Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-11-15
THE WORLDS POPULATION.
The enormous Increase i'm England-Ar
Astounding Result Pointed Out.

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ring the thoughts and inaaming the
fears of good many members of the
Social Science Congress. He has put
forward view which if not altogether
novel-for Nautilus anticipated many
OF his statements-is, nevertheless, we'll
calculated to startle steady-going peo-
pie to WI ON a danger is none the less
real because it is inconceivably remote
He has been dealing with the enor-
NOUS increase Of the population Of
England, and his idea is that this in
crease Is a matter Of great and imme-
date concern. In the ye&r 1901 the
population of this country was only
s, 092,357, while in 1871 it had become
22,712, 266; thus exhibiting mean an
nual increase of nearly 1.35 per cent.
In the seventy years between these
dates he computes that the loss by war
and emigration only amounted to Is
persons in every 10000 Of the popula-
ton. Assuming taat this amount OF
spontaneous loss will remain unal-
tered over q prolonged course
OF years, he proceeds to cal
culate what the growth Of popu-
lation will amount to in the future; and
be gives us q result which, taken in its
simple nakedness, is astounding. At
the end Of that first generation, the
population Of England will become 49,
1000; at the end of the second gen.
Grafton, "a 100000 at the end of the
third generation, $50 100000; at the end
of the fourth generation, 230,O00,O0O;
at the end of the fifth generation, 4OO,-
100000; at the end of the seventh gen
Grafton more than the world now con-
tains, and at the end of the twentieth
generation more than fifteen such
worlds would contain each as densely
populated as our globe is at present.
From this calculation Mr.. Hawksley
drew, or rather suggested, q number of
Interences with reference to the food
supply Of the "countless millions vet
unborn" and other matters affecting
their welfare, and thus led the way to
conclusion that might be expected, if it
were accepted, to cause a good deal of |
alarm and disquiet, not only among
English people, but in the world at
large. For if the English people in
crease and multiply at this rapid rate,
1t must be assumed that other nations
IN which there Is a steady increase Of |
population will proceed in the same
ratio. America, for instance, and
Germany, to take the other examples,
must, like ourselves. 60 on doubling
their population at periods varying
from 40 to TO years. and in that case,
by the time the twentieth generation is
reached, three nations alone will re-
quire, not fifteen more worlds, but the
greater part of the planetary. But
MIR. Hawksley admits that, as regards
the latter part of the calculation-that
is, that relating to A. d. 2676-taking 8
generation st forty years-it must fail
of fulfilment, because of it's essential
impossibility. We are therefore neces-
sarlly limited in the practical discus
sion OF the figures to seven genera
TONS, by which our own people will be
equal IN number to the present popu-
lation Of the globe; but that is a suf-
ficiently long look ahead to enable us,
on the strength of Mr.. Hawksleys fig
ures, to anticipate an unpleasant de-
gree Of overcrowding. A question,
however, of more Immediate mport-
ance than the struggle Of our remote
descendants for standing room, relates
to the trustwoIthiness Of these appar-
emily portentous statistics. Are our
country people increasing and likely to
go on increasing at the rate Mr..
Hawksley predicts? Twenty gen
erations have passed away since
the Norman Conquest, and they have
only seen the population increase from
about four millions to nearly twenty
three millions, plus, of course, the en-
igrants who have gone out from among
us during the last three centuries.
What ground have we for believing
that IN another twenty generations the
growth Of population would, if it were
possible, need fifteen more worlds to
live In, or that in three, four or five
generations the numbers will reach the
enormous proportions MIR Hawksley
sets down? The only ground for the
belief is that the normal increase is to
continue, and the amount of loss from
war and emigration is to remain unal-
tered, both Of which are assump tions
we have no right to make, and no foun-
dation to rest upon in making them.
But the integral defect Of the calcula-
ton is that 1t ignores the fundamental
lazy that nature corrects her own ex-
cesses, and, on this principle, we may
be SIRE that nature will effectually
check such a progress as Mr.. Hawks
ley's figures foreshadoWed.
The Romance of the Arctic Disaster.
The disaster of the New Bedford |
whaling fleet in the Arctic Sea reminds
us that the haunts of the leviathan of
the ocean are more inaccessible than
they We're years ago. When the Bis
cayans began the fishery in the twelfth
century the king Of the Arctic ranged
from Spitzbergen nearly to the equator.
When the Dutch and English embarked
in the business a century Or two later,
the Bay of Biscay had ceased to be it's
habitat, and the affrighted monster had
begun It's retreat through the chilly
waters of the North Sea and the North |
Atlantic to the forbidding localities be-
You'd the North Cape and Iceland,
where the ice foes grind and snap, the
ice-bergs reel and thunder, and the
white bear makes it's home in the ever
lasting SHOWS. The whale so vindictively