St. Landry democrat., 1892-07-16
What Ecience Has Done,

A comparison, by George Fl. Knight,
writing in the Cosmopolitan, of Is typ
zeal pastoral populations, the world over,
gives an average Of 40 souls to each
tract Of 20 square miles. The mean
capita to 20 square miles Of seven repre-
sentative communities engaged in farm
ing and in primitive handicrafts 1886,
and Of six of the most advanced com.
munities engaged in diversified indus
tries is 5000. The Royal Geographical
Society of England, at a meeting held in
the month of January, 1891, estimated
the worlds then inhabitants at 1,487,-
800 900, about 81 persons to each square
mile of available land area. That is to
cav. to support the worlds present
would require the superficial area Of the
planet Saturn From this authoritative
estimate we reach the mOmcntOus con-
clusion that, notwithstanding the i'm
mense regions still overruf1 by savagery,
the population of our globe Is already
620-fOld what would be possible at a
grade Of civilization no lower than that
of the American Indian. 1t further ap-
pears that the reduction to savage con-
dition Of a civilized community Of So
600 persons would imply the sweeping
out of existence OF all save single
family of five individuals; and that an
area equal to that of Manhattan, Staten
and Long Islands together would not
ordinarily support more t! an 70 6aVages,
and Of these the area of Manhattan
island could sustain only two.
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A Growing Opinion.
Walter Clark, of the Supreme Court
Of North Carolina, contributes an arti-
Gle to Arena wherein he. argues vigor-
ousiy for the state ownership of tele-
phone and telegraph lines. AS the con-
stitution gives Congress the power TO
establish postof1ices and post roads" any
development Of these he argues comes
equally within the sphere OF Congress
sional action. 1t is no new thing that
the postof1fce should employ the tele-
graph, for the first line established was
part Of the postOf1ce service and its
continuance as such was recommended
by Hon. Cave Johnson, then Postmas-
ter General. This wise recommends
ton was not acceded to simply because
Congress, not fOreseeing the value and
Importance of the invention, deemed
the price asked by the inventor too
great, and in an evil hour permitted
this great agency to pass into private
hands. The public interests, the popu-
lar will and the constitutional provision,
all alike require its restoration to its
original function as part Of an enlight-
ened and progressive postal service"
Every civilized country except this
has its telegraph service owned and
managed by the Government, and in
every other the plan is found to work
well. "The rates in Great Britain and
Ireland" says Mr. Clark, ARE, like
postage, uniform for all distances, and
are / cent per word. In Germany the
rate Is about the same, and in Austria
less. In France and Belgium the rate
is under 10 cents for ten words between
any two points. No department of the
postofffce in any country pays better
than the telegraph. In most countries
the telephone, too, has been added"
AS the telephone patent expires in a
year, Mr.. Clark drinks that now is the
time for the PostoHice to adept it and
establish it in every village, for there it
would be even more useful than in cit
les. The introduction of this instru-
ment would make the way easy for the
telegraph and remove the usual objec
tons to Government control.