San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1883-01-18
pOPULATrSG THE WORLD.
America 10 Contain 800, 0oO, 900 within ioo ieA'''
With Sill Room for More

happen uiIy ycaio 49,"
curate, some unexpected and dorman,
factor always intervening to confouna
the wisdom of the wise. we are not'
therefore, much frightened when a
statist, even ikeMr R. Citizen, tells
MS in the near future America may be
fully peopled, and that Europe, iIs
emigration stopped, will be filled with
masses of workmen, driven 10 Dan
gerous discomfort by insufficient iood'
Over production is a possible evil, for
it has occurred in China; though, be
it noted, without the result of produc-
ing social discord there is no certainty
that the evil will arrive. We know,
to begin with, little of the true e. law OF
the expansion of population. The ola
theory that population expanded win
prosperity is totally opposed to the
facts. Not to mention the phenom1e-
nal growth of the population OF India
without proportionate increase IN
their means of 'subsistence-the IRISH
population multiplied in misery till
subsistence failed; while the Jews a
splendidly healthy and fairly'fed Reo-
pie, have either notincreased at all OF
with exceeding 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 the rapid in
crease is novel, and did not occur, for
example, during the long period OF
comparative peace enjoyed in England
under the House of Tudor. In 1882
there may, as Mr.. Giffen intimates,
be SOO,O0O,OOO people in North
America, but also there may not be
100000. The emigration from
Europe may stop altogether, OF be
divereted; the age of marriage may be
thrown back by social cause, as has
undoubtedly happened among certain
classes of our society, or the rate OF
increase may change as has repeatedly
occurred in different parts OF the
world, without the visible interven-
ton of new causes of mortality. There
is reason to believe, as Mr.. Giffen will
know much better than ourselves, that
in Scandinavia, from 100 to 1900,
without any perceptible emigration,
the increase of the population stopped
For the present-that is, for the
thirty years beyond which we hold it
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
Victorian era, need not cease for any
want of room. A historian of some
mark, writing in our own columns
nanyyears ago, predicted as theresult
If personal observation that the United
States would reject immigrants within
twenty years after he wrote his letter.
Three -fourths of the time haselapsed,
ind that astounding march of the
European people before which all
other movements shrink into insig-
nifcance has only increased in
breadth and volume till, as we write,
rom all the Teutonic and Scandlna-
Wan countries and from Ireland four
regiments a dayprecipitate themselves
upon the new world, and still the old
world is full. Here and there, in
Sweden and Ireland principally, the
Train begins to tell perceptibly in
numbers, until North Sweden is
with something like de-
and the place of Ireland
in the British empire sinks, as Mr..
Giffen has noticed, year by year. The
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 still very unsettled,
still full of ancient forests-the state
which, if peopled like Suffolk, could
maintain 80, 0OO,0 900 at least, contain
ing as yet only 100000. There is,
except in the Eastern States, where
The fertility of the land, originally
poor, has been partially worn out, no
exhaustion, nor can we trace even
lac first beginning of that cry in the
West against further immigration,
which Will be the first, probably even
he first premature, sign that the land
S full.
As for the huge Canadian domin
on, which might hold $4,000, 900 in
comfort, without neighbors ever visit