LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TAXATION 



147 



have undergone the greatest loss in population are necessarily those 

 which were scantily populated in earlier decades. 



Chart IV compares the population trend of towns that had 1,000 

 or more persons in 1880 with that for towns which had less than 400 

 in 1880. Although the percentage decrease in population was greater 

 for the smaller towns, the larger towns actually lost the greater num- 

 bers. The population of nine small towns declined until 1930 to 64 

 percent of the 1880 figures, and then increased until 1940 when it was 

 70 percent of those figures. In those towns which had 1,000 or more 

 persons in 1880 the population declined until 1920, when it was 78 

 percent of 1880, and then increased to 85 percent in 1940. 



Because of the long period from 1880 to 1940, and because much 

 of the loss of population occurred in the earlier decades, the 100 rural 

 towns were sorted according to their 1940 population as percent of 

 the 1910 figures. This analysis is shown in Table 5. The resulting 

 relationships are virtually identical with those drawn from Table 4 

 and indicate that the towns are similarly grouped in the respective 

 classes and that what population changes occurred between 1880 and 

 1940 are as significant a factor in present town economy as what oc- 

 curred in more recent decades. 



POPU LATIQM PER. TQWKir 

 1400 



IZOO 



1000 



600 L 

 ^00 

 400 

 200 



0^T0Wkl5 



^ T0WM5 



^ 



1560 leqo iqoo iqio iqzo iq5o iq4o 



CEKJ6U6 YEAR. 



Chart IV. Comparison of the trend in population per town of 

 nine towns which had fewer than 400 persons in 1880 with 36 towns 

 which had a population of more than 1,000 in 1880. 



