Evening star., 1947-11-30

mile zone, Cleveland 4 loss Of lis,
New York City loss Of l0.7, Phila-
delphia loss of los, Pittsburgh a
loss Of and st. Louis loss Of
18. In the 1-to-2-mile area from
the city's center Washington showed
an increase of 31.2 and the nearest
other city to that figure was Nash
vile. with an increase of 8.3.
In the areas between and miles
from the city's center, Washington s
increase was 45.3 per cent and the
other city coming nearest to that
record was Los Angeles with 1913 in
crease Washington likewise led the
procession in the area from miles
and over with 1873 per cent increase.
In the Washington ID. c. metro
pclitan district 73 per cent Of the
population resided in the central
city on April /. 1910. The corIe-
spending figure for the 140 metro
politan districts defined in 1910 was
68 per cent.
Employment Gain Noted
The April, 1947, survey conducted
by the Census Bureau in "a metro
politan areas since 1910 OF 297 900:
gain in employment of 1855 900, and
the creation during the seven years
since 1910 Of 100000 new housing
units. The population gain, there
fore, in seven years exceeded the
increase during the 10 previous years
and greatly exceeded the increase
during any other decade since
| 1900.
! Although Washington ranked 18th
in city population in the 1943 CEN
sus, in 1889 it ranked eighth among
the cities Of the United States in the
order of retail sales size. During
1899 its retail sales were SCOT per
capital, as compared with 1919 per
capital for the United States as A
whole. In 1885 Washington retail
sales were ITO per cent higher per
capita than the entire country, and
in 1929 they were 73 per cent
higher.
The study of metropolitan areas
pretty well establishes the fact that
in spite Of the discussions respect
ing decentralization of industries
and dispersion Of population the
tendency toward further concentra-
ton seems to have been continued
with little significant change, ex-
cept that within the metropolitan
districts themselves the population
in the outlying sections has tended
to increase more apidly-sometimes
at the expense Of the central city.
Any study of this kind must nec-
essarily sharpen attention on the
dangers which threaten huge con-
centrations Of population in case
of another global war. Every one
now recognizes that a single atom
bomb could wreak havoc in any of
these concentrated areas and that
series Of such bombs would prob
ably render these communities un-
able to function
Change in Trend Indicated
Whether or not there was any
real movement toward the decen-
tralization of industry during the
war years will be told in 1913. wher
the Census Bureau completes the
census of manufactures covering
manufacturing operations during
1947.
Despite the persistent and SEEM
ingly continuous growth Of metro
politan areas, there are factors
which would seem to indicate an
approaching turn in the trend.
Since the growth Of cities has been
maintained through the Immigration
from rural areas. where the repro
duction rate has been high, the con-
stantly increasing proportion OF
population in cities as compared
with rural areas will necessarily slow
down this operation. Moreover, the
long g-term trend even in the rural
areas seems to be toward lowering
of the reproduction rate
Other factors which may tend to
slow big city growth include the
difficulties and the cost Of public
transportation and the high tax
rates made necessary to meet the
costs OF the tremendous physical
construction for community con-
venience. Already large cities are
finding greater difnculty in meeting
their financial requirements through
taxation on real estate and are being
driven to the necessity Of resorting
to other types of taxation to meet
their financial needs.
It is reasonable to assume that the
maintenance of big city growth has
been assisted by two wars within
30 years. Since the large industrial
plants we're already largely operating
within large centers 1t was natural
that the excess requirements Of pro-
duction for war purposes would be
through the quick conversion and
expansion Of plants already existing,
which, In turn, attracted new floods
Of workers from the rural areas.