BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-10-01
sAEl JUAN, OCTOBER ]
Increase In Population.
BV ]. P. L.

One of the most striking features of
the nineteenth century vas the rapid
increase of population, especially in the
most highly civilized countries. From
1901 to 1000 the population of the earth
grew from 900 or $50 to 1853 millions,
or considerably more than 50 per cent;
but this increase was due mainly to the
growth of the population during the
same period from 10 to $40 millions IN
Europe, America, Australia. and other
lands settled chiefly by Europeans. At
the time of William the Conqueror, in
1886, the population of England and
Wales was 2,I5o, 900; six centuries later
it was 5,5oo,52o, and in 1900 only $500
$40; but from 1901 to 1901 it rose to 32,-
100000. In Germany the increase was
from 24,Soo, 600 in 1916 to $1,000, 900 in
1900; and in France, where the growth
of population is relatively slow, it was
from 27 100000 in 1901 to 38,4oo,ooo IN
1900. Ireland is the only part of Ell
rope that shows an actual diminution
of population during the same period
This decline began in 1851, and is due
to unfavorable political and economical
conditions, famine. a1d emigration.
1t is now nearly a hundred years
since Malthus published his Essay on
the Principles Of Population, III which
he asserted that the Increase Of popula-
ton tends to ovarpass the means Of
subsistence. and that this disproportlon
necessarily leads to general destltution
and starvation, unless counterbalanced
and corrected by the devastations OF
pestilence and war, the only other re-
medy of the evil being the voluntary or
coercive restriction of propagation.
From his point Of view the material
welfare of the people ought to have
been much greater when the population
was small than it is at present. but sta
tis.ics show the reverse of this to be
true. In an address entitled "Volks-
wohlstand und Wissenschaft ,. recently
delivered bv Professor Bretano, Rector
of the University Of Munich, on the
four hundred and thirtieth anniversary
of the founding of this institution { the
university was founded at Ingolstadt iii
I472, transferred to Lundshut in 1900,
and to Munich in 1926 the eminent po-
1itical economist examines the Malthr-
sian theory, and explains why its pessi
mistic predic ions concerning the future
of mankind have not been verified.
In 1894 more than per cent. Of the
men over twenty-one years of age in
Bavaria were beggars. The peasants
were virtually serfs. and it was 1urbld-
den by law to pay a laborer more Than
fifteen kreuzers (about ten cents a day.
Whoever offered more than this sum
rendered himself liable to a fine Of tel
thalers t$7.I5 and the workman who
demanded or accepted such high wages
was condemned to eight days lmprlson-
ment at hard labor and on bread and
water, and to receive each day twelve
stripes with the scourge. 1t is no won
der, as the Bavarian historian Weston
rieder remarks that the jai!s were
crowded with cul prits, and the highways
adorned with galiowses insted OF fruit
trees. =" Since that good old time '
the population of Bavaria has doubled,
while the condition OF the individual
has constantly improved. Still more
conclusive is the testimony against Nal
thus furnished by England, whe-
re the increase of population, accom-
panied by corresponding increase of
prosperity, has been greater than in
any other country of Europe, Accor-
ding to the statistics tabulated by Sir
Robert Giffen, the wealth of Great Bri-
tain and Ireland amounted in 1872 to
100 pounds sterling per head, and in
1885 to 27o pounds sterling per head.
That this advance was not due to the
enrichment of the rich, attended By the
impoverishment of the poor, but benz
fitted all classes, is evident from the
fact that from 1870 to 1900 the average
wages of tne common workman rose
gTon 43 to 100 or about 1888 per cent :
The fact that compassion for poverty
ir1ds stronger and more frequent -ex-
preston with us than with cur aucss-|t
.ors, and that more persistene and sys-
ematic efforts are made to relieve It, isl
lot due to its greater prevalence, but to
he clearer perception Of its evils, the Il
oTeva lence of q higher standard of Ia
wing, a more correct conception OF !
What is necessary to human comfort, and
tronger sympathy with all forms Of S
ufering Ii
The chief catss OF the increase Of #
,opalation has been the dscreasc of Ia
q n3rtality. From 1910 10 1920 the death |r
ate IN Europe was 3r.5 per thousand
While from 1886 to 1860 il was Only 2z.sl
'e1 thousand; ia western Europe, wheref
be progress of civiization vas most
apid, the death-fate diminished durinqI
IL 81 mo T,9rff<t7 f,@zs,. = 8 * - 80 g &