Felix Somary · 1903
First published in 1903 and supplied here as an offprint dated [1904], Somary’s survey examines American population and economic development through the twelfth census. Moving from statistical administration and demography to agriculture and industrial concentration, it connects expansion with migration, continental resources, technical adaptability, and business organization. Its methodological argument is that statistical categories do not necessarily reveal the ownership and dependence underlying production.
Somary places the census within an established investigative series:
Der zwölfte Zensus der Vereinigten Staaten schließt sich in der Gesamtanlage seinen Vorgängern an und wir verweisen darum auf die Besprechung der Organisation des neunziger Zensus in der Januarnummer 1903 der Statistischen Monatsschrift.
English translation: The twelfth census of the United States follows its predecessors in its overall arrangement, and we therefore refer to the discussion of the organisation of the census of the nineties in the January 1903 number of the Statistische Monatsschrift.
Continuity enables historical comparison, but does not make the returns transparent evidence. Somary criticizes fragmented statistical administration and welcomes the permanent census bureau established in 1902. He distinguishes economic change from differences in definitions, coverage, and enumeration: capital totals can involve double counting, while occupational classifications can obscure actual activities by assigning workers to their employers’ branches of business.
Population growth acquires economic significance through its geographical distribution. Immigration, westward settlement, and urbanization redistribute productive capacity rather than merely enlarge the national total. Regional comparison is therefore central:
Wie stark die Bevölkerung in den Nordzentralstaaten zugenommen hat, das zeigt der nachfolgende Vergleich der Bevölkerung der führenden Staaten dieser Ländergruppe zur Zeit der Erklärung zum selbständigen Staat mit der Volkszahl von 1900.
English translation: How strongly the population in the North Central States has increased is shown by the following comparison of the population of the leading states of this group of territories at the time of their declaration as independent states with the population figure of 1900.
The comparison links settlement history to the emergence of economic centers. Somary also interprets urban mobility as a source of competitive energy: newcomers encounter fewer entrenched civic hierarchies than those shaping European commercial life. His demographic analysis extends beyond immigrants themselves to the population of foreign origin:
Unter den Staaten des Westens zählt Utah mit 61% die größte Zahl von Bewohnern fremder Herkunft.
English translation: Among the states of the West, Utah, with 61%, counts the largest number of inhabitants of foreign origin.
This distinction registers immigration’s effects across generations. Discussions of marriage, literacy, housing, and mortality further differentiate population groups. Improved conditions help explain lower mortality among emigrants from eastern Europe. Nevertheless, contemporary racial hierarchies and speculative group characterizations remain embedded in the analysis alongside criticism of some anti-immigrant judgments.
Occupational statistics connect demography to production, indicating movement toward commerce and industry while exposing problems of comparability, particularly after the defective southern enumeration of 1890. Agriculture likewise resists explanation through national averages. Climate, crops, machinery, and cultivation practices produce divergent regional tendencies; average farm size cannot establish a universal advantage of either large or small operations.
The distinction between agricultural establishments and landed ownership is especially consequential. Several separately operated farms may belong to one proprietor, so operating-unit counts cannot directly measure ownership concentration. Rising tenancy provides indirect evidence of changing property relations. Somary’s treatment of the South similarly relates plantation fragmentation and cultivation patterns to social hardship, rather than interpreting them solely as changes in establishment size.
The industrial analysis connects high wages and mechanization with growing output, larger establishments, and corporate concentration. Cheap transport and an extensive integrated market favor expansion, while weaker attachments to inherited family businesses facilitate sales, mergers, and trusts. Organizational flexibility becomes a comparative advantage over Europe.
Somary nevertheless separates productive efficiency from financial soundness. Promoters may capitalize anticipated economies before they materialize, inflating securities beyond earning capacity. Moreover, nominal independence can conceal economic subordination: cultivators or retailers whose inputs, prices, and sales are controlled by larger enterprises may function as dependent workers despite remaining legally separate businesses. Establishment statistics thus risk understating concentrated economic power.
The survey closes from an Austrian perspective, viewing American prosperity sympathetically because it offers emigrants opportunities unavailable at home. Its distinctive contribution is to combine an explanation of expansion with a critique of statistical appearances: population and establishment counts become economically meaningful through attention to regional conditions, property relations, and effective control.
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