Omaha daily bee., 1889-10-31
THE COMING RACE.
To the West tho Wave OF Peoples
Takca its WAY

Takes Its Way.
Ii was recently contended in the coll
umns OF the Contemporary Review that
we are constantly being reminded that
the center OF gravity OF our planet has
shifted, and that the Mediterranean Is
| fast becoming an idle inland sea locked
in decaying continent. 1t has played
Its part in the past OF humanity, but the
| past Is over and done. The seat OF ON
| pire is again following the sun as IL has
| always done, and Is once more drifting
| into tho west, says the London Tablet.
At tho present hour the peoples of tho
| United Kingdom and the United States
represent about one-fifteenth of humans
| ity, and govern one-third OF tho planet
| and oue-fourth OF its inhabitants In
| the beginning Of tho eighteenth cen-
| tury this race numbered less than six
million souls; at the beginning of tho
| nineteenth century that increased
TO 20,500, 900; at the present time they
are about ono hundred million. In tho
| space of eighty years the English
| speaking peoples multiplied five times
| over, and IL is confidently reckoned that
within another hundred years they will
| have outuumbered all the other civil
| cd peoples put together.
III tue whole Of the English speaking
populations of the world-multiplicu as
| they are likely TO be at-the end of an
| other century-wcre to be planted down
| in the territory OF the United States
ana then doubled, the people would still
not be so thick upon the ground as they
| are to-day in Belgium. While in France
| the population Is $50 to the square mile.
in Germany PIG, in England aud Wales
42S, in Belgium 4Sl, in the United
States, exclusive of Alaska, the popula-
tion is only 10 per square mile. Indeed,
the 5O,O0O,000 of the United States in
1850 might be put into Texas, and vet
population would not be as dense as i'm
Germany. Put the whole present popu-
lation of the United States into Dakota.
and the people would be less crowded
than to-day in England and Wales.
Our share of the earth IS surface, there
fore, seems an ample inheritance oven
for the overwhelming increase of the
future. 1t is of more Immediate
consequence 10 inquire whether
this people, scattered over SO many
climes and so many lands, but bound by
common speech and common memories
and common laws, will remain in any
real sense n homogeneous race. The
whole tendency of civilization seems to
point to an answer in the affirmative.
Increased facilities OF communication
and the always growing intercourse pe-
tween England and the peoples across
the Atlantic and the Pacific will have
their inevitable effect in checking auy-
thing like separateness of speech or
thought. Already it is matter for COM
mon observation that a phrase or a word
which one season is noted as an Gamer
icanlsm" the next is accepted by all as
thought were a part of our Inherited
English speech. No doubt in Canada
and the United States, rs in Australia
and SouthAfrica, the dominant tyne will
be affected by streams of immigration
from other lands. But here also his
tory repeats itself, and as Saxon and
Norman and Dane and Celt and Gaui
helped by their fusion in the making of
England, so the same elements will con-
tinue to be absorbed by the English
speaking peoples over sens.