No. 4.] LESSONS FR(3:M THE CENSUS. 67 



already a series of bulletins with regard to these first deter- 

 mined data. From these, and from the information whicli 

 the officers of the census have been kind cuouirh to furnish 

 me, I am able to present to you certain comparisons between 

 the results of 1900 and the results of former censuses ; and, 

 while these are not definitive, they are suflicicntly accurate 

 for the purpose of drawing general conclusions. My pur- 

 pose, as I am glad to state again more specifically, is not 

 so much to present to you the results of a strict analysis of 

 certain statistics as it is to call your attention to the great 

 mass of information which the government is here oratherinir 

 for the use of all its citizens, and to emphasize the fact 

 that when it appears in complete form it will furnish to men 

 of all classes data of the highest interest, not only for deter- 

 mining our standing with respect to other nations, but also 

 for determining something of tlie opportunities which each 

 individual has in the field of energy to which he has applied 

 himself. The value of these great sources of information 

 which the government furnishes with so liberal a hand is not 

 alwaj's understood, and I beg to commend to you a study 

 of the results of the twelfth census when those results appear 

 in their final form. You will, therefore, consider that to-day 

 I am not giving you the real results of the twelfth census, 

 except in the most general form, but I am simply pointing 

 you to that valuable collection of statistics when it is ready 

 for 3'our use. In other words, I am giving you to-night not 

 the feast itself, but simply the menu card. 



First of all, the cursory inspection of the census, in com- 

 parison with those of other nations, cannot fail to impress 

 one with the strength and power of this country. Several 

 considerations enter when one undertakes to estimate the 

 relative places of the great world powers. One nmst con- 

 sider not only the number of separate units which compose 

 the population, but the efficiency and potential of the })ar- 

 ticular unit, and, finally, the organization which can wield 

 these units effectively. Considered from the first two points 

 of view, the United States is doubtless the most powerful 

 nation on earth ; for, although her population is less than 

 that of Russia, which now has 130,000,000 people, the in- 

 feriority of the units is so great that the pre-eminence of the 



