Cityward Migration Research Articles

Internal Migration in Peace and War

IN A DISCUSSION of wartime migration, it is well to remind ourselves that Americans are a very mobile people in peacetime. The long and frequent treks of the frontier period seem to have left us with a national habit of pursuing opportunity about the country. The census data on State of birth have recorded the cumulative effects of these currents and cross-currents at decennial intervals since i850. Not until I940, however, did we collect national figures on internal migration among and within States during a specific period of time. Data from which to derive measures of internal migration during the war period are relatively scarce. However, by piecing together the various items of information that are available, one can obtain the broad outlines of recent population movements in the United States. The I940 data cover the period from April II 935, to April I, I940, a period characterized by gradual and partial recovery from the Great Depression. Cityward migration from rural areas was accelerating but still lagged behind the pace set in the booming twenties. The centrifugal scatter from metropolis to suburbs was more pronounced than ever. The long-established exodus from the South to the North was slackening, but the older westward movement went on, aggravated by drought in the Plains States. About I4,000,000 persons lived in a different county' in I940 from their county of residence in I935. It is they whom we have somewhat arbitrarily chosen to call mi-

Book Reviews

Abstract Abstract Methods of Statistical Analysis, by C. H. Goulden. New York: John Wiley Sons, Inc. 1939. vii, 277 pp. $3.50. Reviewed by S. S. Wilks Tests of Significance, What They Mean and How to Use Them, by John H. Smith. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 1939. ix, 90 pp. $1.00. Reviewed by Harry Schwartz Initiation a L'analyse Statistique, by Léo Dugé de Bernonville. Paris: Librarie Générale de Droit et de Jurisprudence. L'économie Politique Contemporaine, Colection Dirigée par Bertrand Nogaro, Volume XIX. 1939. 232 pp. Reviewed by Max Sasuly Statistics Applied to Education and Psychology, by Clarence T. Gray and David F. Votaw. New York: The Ronald Press Company. 1939. xiv, 278 pp. $3.25. Reviewed by Martin F. Fritz Graphic Presentation, by Willard C. Brinton. New York: Brinton Associates. 1939. 512 pp. $5.00. Reviewed by Morton S. Nagelberg Research and Statistical Methodology: Books and Reviews, 1933–1938, by Oscar Krisen Buros, Editor. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. 1938. vi, 100 pp. $1.25. Reviewed by Harold A. Phelps Statistical Testing of Business-Cycle Theories, Volume II: Business Cycles in the United States of America 1919–1932, by J. Tinbergen. Geneva: League of Nations. New York: Columbia University Press. 1939. 244 pp. $1.25. Reviewed by Wilbert G. Fritz Report of the Fifth Annual Research Conference on Economics and Statistics Held at Colorado Springs, Cowles Commission for Research in Economics July 3 to 28, 1939. Chicago: University of Chicago. 1939. 93 pp. Reviewed by O. J. McDiarmid The Influence of Prices on Exports. The Hague: Netherlands Central Statistical Office. June 1939. 48 pp. Fl. 0.60. (In Dutch with English Summary.) Reviewed by Carel Jan Smit Die Schalthebel der Konjunktur, by Paul Binder. Munich and Berlin: R. Oldenbourg. 1939. 106 pp. Rm. 4.80. Reviewed by Otto Nathan World Economic Survey, Eighth Year, 1938–39. 247 pp. $1.50. Reviewed by Charles S. Tippetts World Production and Prices, 1938–39. 113 pp. $1.25. Reviewed by Charles S. Tippetts Geneva: League of Nations. New York: Columbia University Press. 1939. Reviewed by Charles S. Tippetts Philadelphia Labor Market Studies (In One Volume). “The Labor Force of the Philadelphia Radio Industry in 1936,” by Gladys L. Palmer and Ada M. Stoflet. April 1938. xiv, 102 pp. Reviewed by V. O. Watts Philadelphia Labor Market Studies (In One Volume). “Ten Years of Work Experience of Philadelphia Weavers and Loom Fixers,” by Gladys L. Palmer. July 1938. xiv, 100 pp. Reviewed by V. O. Watts Philadelphia Labor Market Studies (In One Volume). “Ten Years of Work Experience of Philadelphia Machinists,” by Helen Herrmann. September 1938. xiv, 132 pp. Reviewed by V. O. Watts Philadelphia Labor Market Studies (In One Volume). “Reemployment of Philadelphia Hosiery Workers after Shutdowns in 1933–34,” by Gladys L. Palmer and Constance Williams. January 1939. xiv, 100 pp. Reviewed by V. O. Watts Trends in Size and Production of the Aggregate Farm Enterprise, 1909–36, by Raymond G. Bressler, Jr. and John A. Hopkins. July 1938. xvi, 255 pp. Reviewed by Roland S. Vaile Trends in Employment in Agriculture, 1909–36, by Eldon E. Shaw and John A. Hopkins. November 1938. xvi, 163 pp. Reviewed by Roland S. Vaile Wheat Studies of the Food Research Institute. Stanford University, California “World Wheat Survey and Outlook January 1939,” by Helen C. Farnsworth and Holbrook Working. Volume XV, Number 5. January 1939. pp. 259–96. $0.75. Reviewed by Theodore Norman Wheat Studies of the Food Research Institute. “Seasonal Aspects of the European Wheat Trade,” by M. K. Bennett. Volume XV, Number 6. March 1939. pp. 297–335. $0.75. Reviewed by Theodore Norman Wheat Studies of the Food Research Institute. “Durum Wheats and their Utilization,” by Carl L. Alsberg. Volume XV, Number 7. April 1939. pp. 337–64. $0.75. Reviewed by Theodore Norman Wheat Studies of the Food Research Institute. “World Wheat Survey and Outlook May 1939.” by V. P. Timoshenko and Holbrook Working. Volume XV, Number 8. May 1939. pp. 365–400. $0.75. Reviewed by Theodore Norman On Agricultural Policy, 1926–1938, by Joseph S. Davis. Stanford University, California: Food Research Institute. 1939. viii, 494 pp. $3.00. Reviewed by E. J. Working German Financial Policies 1932–1939, by Kenyon E. Poole. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1939. xiv, 276 pp. $3.50. Reviewed by S. J. Mushkin Personal Finance Comes of Age, by M. R. Neifeld. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1939. ix, 324 pp. $3.50. Reviewed by Rolf Nugent Credit Unions in Massachusetts, by Joseph L. Snider. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Publications of the Pollak Foundation for Economic Research, Number 14. 1939. 142 pp. $2.50. Reviewed by William B. Jensen The Structure and Growth of Residential Neighborhoods in American Cities, by Homer Hoyt. Washington, D. C.: Federal Housing Administration. 1939. vi, 178 pp. $1.50. Reviewed by Malcolm J. Proudfoot Cityward Migration: Swedish Data, by Jane Moore. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. 1938. xix, 140 pp. $2.00. Reviewed by W. Lewis Abbott

Movements of Population

The effects of the depression on births and deaths are not very clearly marked. The number of births declined less in the five years 1929-34 than in the five years 1924-29. This was scarcely to be expected. Deaths show a steady decline during the depression until 1934, the lowest recorded rate we have ever had being in 1933. There was an increase in deaths during 1934, but it was not very great and, considering the possibility of error in estimates, is nothing to be alarmed about. Marriages show the effects of the depression about as might be expected up to 1932, when the number contracted was almost 250,000 fewer than in 1929. This loss appears to have been made up by 1934, however, when estimated marriages were in excess of those in 1929. Cityward migration ceased for the first three years of the depression, the net movement being to farms. In 1933 and 1934 the movement was again toward the city, although the country has retained not only its own natural increase but also some of the migrants into it during 1930-32.

Qualitative Selection in Cityward Migration

Study of rural-city migration in a sample in Albemarle County, Virginia, representing three social classes-upper, middle, and lower-shows that the upper group sustained decidedly the largest proportionate loss to the cities, the middle group the next heaviest, and the lower group the least. the educational training of the possible migrants among the upper group is strikingly higher than that of the middle and lower groups, which also show a marked difference in this respect. Similarly, those from the upper group, and to a less extent in the middle group, enter mainly the business, professional, and clerical occupations, while the migrants from the lower groups concentrate in occupations calling for unskilled, semi-skilled, and skiller labor. The attitudes of parents in the three groups with regard to their sons' following farming, in considerable measure, parallel the direction of preponderant migration in the particular group.