Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1910 — Center of Population Not Expected to Move Far. [ARTICLE]

Center of Population Not Expected to Move Far.

The center of population of the continental United States, which at the time of the first census was twentythree miles east of Baltimore, has been traveling westward with each decade. In 1900 it was located near Columbus, Ind., about forty miles south of Indianapolis. In 1890 it was twenty-six miles farther east and in the two previous decades it kept rather near to Cincinnati. With each decade it has moved a little farther west, but has continued to keep very close to the thirty-ninth parallel, the latitude approximately of Baltimore and Cincinnati.

With the developement and spread of population in the west the wonder is that the center of population keeps so disproportunately far to the east of the center of area. It now stops at about one-fourth of the entire distance from coast to coast. The present census will doubtless carry it a little farther west, andnerhaps a little to the south, because of the new population in Oklahoma. Other western states have made large additions to their population, but they have lost much by migration to Canada and latterly to Mexico. It is not likely, therefore, that the center of population will move out of Indiana, or, indeed, get very far from its last stopping place. While the west is growing the east is not standing still. The great cities particularly are growing at a rapid rate, which Bhows no signs of abating. Of the twelve largest cities in the United States, by the census of 1900, eight were east of the center of population. The prodigious growth of New York city alone will almost balance the developement and settlement of new area in the west. 'Therefore, while the west grooms along at a rate that promises to put everything behind it, the center of population insists on staying at each decade just a few miles farther west of its camping ground ten years before, showing that while the whole country is growing the old east increases in population almost as rapidly as the new west.