THE CITY 



THE advance of the Museum as an important part of the educa- 

 tional system of the city will naturally accompany step by 

 step, if it does not precede, the advance of the city itself. 

 There are reasons why it should precede the advance of the city 

 because education and civilization should precede rather than follow 

 increases in population and in material resources. The factors which 

 enter into population and public education are the following: 



Total Population 



Foreign and Foreign-born Population 



Rapidity of Increase of Population 



Increase of the Public and Personal Wealth of the City 



POPULATION 



The striking statistics which are presented in the accompanying 

 diagrams are based on the census of 1900. That the figures which 

 will be assembled by the census of 1910 will be still more striking is 

 shown by independent estimates and calculations which have been 

 made by various statisticians. These demonstrate that within a 

 comparatively brief period New York will be the world's metropolis, 

 that London will yield its present supremacy in population in less than 

 fifteen years, that New York and its environs will then have a greater 

 population than London by about 200,000, and that in twenty years 

 New York and its environs will exceed London in population by nearly 

 a million. 



The rate of increase of population of 16f per cent, in the five years 

 1900-1905 is paralleled by a similar rate on the New Jersey side, and 

 with the eastern transit facilities completed will undoubtedly be 

 equalled by a similar rate on the Long Island side. 



[143] 



