Mexico weekly ledger., 1897-03-25
Absolutely. Pure.
THE WORLDS PROSPECTS.
A Time Will Come When There Will
be Too Many People on Earth
What Will be Done?


sells the other day Lieut.. Gen. Brial-
mont, of the Belgian army, delivered
a lecture upon the increase of the
worlds population.
Many statlsticians have studied this
problem, and, according to the aver
age of their calculations, we find that
Russia doubles her population in fifty
years, England in fifty five, Germany
in fifty-five, Belgium in seventy-nin
Italy in eighty-four, and France In
1873. The General did not mention the
increase of population in the United
States.
GA time will come," he said, "when
there will be too many men on the
globe, and the equilibrium between
population and production will be re-
established by the disappearance of
those for whom there will be no place
at the banquet of life. According to
statistics most worthy of confidence,
the population of the world in 1882
was 1895, ,0o0, 900, and in 1890 it was
1, ,4s0, ,000, 900. That is to say, in eight
years it increased by $4,000, 900 or
more than 6 per cent. If, calculating
upon this basis, we seek the date when
the population CT the earth will reach
twenty seven milliards of inhabitants,
or double the number of hectares that
the land of our planet measures, we
come to the year 22s0." Consequent
ly, according to the General, who in
his lecture simply made himself the
interpreter of the economists, in 3S6
years the world will no longer be able
to feed its inhabitants.
'To deny the exactness of my cal
culation," says Gen. Brialmont, "it
will be necessary to prove that the
population will not continue to grow
as rapidly as have supposed"
Now, in 1888 the population OF Eu-
rope was IA, ,O00, 900 of souls, and in
1856 it was $4,000, 600, presenting an
increase of 140 per cent in century.
The President of the Congress of Sta
tistics In Vienna in 1887 produced doc
uments showing that the European
population had doubled in seventy
years, Notwithstanding numerous wars
and constant stream of immigration.
From the ten milliards and half
hectares that the land of the earth
measures we must deduct the polar
regions, the steppes, the deserts, the
mountains that are covered with snow,
the roads, the lands which are rem
dered unproductive by industries, and
the surfaces occupied by houses.
After that deduction, we find scarcely
two milliards of hectares of arabic land,
from which we must also deduct half
a miliard hectares for the support of
animals. Therefore, according to
Ravenstein, the learned English ge-
ographer, we shall be short of rations
in 176 years.
II Gen. Brialmont and Mr.. Raven
Stein are anywhere near the mark
they underestimate the danger. By
following their line of argument close
Iy, we are brought to the conclusion
that the worlds population will be
starved out in less than a century, be-
cause it is increasing more rapidly
now than ever before. The doctors,
with their microbe- slaughtering SER
ums, give no show to honest plaques,
and even threaten consumption; the
philosophers, with their high-toned
theories, will suppress wars; the re-
formers propose to fine bachelors for
the benefit of future mothers-in-law;
the preachers conspire against NOR
tality, and centenarians are on the in
crease.