The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1908-03-05
VAST PREDICTION.
What VIII Be Our Population
Forty Years Hence ?

The future of the United States
is one of the vastest problems,
whether considered politically or
economically, that has ever been
Offered for human solution.
Here is a country embracing
three .milaion square miles of terri
tory, possessing great varieties OF
soil and climate and rich in mater
ial resources, largely undeveloPed,
beyond conception. 1t has a pop
ulation of some 5000, 900 to oo,-
GOO, 900 souls which is increasing
at rapid rate, ,lbut when compared
with such countries as India and
China, which are credited with
600, 900, 900 and 4oo,eoosooo re-
spectively, there is no question that
our country is much richer 10 every
way and is capable of sustaining a
greater population than either.
Our population has established
and so far maintains, democratic
republic, with free institutions and
a Government in which the people
choose their public officials.
Whether this democratic repub-
Iic can continue to stand through
many geHerations as.did the Roman
Republic, and after lapse Of
five centuries yield to the forces
that converted it into an autocratlc
empire, cannot be forecast, and at.
the present moment no attempt is
being made to peer that far into
furity.
But the questions that are now!
being asked are in regards to its
material future.
In the London National Review
for February there is an article by
]. I. Hill, long President of the
Great Northern Transcontinental
Railroad in the United States in
which he discusses the growth of
population of this country and the
ability of the soil to feed the teem-
ing millions of people whom he for
(, esees will be here within the next
.Afty years, during the lifetime of
gpegons now here.
.ME. Hills not onlya builder of
: railroads. and not wrecker, as are
j not IA few of those who
{ control tthe roads, but he has
Fbeen "a developer Of the
country whiGhlllRe has buitlIand he
salso a thinker in that connection.
HE is the first of the leading rail
way,nagnates to discover that the
roads in the United States were un-
able tocarry the rapidly developing
business of the country, and to de-
eide that the transportationfaeilitles
must be supplemented with the
waterways.
Mr.. Hill, figuring on the Popu-,
lation from the returns of each de-
cade since 1880. Including both the
natural increase by births and that
by immigration from foreign copn-i
tries, declares that it is conserya-i
tive estimate to add IS peF cent
each decade for the increase by
births over deaths, and 75o, 900 q
year, or 100000 per decade for
the immigration. Computed on
this basis, he makes the following
showing for population in the first
half of the present century:
Population in 1910. o5,248, ,8o5
Population in Io2o---II7, o36, ,229
Population in Io3o--~I42, ,ooI ,663
Population in Io4o--~I7o, ,oo5,4I2
j Population in Io5o--.-2o4,o4I,223
The startling quality of these fig
ures is the magnitude of our prob
lem. 1t is not even problem of
tto-morrow, but of to-day.
Within forty-four years we shall
have two meet the wants of more
than two hundred million people.
In less than twenty years from
this moment the United States will
have 13o, ,ooo, 900 people. Where
are these people, not of some dim,
distant age, but of this very gener-
alton now growing to manhood, to
be employed and how supported
Such is the question that is ask
ed. We have coal and iron and
other natural products of raw ma
terial in greater quantity than the
geologists are willing to allow, but
their speculations are little more
It. r<,xarrxryorL Me are more