File:Social problems, a study of present-day social conditions (1916) (14594420130).jpg

Identifier: socialproblemss00town (find matches)
Title: Social problems, a study of present-day social conditions
Year: 1916 (1910s)
Authors: Towne, Ezra Thayer, 1873-
Subjects: Social problems
Publisher: New York : Macmillan Co.
Contributing Library: University of British Columbia Library
Digitizing Sponsor: University of British Columbia Library

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which likewise equally divides it.The center of population has quite a different meaning.This is said rather to represent the center of gravity of thepopulation, and is that point which could be reached with theminimum aggregate travel if all the people in the UnitedStates were to travel in direct hues to this one point. Fromthis definition, it is evident that any individual would affectthe center in direct proportion to his distance from it. Indetermining the median point, distance is not taken intoaccount. Any movement of the population within one ofthe four sections made by the median lines would not affectthe median point; while any movement toward or awayfrom the center of population would have its effect in chang-ing the location of that center. At the last census, the center of population was foundto be in Owen County, Indiana. During the last decade,the center of population moved westward approximatelyten miles, and northward only two tenths of a mile. Since 24 Social Problems
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Population 25 the first census, when the center of population was nearBaltimore, it has moved westward five hundred and sixty-seven miles, averaging a Httle more than forty-three milesa decade. In all this movement westward, it has followedvery closely the thirty-ninth parallel. The center of area of the United States is in the northernpart of Kansas, near the Nebraska border, and midwaybetween the east and west boundaries of the state. Thispoint is 657 miles west and 51 miles north of the center ofpopulation. Race.^ — Of the total number of people in the UnitedStates, about nine tenths are white and one tenth negro.The other races make up less than one half of one per centof the population. The negro population, although it hasincreased steadily, has increased less rapidly than the white.At the time of the first census, negroes constituted a littleless than one fifth of the total population. During the pastdecade, the rate of increase of the whites has been more thandouble that of

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