St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-08-25
ROOM IND TO sP4RE.

There are some alarmists who are con-
stanty urging that it is time that some check
be given to emigration into this country for
the reason, as they assert, that the country
will soon be filed to it's limit. The GLOBE
has been to the trouble of collecting some
statistics which will prove that, for some
time. at least, there will be no crowding.
Figures show that in Europe, as a whole,
there is one person to each seven acres OF
territory; in the United States, there is one
person to each sixty acres. Should this
country become populated to the same den
sity as is Europe, it would contain popula-
ton of four hundred and twenty millions.
As the rate of increase in this country for
the last eighty years has been, in round
numbers, only about six hundred thousand
per annum, it follows that it will be a good
many years before we shall attain the den
sity of Europe. Suppose that we shall in
crease at the rate of million a year, which
is extravagant, it will still require nearly
four hundred years for us to secure popula-
ton as dense as that Of the old world. The
nearnes of such calamity is not such that
we need to take any immediate steps to pre-
vent its consummation.
| The fear that this country will become pos
sessed finally by emigrants from the old
world, and that the children Of the native
population will be debarred from the posses
sion of the inheritance ought not to create
anything in the nature of panic. In fact,
if the popping of the county were left to the
native element, the area would become a
desert in the course of a century, as facts
| have long since demonstrated that the native
or New England element is rapidly dying
/ out. We must have accessions from the
outside; and there is yet plenty of room for
| them. Ireland and Scotland have one per-
son to each four acres of land; Germany and
France one person to each three acres; Eng
land and Wales, and Belgium one person to
each acre and fraction: while, here, New
York has one to each five acres; Illinois, one
to each twelve acres; Wisconsin, one to each
twenty-seven acres; and Minnesota, one to
each sixty acres of land. If the last named
state were populated as densely as France or
Germany, for instance, it would have pop
ulation some eighteen times greater than its
present one; and if as dense as Belgium, il
would have some forty millions Of people, or
about forty TIMES as many as it possesses at
the present date.
Europe support one person to each sew
en- acres of its area, and this in view Of the
vast amount that is withdrawn from use as
parks, estates and city sites. Let US allow
that we can support one person for each
ten of the population. This will give us an
ultimate population of nearly three hundred
millions. If by the time this density is Sc
cured there is demand for more room, we
will annex British North America and Mex
leo, which will give US room for several hun
dred millions more. Meanwhile, the regu-
lation of the entrance Of outsiders so as tC
prevent the country all being taken up is a
premature one by not less than two centu-
ries. 1t may be added that If this country
is to be managed for a couple more decades
by the Republican party the immigration
from the country would far exceed the emf
grafton into it. Let the alarmists take heart
there is no immediate danger.