The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1883-01-26
WHOLE NO. 7O7.
PEoPLING THE WORLD.
America to Contain over 100000, zoo
Within 100 Years, with sim Room
for More.
London Spectator.


Within 100 Years, with stn Room
for More.
London Spectator.
Very few calculations of things to happen
fifty years after ever prove correct, some un-
| expected and dormant factor always inter-
| venlng to confound the wisdom Of the wise.
We are not, therefore, much frightened when
q statist, even like Mr.. r. Gihen, tells us in
the near future America may be fully peo-
pied, and that Europe, its emgr alton stop
ped, will be filled with masses Of workmen,
| driven TO dangerous discomfort by Insult
cient food. Over population Is a possible
evil, for Il has occurred In China; though be
It noted without the result of pr oducing
social discord, there Is no certainty that the
evil will arrive. We know, to begin with,
little of the tine law CT the expansion of
population. The old theory that population
expanded with prosperity is totally opposed
to the facts. Not to menl,on the phenom
email growth OF the population Of India,
without proportionate increase In their
means of subsistence, the Irish population
multiplied in misery until subsistence failed;
while the Jews, a splendidly healthy and
fairly fed people, have either not increased
at all or with exceeding slowness. Had they
multiplied after the final dispersion like Teu-
tons, the world would now belong to the
Jewish people. The two branches of the
Teutons, again, increase with such startling
raPidity that they promise to overwhelm all
other white races, but that rapid increase is
novel, and did not occur, for example, dur
ing the long period Of comparative peace
enjoyed in England under the House OF Tu.
dor. In 1882 there may, IS Mr.. Giffsn inti-
mates, be eight hundred millions people In
North America, but also there may not be
two hundred millions. The emigration from
Europe may stop altogether, or be diverted |;
social causes, as has undoubtedly happened
among certain classes of our society, or the
rate of increase may change as has happen
ed repeatedly in different parts of the world,
causes of mortality. There is reason to be-
lieve, as Mr.. Glffsn will know much better
than ourselves, that In Scandinavia, from
1700 to 1900, without any perceptible emf
grafton, the increase of population stepped
altogether.
For the present-that is for thirty years,
beyond which we hold It is vain to calculate
with any hope of certainty, the grand rush
and sweep Of the European people to the
west, which the future historian will record
as one of the distinctive marks of the Vic
toran era, need not cease for any want of
room. A historian of some mark, writing
in our own columns many years ago, pre-
dicted as the result Of personal observation,
that the United States would rel cot emi-
grants within twenty years after he wrote
his letter. Three fourths of the time has
elapsed, and that astounding march of the
people, before which all other movements
shrink into insigni6cance has only incre ased
breadth and volume till, as we write, from
all the Teutonlc and Scandinavian countries
and from Ireland four regiments a day pre-
cipitate themselves upon the new world,
and still the old world Is full. Here and
there, in Sweden and Ireland principally,
the drain begins to tell perceptibly on num-
bers until North Sweden Is threatened with
something like depopulation, and the place
Of Ireland in the British empire sinks, as
Mr.. Gitfen has noticed, year by year. The
thousands who pass on westward in endless
succession settle on the land and still there
is room for all. The average population Is
only thirty-five to the square mile. The
State of New York itself Is sill very un-
settled, still full of ancient forests-thc State
which, If peopled like Suffolk, could main-
tain thirty millions at least, containing as
yet only five millions. There Is, except In
tho eastern States, where the fertility Of the
land, originally poor, has been partially
worn out, no sign Of exhaustion, nor can
we trace even the first beginning of that cry
in the west against further immigration,
which will be the first, probably even the
first premature sign that the land Is full.
As for the huge Canadian Dominion,
which might hold hfty millions in comfort,
without neighbors ever visiting each other
on foot, Its great lamentation is that people
do not come fast enough, while Its Govern
ment IL straining every nerve to increase the
culturabls area under Its contro Gradu-
ally, yet rapidly, the engineers are driving q
railroad westward from the lakes, crossing
the wastes and piercing the hinge mountain
barriers which separate settled Canada from
the Pacific, till within five years the Journey
to British Columbia will be as easy as the
journey to Minnesota. Lord Lorne, though
he has succeeded fairly well as Governor
General Of the Dominion, Is not q very
strong man, but he has been staying in
British Columbia and the visible resources
Of the colony rouse him almost into elo-
quence. He finds Q country full Of coal.
full also of vast and dense forests, where men
cut logs ninety feot In length and forty inches
square. In this vast province Of three hum
dred and fifty thousand square miles, nearly
double the size Of France, there are but
twenty Thousand white men. No words can
be too strong to express the charm Of this
delightful country, where climate softer
and more constant than In the south OF
England insures, At all times Of the year, q
full enjoyment Of the loveliness Of nature
around ysu. There is room In British Colum-
bia alsns for twenty millions happy people,
and Lord Iorne believes that the railroad
once finished she may receive nine hundred
immigrants day, fourth Of the overspill
Of Teutonic and Scandinavian Europe.
Modern Phrases.
WAen all the Worlds Young. The first
line Of poem written by Henry Kingsley
(brother Of the celebrated Chas. Kingsley,