The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-28


this rate" he remarked, 'in twenty years
those sections will have lost Is per cent.
Of their present population IL from no
other cause than the falling off of the num-
Der of births" Thirty years have passed.
the statesman is dead, but the rural towns
to which he referred have nearly held
their own, while the cities and larger
towns of that State have made such gains
that the aggregate population /; greater
than 1t was when the fear was expressed.
1t Is true that the large families of sixty
or seventy years ago are not so numerous
now in this country. Many deplore the
fact and fear that the race OF men and
women who subdued and civilized State
like Indiana is gradually dying out Never
theiess, those who pass by such impress
sions and examine the crowded condition
of the schoolhouses in every considerable
town In Indiana and like States must be
convinced that the percentage of children
that survive the diseases incident to in
fancy cannot be seriously declining, even
If they can find but few households with
birth rate must not be accepted as a posi-
tive indication of an increasing population.
1t often happens that where the number
of infants born is very great in proportion
to the population the majority die young.
The New England mother who claimed
she had buried nine may have few success
sors In this generation who can claim to
have been the mothers of so many chill
dren and yet are the mothers of more that
live and grow up. It must not be forgotten
that the progress made in medical science
and in sanitation has nearly overcome
those diseases of children which years
ago swept regions as pestilence and filed
graveyards with small mounds every few
years. Because of the scientific treatment
children born reach maturity. The same
advance of medical science and better con-
ditions of existence, embraced in better
food. shelter and clothing, is gradually in
creasing the average length Of human life
fact which life insurance companies un-
derstand without waiting for census re-
ports.
Population is not the only factor essen
tial to a nations highest welfare. The city
which has a submerged 10 per cent which
is poverty-stricken, unemployed and vicious
is not so well off as a city of one-quarter
of the population without the burden and
the infection of hopeless pauper element.
Russia has double the population of the
United States, but its general poverty, fire.
quent famines and ignorance do not make
it power to be feared. Germany, with
less than one-fourth Of Russia's population,
is of far greater influence in the world S
affairs and markets. Russia's population
may increase many millions in a decade,
but Germany's growth of 100000 is more
valuable to Germany and the world. South
ern Europe Is prolific in the increase of
population, but it would fall into general
starvation If its surplus of very poor could
not find the means of subsistence in other
countries. There would be greater hope
for China and even Italy to-day if they
had far fewer inhabitants than they have.
1t is not worth while to be alarmed over
the fact that the birth rate is not so large
as 1t has been in leading nations, since they
| worlds progress in every way by popula-
tons which have the greatest diffusion of
the material substance and intelligence es-
sential to the well-being of the human FAM
ily.