POPULATION. 115 



the two races in the case of a few denominations which in- 

 clude both whites and negroes, especially the northern 

 Methodist.* The exact definition of church membership 

 varies even more in different denominations than was for- 

 merly supposed, but the census figures are taken literally, 

 as before.f 



Of course some of the denominations have changed in 

 relative importance in ten years, but the changes are in 

 most cases comparatively small, and there is no telling how 

 much of the difference may be due to incomplete returns, 

 so that it would be rather hazardous for an outsider to at- 

 tempt to explain the variations. But readers familiar with 

 conditions in the different denominations in the area treated 

 may be able to draw some interesting conclusions. 



POLITICAL PARTIES. 



As it might be of some interest to prospective settlers to 

 know the prevailing political faith of their future neighbors, 

 some political statistics have been taken from the article in 

 the Montgomery Advertiser of October 28, 1919, referred to 

 in the bibliography. The percentage of Democratic and 

 Kepublican votes at the presidential election of 1916 which 

 is probably typical enough of national elections in the last 

 decade or two, except that of 1912, when the interjection of 

 a new party complicated matters somewhat is given for 

 each region, and some statistics of illiteracy, farm building 

 values and racial composition of the population which have 

 already been given in other tables are put in adjoining col- 

 umns for purposes of comparison. The vote of minor parties, 

 such as Prohibitionist and Socialist, is too small to be of any 

 significance, except that the Socialists polled nearly 13 per 

 cent of the total vote in Baldwin County, probably mostly in 

 and around Fairhope. It must be borne in mind that very 

 few negroes are qualified to vote in Alabama according to 

 present regulations, so that these figures do not represent 

 the total adult male population, but practically only the 

 whites ; which is fortunate for statistical purposes. 



*In the whole State of Alabama nearly 55% of the Northern 

 Methodists in 1916 were negroes, but it would be difficult to guess 

 the number of negroes belonging to that denomination in any one 

 county or region. 



flf only adult members were counted we would have a fairer 

 basis of comparison. 



