URBAN POPULATION: PERCENTAGE OF THE TOTAL POPULATION LIVING successive census. In 1790 the total popu- rural. This population, which constitutes nearly eleven per cent. of the total, is therefore classified as semi-urban. There then remains a population of 39,413,703, which is distinctly rural in character, and is equivalent to nearly fifty-two per cent., or more than one half, of the total population of continental United States. The social and economic characteristics of urban communities vary greatly according to the number of inhabitants. The contrast between great cities like New York and Chicago, and towns of 5000 or 10,000 inhabitants, is more marked than that between the latter class of places and the distinctly rural districts. It has been said that urban growth is essentially a great-city growth, and that as a general rule the attractive power which cities exert over the population increases with their size. At any rate, a special interest attaches to the statistics of the large communities as distinguished from the small ones. Of the total population of the United States, twentysix per cent. live in cities of over 25,000, nineteen per cent. in cities of over 100,000, and sixteen per cent. in cities of over 200,000. In 1890 the corresponding percentages were twenty-two, sixteen, and thirteen, respectively; and in 1880 seventeen, thirteen, and ten. On the whole, this compari PERCENTAGE OF THE FOREIGN-BORN TO THE TOTAL POPULATION OF THE STATES AND TERRITORIES son, like that for cities of over 8000, justifies the statement that the proportion of the total population living in cities has not advanced as much in the last decade as it did in the decade from 1880 to 1890; however, the difference is not so marked as when the smaller cities are included. It may be that this retardation in the movement of population toward cities is only temporary; if, however, it is permanent, the great improvements that have recently been made in the means of communication in rural districts offer the clearest explanation. Country life is no longer the isolated, lonely existence that it once was. The telephone has made next-door neighbors of families living miles apart; improvements in mail service, especially the introduction of rural free delivery, bring the morning newspaper to the farmer's door within a few hours after its publication; and the extension of the trolley system has greatly increased the area from which the local urban center can be reached readily for purposes of business or pleasure. COMPOSITION OF THE POPULATION IN 1900 the population of the United States comprised 56,740,739 white persons of native birth, 10,250,049 whites of foreign birth, and 9,312,599 colored persons, mostly negroes. While the composition of the population, as revealed by these figures, is not materially different from what it was in 1890, a comparison is interesting and significant as indicating the direction of the changes that have taken place. It will be found that the foreign white and colored elements each formed a somewhat smaller proportion of the total population in 1900 than in 1890, the proportion of native whites being correspondingly larger. Some noteworthy changes took place in the composition of our foreign-born population. The Germans and the Irish remained the strongest elements, but their numbers decreased four per cent. and fourteen per cent. respectively, the additions by immigration not being sufficient to make good the losses by emigration and by death. In the meantime the numbers of Austrians, Hungarians, Italians, Poles, and Russians more than doubled; and these five nationalities, taken together, constituted seventeen per cent. of the foreignborn in this country in 1900, compared with only eight per cent. in 1890. On the other hand, the percentage of Germans decreased from thirty in 1890 to twenty-six in 1900, and that of Irish from twenty to sixteen. The negroes in the United States in 1900 numbered 8,840,789, constituting over one tenth of the total population. Their rate of increase during the decade, eighteen PERCENTAGE OF THE TOTAL NEGRO POPULATION OF THE STATES AND TERRITORIES and one tenth per cent., did not quite keep pace with that of the other elements of the population, so that the percentage which the negroes formed of the total population decreased from eleven and nine tenths in 1890 to eleven and six tenths in 1900. The white population increased twenty-one and four tenths per cent., but it is noticeable that the rate of increase for native whites of native parentage, eighteen and nine tenths per cent., was but little in excess of the rate for negroes. The increase of the negro race is almost exclusively a natural increase-resulting, that is, from the excess of births over deaths. The white population, on the other hand, is constantly being recruited by immigration from foreign countries. By excluding from the native white population in 1900 those children born in this country since 1890 both of whose parents are foreign, the increase in the native white population of continental United States is reduced from 10,615,988 to 7,379,192, and the percentage of increase from twentythree to sixteen. The latter percentage, which represents approximately the rate of natural increase, is, it will be observed, considerably lower than the rate of increase in the negro population. It appears probable, then, that without this stream of immigration the white population would not be able to maintain its present numerical superiority over the negro race. Of the total negro population in 1900, eighty-nine and nine tenths per cent. was found in the States in which slavery formerly prevailed; in 1890 the corresponding percentage was ninety-one, and in 1880 it was ninety-one and eight tenths. Evidently the dispersion of the negroes is a very gradual process, for after forty years of freedom nine tenths of the race remain in the land of their former bondage. While the South, as a whole, contains a somewhat smaller proportion of the negro race than it did in 1860, this is not true of all Southern regions. There is a noticeable contrast, in this respect, between the upper and lower Southern States, as is shown by the following statement: DIRECTION OF THE NET NEGRO MIGRATION States, but decreasing in the upper; and while this may be in some degree the result of a difference between the two regions in the natural rate of increase of the negro, census statistics show that there is a distinct migratory movement from the upper region into the lower. Of the negroes residing in the lower Southern States in 1900, 269,162 were born in the upper Southern States, while, on the other hand, only 69,960 of those living in the upper group of States were born in the lower; accordingly, the lower group has gained 199,202 more negroes than it has lost by the interchange of population between the two regions. The Southern States in which the negroes formed a larger percentage of the total population in 1900 than they did in 1890 are Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. In Georgia the percentage underwent no change. In all the other Southern States the white population gained on the negro. STATISTICS OF ILLITERACY THE number of illiterates reported has not varied materially in the last three censuses. It was 6,239,958 in 1880, 6,324,702 in 1890, and 6,246,857 in 1900. Since, however, the total population has greatly in creased from census to census, this nearly constant number represents a marked decrease in the percentages. At the tenth census the illiterates constituted seventeen per cent. of the total population over ten years of age. The percentage fell to thirteen in 1890, and to eleven in 1900. Nearly all classes of society and all parts of the country have participated in this improvement. Each of the principal elements of the population-native white of native parentage, native white of foreign parentage, foreign white, and colored-shows a decreasing percentage of illiteracy, and so does each of the main geographic divisions of the country. There are only six States which fail to show progress in this direction; and if the comparison be confined to the native white population, there is no State which shows retrogression. The negro race is, of course, much more illiterate than the white, and this accounts in part for the high percentage of illiteracy reported for the Southern States. Again, the foreign-born white population contains a larger proportion of illiterates than the native white; hence the percentage of illiteracy is relatively high in regions where there are large numbers of foreigners. The percentage of illiteracy, by race and color, for the main geographic divisions of the country, is shown in the following table: whites of native parentage, we get the percentages shown in the following table: PERCENTAGE OF ILLITERACY AMONG NATIVE A further analysis of census figures brings out the interesting fact that, notwithstanding the presence of a relatively large foreign element in cities, the urban. population in all parts of the country is less illiterate than the rural. The percentage of illiteracy in cities of over 25,000 is five . and seven tenths; outside of these cities it is twelve and six tenths. If the comparison be confined to native whites of native parentage, the contrast is still more marked, the percentages being eight tenths for North Central division . cities and six and seven tenths for rural districts. The following table gives a comparison of the illiteracy of the urban and rural white population in the main geographic divisions of the United States: It is noticeable that the contrast between city and country brought out by this table is much more marked in the Southern States than in the Northern and Western, probably on account of the great illiteracy among the poor mountain whites of the South. In a comparison of the illiteracy of the urban white population of the different divisions of the country the Southern States, on the whole, make a better showing than the Northern, evidently because the foreign-born whites are much more numerous in the Northern cities than in the Southern. If we confine the comparison to the native GEOGRAPHIC DIVISION United States North Atlantic division. South Central division AGRICULTURE IN 1890 the area devoted to agriculture was 623,218,619 acres; in 1900 it was 841,201,546 acres, showing an increase of 217,982,927 acres, or thirty-five per cent. This remarkable addition to farm acreage, far exceeding that shown in any previous decade, was mostly confined to the Central and Western States. A considerable part of it was due to the sale or leasing of State lands in Texas, and to the opening up for settlement of agricultural lands in Oklahoma and Indian Territory. Most of the grazing-land in Texas is still owned by the State, but, being leased to cattle- and sheep-raisers, was very properly reported in 1900 as agricultural land. In this State alone the addition to the acreage of farm-land exceeded 74,000,000 acres, accounting for one third of the total increase shown for the country. In Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and California, increases ranging from 7,000,000 to 14,000,000 acres each made up another third. All the States west of the Mississippi, except Arizona and Montana, added more than a million acres each to their agricultural areas. East of the Mississippi, the |