The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-08-30
MORE OF THE CENSUS.

The point which was made by THE CALL
when the first revelations of the census
were pubIished-namely, that If the figures
given were accurate the death rate in the
country at large must exceed the birth
rate-is attracting the attention of the
Eastern papers, and, IN the language OF
the Sun Of New York, tends to bring the
whole census under reasonable suspicion"
Since then, it seems, Mr.. Porter has dis
covered some people who were not counted
by the enumerators, and his bureau con-
cedes that the total population OF the
country is 64,000,oG0. This estimate, like
the earlier statements, is probably below
the truth, but there is no way in which its
inaccuracy can be demonstrated. Until
thorough system of vital statistics is estab-
lished throughout the country, we shall
have to accept the laundering figures OF
census takers as accurate.
A ssumng the figures as given to be re-
liable, the San reckons that by the year
1850 the population of the United States
VIII be 244,000.G00. and that of the United
Kingdom 5000, eco; in other words, that the
great majority of Notwithstanding people
will be in this country and not in Great
Britain. This Will be the great Anglo-
Saxon power. and England will come
second. That is measurably the case now.
The population of Great Britain is only
three-fifths of that Of tie United States,
and our growth. even by Mr.. Porter's
showing, is twice as rapid as that of
England. This country contains more men.
more money, more resources, more food,
more coal and more iron than the United
Kingdom. Yet we have never yet quite got
ha old milo lion, pnn
our language English" and we speak of
the sovereign of Great Britain as q" the :"
Queen, as if there was no other Queen.
As to the prospect that infants now in short
clothes will probably live to see 244, 600, 600
inhabitants in the United States that is a
prediction which must be received with cir
cumspection. History affords but one ex-
ample of so vast multitude being gathered
into single nation; and China is a nation
apart, as different in its composition and its
nature from the ether nations of the world as
if it existed ON another planet. 1t is said that
25o,000,G00 souls are subject to British sway
in India, but they comprise large number of
nations differing in race, in religion, in type.
in origin from each other. and only allied by
the accident of their inhabiting the same pen
insula. The Roman Empire at the period of
its widest extension, certainly never contained
50,000,G00 inhabitants, and Napoleon's con-
quests never sweled the number of his sub
jects to anything like that figure. If the United
States ever reach such prodgious population
it will be an uneXampled event.
Long before its realization the crowded con-
dition of the country will have checked the
natural increase. through the difficulty of feed
ing such vast masses of people. 1t will have
become so hard TO earn a living that large
immigrations of the surplus population to
South and Central America will have become
compulsory. a. d finally, unless our expert
ence is to be utterly exceptiOnable, it viii have
proved next to impossible to retain such I'M
mense numbers of people, with conflicting in
terests and varied opinions, in one nationality.
Still, it may be our destiny to prove that prob
lens which were insoluble in darker ages are
susceptible of solution under regime of law,
order, liberty and intelligence.