The Daily Alaska empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1926-1964, 1947-09-05
They Went West
washington Post1

washington PosD
Few Americans yet of the profound
effects of wartime migration within country.
Most of have known in a general way that mil
lions of workers left their homes to work in new
environments But only when the Census Bureau
along with its we'll buttressed estimates of popu
lation changes begin to understand the extent
of the changes that have taken place. They not
merely shifts in population from farm to city but
great regional migrations that may be expected to
influence the growth of the United States through
the remainder of the present century.
BY far the most phenomenal development recorded
in the current census report covering the period from
April 1910 to July /, 1916 is the 33380o0 increase
in the population of the Western States In six years
the West has expanded its population by nearly one
fourth large part of this growth went to California
which had 1862 cent increase in civilian popua-
ton; but the States of Oregon and Washington were
not far behind Arizona contributed a "a per cent
increase; Nevada, 213 and Utah, 1873 Some Western
States lost heavily, notably Montana and Idaho, but
the general picture is of remarkable growth. New
sources of materials and power have been tapped
New industrial plants such the gigantic steel mills
at Geneva, Utah, have been built. In this postwar
period the West is looking toward not only the manu-
facture of many of the products needed for its
but also toward production of industrial goods for
other parts of the country and for foreign markets
It's vast of COAL oil and iron strongly
buttress these plans.
BY comparison with the West all other have
been static since 1910 far regional changes in
population concerned The Northeastern States
had a gain of only 81 per cent-about half the
tona average of So per cent The North Central
States experienced per cent gain and the South
Jagged behind with only &c per cent. Within these
regions however, very notable shifts evident
Some areas in the South, notably Florida, Mary
land, the District of Columbia, Virginia and Texas
made striking gains The is true Of Michigan,
Connecticut, Indiana and Ohio. Population natur-
ally pulled to industries in these States and while
many workers have returned to their old
homes, the conversion of plants has provided
jobs for great numbers of men and thus insured the
permanency of population shifts originally made
emergency basis.
The that has suffered most from these
migratons is the farm belt of the Middle West North
Dakota lost than 16 per cent of her population
in six years and South Dakota nearly Is per cent.
Smaller losses sustained by Nebraska and Mis-
souri, and number of States in the South. Appar-
emily the happy trend of population southwark in the
decade before the has been reversed That is
especially unfortunate consequence of the for the
South urgently in need of industrial growth raise
it's standard of living The growth of the West, even
though it consequence of war, is salutary
approach toward better geographical balance in our
industrial system. 1t will be happy development if,
with the return of peacetime the South is able to
resume larger scale the Naturalization that SO
many of her people seeking.