-
came the successor to another Indiana town,
Whitehall, in holding that honor. For after
the census Of 1920 the center ofspopulation was
designated as point 10 miles west Of White
hall in Owen county and in the ten years from
1920 to 1880 it moved westward 22.S miles to
the point near Linton.
Now what is this center Of population and
how is 1t computed? Probably most Of us have
rather vague ideas about that and the chances
are that such ideas are erroneous as well. For
the thing we have in mind when we say center
Of population is probably what the census ex-
perts call the median point.
If you draw line dividing the population
Of the United States into equal parts north and
south, and another line dividing 1t equally east
and west then the point Of intersection is the
median point. In every one of the four quar-
tiers there will be the same number of people
But the center Of population, as used by the
census bureau, is that point that may be con-
sidered the center Of human gravity Of the
United States. The census bureau pictures the
United States as a rigid level plane, and on it
our 1923, 000,O0O-odd people each one weighing the
same, irrespective Of age, sex and other dis
tinctions.
Then the center Of population would be the
point at which the plane must pivot In order to
balance perfectly. Literally then the center
might be described as the decennial pivot Of the
American population playing seesaw
Obviously this point has no definite relation
ship with the geographical center or the numer-
zeal center Of the population-becau the lever
age given western sections of the country offsets
the weights of larger populations Of the eastern
sections, on this hypothetical teeter-totter.
The westward advance of the center Of popu-
lation by 22.3 miles since 1920 is the smallest
registered in any census except two. In 1900
the advance was only 14.4 miles, and In 1920
1t was down to 98 miles.
On the other hand, the southwark advance Of
7.6 miles. recorded in $780, is far above the
average. Indeed, 1t is a trife more than the net
southwark movement since 1870; that Is to say,
the excess Of southwark mileage over northward.
The westward advance is a reflection Of the
development of the natiOn-the tremendous
strides made by agriculture in the states west of
the Mississippi; the development Of the great oil
industries In Texas and Oklahoma and other
parts of the West, and the steady growth Of In
dustry In general in those areas. All these are
in the picture. Oil, cattle, wheat, manufacturing,
moving pictures, have all had and still exert an
Important influence on the steady movement into
Me West.
A remarkable fact in the shifting Of the center
population is the closeness with which through
ut its westward path it has chung to the thirty
ninth parallel of latitude. Since 1790 1t has
progressed almost in straight line reaching
its furthest point north % miles east of Balti-
more in 1890 and its furthest south point in 1880
in Greene county, Indiana. Yet the span was
only ola miles. The greatest movement west
was during the decade Immediately preceding