The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-01-03
London Spectator
Peopling America,

short views,' but we confess to rooted
distrust OF. all prophetic politics. Very few
calculations of things to happen so years
after ever prove accurate, some unexpected
and dominant factor always intervening to
confound the wisdom of the wise. We are |
not, therefore, much frightened when
statist, even though, like Mr. r. Giffen, he
uniies exceptional knowledge OF his science
to great power of generalization-indeed,
strange as the remark may appear, there is |
something of poetic strain in some OF Mr., !
Citizens speculations-tell us that in the
near future America may be fully peopled;
and that Europe, its emigration stopped,
may be filled with masses Of workmen driven
to dangerous discomfort by insufficient food.
Over population is possible evil, for 1t
has occurred in China, though, be 1t noted,
without the result of producing social dis
cord-the Chinese, though they have been
crowded until they have developed abnorm-
al industry and thrift. still believing their
social system nearly divine-but there is no
certainty that the evil will arrive. we
know, to begin with, wonderfully little OF
the true law of the expansion of population.
The old theory that it depended on the
means of subsistence, that population ex-
panded with prosperity, is totally opposed to
the facts. Not to mention The phenome-
nal growth of the population of India, with
out proportionate increase in their means
of subsistence growth which we entirely
agree with Mr.. GiffeD, threatens to undo all
the material advantages of our rule-the
Irish population multiplied in misery till
subsistence failed; while the Jews, splen-
didly healthy and fairly fed people, have
either not increased at all or with exceed
ing slowness. Had they multiplied after
the final dispersion like Teutons, 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, during the long
| period of comparative peace enjoyed in En-
gland under the House of Tudor. In 1892
| there may, as Mr.. Giffen intimates, be $780,
| 900 people in North America; but also
| there may not be 200,000,000. The emigra--
| ton from Europe may stop altogether, or be
| diverted; the age of marriage may be thrown
back by social causes, as has undoubtedly
| happened among certain classes of our own
society; or the rate of increase may change,
| as has repeatedly occurred in different parts
| of the world, without the visible interyen-
tion of new causes of mortality. There is
| much better than ourselves, that III Scahdf-
navia, from 100 to 1900, without any per-
ceptible emigration, the increase of popu-
lation stopped altogether. There may be,
probably is, a truth somewhere in Mr.. Her
bert Spencer's opinion that culture dlmln-
ishes population, the educated, as we see IN
New England. increasing very slowly. Ger
tainly the decline of population without
war. without emigration, and without any
failure of food, is possible, while statlohari-
ness has repeatedly been observed,
For the present, that is, for the thirty
wears beyond which we hold it vain to cal,
cuIate with any hope OF certainty, the granu
rush and sweep of the European people 10
the west, which the future historian VIII
record as one of the distinctive marks OF tne
q | Victorian era, need not cease for any wan'
: of room. A historian of some mark, writ
& ing in our own columns many years ago
: predicted, as the result of personal observa'
: ton. that the United States would reJec
: immigrants within twenty years alter Ut
= wrote his letter. Three-fourths of the tlmt
; has elapsed, and that astounding maTch o
the European peoples, before which all ON
err movements shrink into insignlhcance, ia
? :
' we write, from all the Teutonic and Seaman
uayian countries and from Ireland four reg
iments day precpitate themselves uso
Il the New World, and still the Old World
le full. Here and there, in Sweden ana 10 LIE
ID land, principally the drain begins to tell pei
q ceptbly on numbers, until North Sweden,
: threatened with something like depopuls
= ton, and the place of Ireland in the Brlts
r Empire sinks, as Mr.. Giffen has noticed
:, | ,,aor hx The island which in lSA
\. contained third of the population OF II
United Kingdom, now holds on
ne a seventh, and by the time OF IL
n next census will probably contain only
u tenth, fact ~hich profoundly modifies IL
cd importance of Irish movements, and e.
Gu plains, if it does not justify, the Nationals
ed ic horror of any measure calculated to il
nd crease the rate of outflow. Britain, no,
al ever, increases, and SO does Germany, viii
the absorbing power of the United Stat
shows no perceptible diminution. III
of thousands who land every week pass
Westward in endless succession, settle
lh- the land and still there is room Tor all. III
'rk average population is only 30 to the squa
TX mile. The State of New York itself is st
~ very unsettled, still full of ancient fores
i''- the State which, if peopled like Sutfol
au- could maintain 30,000,000 at least, contal
ra- ing as yet only 100000. There is, exec
a in the Eastern states, where the fertility
NJ the land, originally poor, has been partia
worn out, no sign of exhaustion, nor can
on trace savan tho first beginning of that cry
an the West against further immigration WIN
ION will be The first. even the first prematr
sign that the land is full. We think
eie mark, though this may be an error, slle
OF decrease in wages, but there is no tendeI
son anywhere to avoid payment IN 1000 as 3.
the | plement of wages. such as would happen
y, moment food became an article OF econor
Importance.
ses As for the huge Canadian Dominic
which might hold 100000 in comic
without neighbors ever visiting each ot
ion on foot, its great lameDtat on is thatpeo
70 do not come fast enough, while It's COVE
ment is straining every nerve to mere
OH the culturable area under its control. y
hat ually, yet rapidly, the engineers are ofil
the railway westward from the lakes, no
had the wastes, and piercing the hugSaJIi
barriers which separate settled finac c9y
'ati- the Pacific, till within five yesee Inc Jhe
the to British Columbia vii Rsd the " of
t he journey to MinpYatssaa'ffn stS Times Fed
Ises I-','ts tt.:aord LSrne, Tough he Lsuc.
coededfalrly well as Governor eel OF
ne dominion, is NJ very stro man;
ke, pu{ ne mas been stylng in British ambia,
ays be- pc has the landlcds eye for prop, tim
L. Gle of Sf th complications fiI and specta-
ed rouses him a,ost into eloquen, He finds
bo a country roph, indeed, and f of noun
~ tains, but fu also of fertiI ,aths, where
~ all the SIM fruits reach perdion," and
E. the tomato"hich in EnglandOes the hot
y test cornes grows in the ora air; full of
a. coal, full 30 OF vast ard dense forests,
= where M cut logs 90 fem length and 40
y inches siare
v In tb vast Provinceof $4,000 square
\ miles, Early double the re of France, there
are b. 10000 white men, though over