THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



OCTOBER, 1891. 



LESSONS FROM THE CENSUS. 



Br CARROLL D. WRIGHT, A.M., 



UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF LABOR. 

 I. 



WITH the statement of the total population of the country, 

 and of each State distributed as to counties, cities, and 

 towns, the popular interest in the Federal census begins to wane, 

 and, as the results relative to the features other than merely of 

 enumeration are obtained, the scientific interest increases. This 

 interest is entertained by all classes of students : the economist 

 desires immediate results as to production, wealth, debt, taxation, 

 etc. ; the social scientist is looking for statements relative to color 

 and race, conjugal condition, the death-rate and health of the 

 people, and facts covering various other relations ; and the states- 

 man and politician are anxious to secure comparisons of the 

 growth of population, the changes incident to new productive 

 enterprises, the concentration of wealth, and all the other expan- 

 sive elements which concern the great discussions in which they 

 are engaged. Under the new census, the eleventh, the interest of 

 other bodies is brought into activity. The question as to whether 

 the homes and farms of the country are owned by the occupants, 

 and the extent to which they are mortgaged, as well as the psy- 

 chological reasons for incurring mortgage indebtedness, serves to 

 interest, and in a most lively way, the student who is sociologi- 

 cally inclined. The enumeration of the surviving soldiers and the 

 widows of deceased soldiers of the war of the rebellion brings 

 into play not only the interest of the veterans themselves but of 

 the legislators of the country, and, in addition, the sentiment of 

 the whole community. All these various features of our Federal 

 census excite the interest of the people on a broader scale and in 

 more thoroughly scientific directions than would the enumera- 



TOL. XXXIX. 52 



