The Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1893-1901, 1893-03-14
.3CO,OOO,0VO AMERICANS
Professor Felix L. Oswald Pre-
diets the Population for 1903.
PROGRESS IN sCGENCEaAND ART.

Senator PETER Secs II Good Time Coming.
Interesting Predictions by Ex-I"stmas
ter General James. Professor s;-igys
Future of Agricultuts.
Copyright. l@rj, by American Press Associl-
toni
\ few years ago Mr.. Gladstone favored
the American public with the prediction
that il, !. II 300 the United States would
have tt.bn.Duo inhabitants. insing h, cal
culati.n ~ the fact that in the course Of
the last century he population Of our re-
public had increased ECO per cent
He might rs wal have inferred that a
pine tree on its twentieth birthday would
In IA mile high because in the first ten
years of its existence it had grown from an
inch to II height of twelve yards.
In some of the eastern states the rate Of
progress has even 10Y fallen To one-third
az Its initial velocity, and will undergo an
additional reduction as the average density
OF population approaches that of the trans
atlantic hives OF industry. II is true that
the delta of the Mississippi is more fert lie
than the richest bottomlands of the lower
Danulc: but, on the other hand, it is equal.
ly certain that the dc-olation Of our west.
ern alhali deserts is unparalleled in the
drearicst sieppcs of eastern Russia. and.
drawing the balance Of probabilities. there
l. no reason to believe that in 1893 the popu-
iation of our present national territory will
exceed zoo. Ga0,nG0.
Politically our federation of states will
by that time comprise Canada and prob
ably McNicot TO the lstllmus of Tehuantcpec,
which, before the end Of the next three dec
AIDES, will he crossed by "a ship railway.
The center of population will before long
change its westward line of progress to the
southwest and south. The climatic SUI
periority Of the southern uplan,is and the
unrivaled wealth of their natural resources
will ultimately turn the scales against
every combination of prejudice.
Cotton VIII be spun where it grows.
sleepy old country towns will be reused by
the scream Of the locomotive, and the ter
race lands from the Ohio to the upper Rio
Grlnde Will he covered with orchards and
villas. The tilirty -fonrth parallel will cross
the center Of that garden region, and it is
not improbable that some industrial EN-
porium of the Piedmont country''-per-
haps Birmingham, Ala.-will become the
great city Of the future.
Before the middle of the Twentieth cen
fury the increasing frequency of summer
droughts VIII confront the farmers Of our
middle states with the alternative of ruin
or forest culture. The reckless dest ~ructiou
Of woodlands has never failed To make the
summer dricr and warmer and the winter
Hoods more destructive, but Anglo-hmrr-
lean commqp sense will find means 10 ar,
rest the proslsss of an evil which has
turned the Eden of western Asia into a
desert and reduced the productive area of
our planet orc-third. Every country road
will he lined with shade trees.
Forest reservations will comprise the
upper ridges Of all our east American
mountain inges and large areas Of the arid
west viii he redeemed by IA multitude of
orchard farms. for there is no doubt that
the cNigencies of oscrpopulation will even.
tually suggest the subsi itutiono of ~perenuial
for annual food plants. Breadstufls. AS
well rs and vegetable oils, will 10 a
large extent h. drriNcs! from trees that en-
rich the soil with their fcrtiIixiny leave,
and outlire their cultivators. whu,c labor
they will limit to the pleasant work Of the
harvest month, and protect hima against tie
worst plagneof the plains by afforiins shell
ter To nNIiaas of inscclivnfnrs birds.
In the Atlantic states competition for de-
sirahle tracts of real estate will before Ion.
grow fierce, and within the nest thirty
years events Will prove that, lille the risk
of II religious war has been greatly over
rated, the danger OF IL war Of races has been
quite rs much moderated. Tile nrogr,..
oi education is gradually assimilating the /
Intelligent CLASSES OF all c~re,p,s, but race in.
siiEcts are less transient than dogmas, and
the negro problem will Yet loom up as the
black spectcr of the North American cont.
nrnt.
North of the Tennessee river Sambo
Atriran,s will vanish rs soon as the in.
crease of population brings him into seri-
ous competition with European immi-
grants, but there are regions where eli
matte conditions favor the cLance # his
survival On the Rio Grandc the aborig-
ines and Philippians may coai,sce AGAINST
the north. Caucasian races and the strug-
gle Tor supremacy will involve frequent aur
peal, To the arbitramcut of force.
To conclude with Il few miscellaneous
predictions: The problem of aerial iEyesti-
cation will be solved within the nexttwen-
ty years. I~ranscontinental mails will be
forwarded by mean, Of pneumatic tubes.
The perils OF ocean navigation will be
greatly lessened by the introduction of
steamers, starting pairwise and
maintaining communication by "a system of
log bells and electric refractors, and in 1873
millions of dwelling houses will be artifi-
cooled in summer as they are now
in winter,
I. l.. OSWALD, NJ. II