The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-11-06
THE COMING RACE.
ENGLISH SPEAKING PEOPLE TO
DOMINATE THE WORLD.
Numbering One-Fifteenth of HUI
manity, They Govern One-Third
of the Planet, and a Fourth
of It's Inhabitants.

At the present hour the peoples OF the
United Kingdom and the United States
represent about one-ffteenth of human
ity, and govern one-third of the planet
and one-fourth of its inhabitants. In
the beginning of the eighteenth century
this race numbered less than 6,OOo,Voo
souls; ct the beginning of the nineteenth
century they increased to 20, 5O0, ooo;
at the present time they are about
10O,OOO,0OO In the space OF eighty
years the English-speaking peoples mui-
tiply five times over, and it is conhdent,
reckoned that within another hundred
years they will have oVtnumbered all
the other civilized peoples put together:
M. Hummer, the chief of the Federal
Bureau of Statistics in Switzerland, has
reckoned that the total population OF
Europe in the year 1000 will be 500, ,O0O,-
900, while DR.. Strong, of New York
city, reckons that in 1880 the population
of Europe will be 534, 100000. No
complete statistics showing the average
increase all over Europe are available Tor
the early decades of the century, but the
average increase of the Continent Tor the
ten wears from 1870 to 1880 was 6.S9.
If, however, We were to apply the same
test to the English peoples, and suppose
them to multiply for another hundred
wears as they did from 1870 to 1851,
they would reach the enormous total OF
n,343, 100000. 1t would be unreason-
fable, however, to suppose that the ratio
yot increase will continue so long. DR..
& Strong bases his calculations in this way:
lin Great Britain the ratio Of increase
from 1910 to 1850 was 2.40 per cent. :;
during the next ten years it was o:4a :;
the next ten years it was $50; and IRON
1870 to 1880 it was 10.5 per cent. So
we see the ratio of increase steadily rising
for forty years, and there is no apparent
reason why it should not continue to rise.
But as he is dealing with so long per-
iod of time as a hundred years, DR..
Strong prefers to suppose that the aver
aqe ratio of increase for the century will
be only half what it has been during the
last decade, and so puts the probable
population of Great Britain in 19so at
$1,000, 900.
On the other hand the Swiss statisti-
clan fixes it for 1000 at 142, ,OO0, ,00o.
Accepting, however, the American estl-
mate, let us consider the other branches
of the English-speaking peoples. Ihe
Australian rate of increase for the ten
years from 1870 to 1880 was $3.50 per
cent. that of South Africa 1928. But
suppose that Canada, Australia, and South
Africa double their population once
every twenty-five years-the United
States has done that ever since 16S5-then
the English population of the British
colonies in 1890 will be 176, 1000. 600.
For the United States very complete and
satisfactory statistics are available from
tina beginning of the century. The ratio
of increase varied during the decades
from 1900 to 1880 from 36 to 30 per
cent. With these figures before him,
DIR. Strong-M. Hummer confines his in
yvestigation to Europe-proposes to leave
out of account all future immigration
land confne himself to the increase OF
births over deaths, leaving immigration
as aset-off against any possible check upon
growth. Calculated upon this strictly
moderate basis, the population of the
United States stands for 1880 at 48O, OO0,-
900. The total Anglo-Saxon population of
the world would then be 713, 900, 600 as
compared with 534, 900, 900 of Continen-
tai Europe. And it must be remembered
that these figures show the largest proba-
BILE population of Europe and the smallest
probable numbers of the English-speak-
ing race.
In face of these tremendous figures it
is we'll to be reminded that if the whole
of the English-speaking populations of
the world-multiplicd as they are likely
to be at the end of another century
were to be planted down in the territory
O. the United States and then
doubled, the population would still
not be so thick upon the
ground as they are to-day in Bel
gium. While in France the population
is 1SO to the square mile, in Germany
216, in England and Wales 42s, in Bel
gium 4S1, in the United States, exclusive
of Alaska, the population is only sixteen
per square mile. Indeed, the so, 900, 900
of the United States in 1880 might be
put into Texas, and yet the population
would not be as dense as in Germany.
Put the whole present population of the
United States into Dakota, and the peo-
pie would be less crowded than to-day in
England and Wales. Our share of the
earth's surface therefore, seems an ample
inheritance even for the overwhelming
!; increase of the future. 1t is of more I'M
6 mediate consequence to inquire whether
Ehis people, scattered over so many climes
Dand so many lands, but bound by COM
J mon speech and common memories and
common laws, will remain in any real
sense a homogeneous race. The whole
tendency of civilization seems to point to
!. an answer in the affirmative. Increased
facilities Of communication and the al
ways growing intercourse between Eng
land and the people across the Atlantic
and in the Pacific will have their inevita-
BILE effect in checking anything like sep
arateness of speech or thought. Already
it is matter for common observation that
a phrase or word which one season is
noted as an "Americanism" the next is
accepted by ell as though it were part
of our inherited English speech. No
doubt in Canada and the United States,
as in Australia and South Africa, the
dominant type will be affected by streams