The Washington herald., 1912-08-04
OPPOSES LARGE BIRTH RATE
AS MENACE TO THE WORLD
1HETHER a steady increase OF
w population Is to be desired by the

vAJHETHER a steady increase OF
w population Is to be desired by the
human family is vigorously dis
puted by James Edmond in the nationa
Review. He does not discuss the HI
Review He does not discuss the question
from the ethical point OF view so much
as from what might be called the
practicable-assuming the world is to
become so crowded there will not be
room for all and that provisions for al
is a problem growing rapidly more diff
cult Of solution. Col. Roosevelt may
be too busiiy engaged in editorial contri'
butng and in directing the movement:
of his field marshals In his newest cam
paign to regard this latest show Of re-
sistance TO his constituted authority. bu,
at any rate he could not bring charge
of treason, for the author of the article
Is on foreign soil. As though doctors oi
philosophy might have as much right as
doctors OF medicine or of music, OF
divinity or of law to disagree. Mr.. Ed
mond takes an extreme stand in opposi-
ton of the views OF Col Roosevelt,
and all who agree with him.
In olden days wars were cheap and
tended to keep the population cut down
1t is shown, while nations seldom come
to blows in, these days. Local famines
are held to have been for thousands OF
years a hindrance to unlimited increase
of population. while to day railways and
ships drag food so rapidly from place
to place that famines are almost a thing
of the past The growth Of medical
science, the spread Of ideas about san
itation and the humanitarianism that
seeks to preserve the human family are
credited with doing much in the way
of peopling the earth.
In 1901 in England and Wales the &C.
cumulation OF all the years or ages was
less than 100000 people, Mr.. Edmond
shows, and in 1911 there were $4,000. 900.
Already the food problem calls for
attention." he continued. "As recently
as sixty or seventy years ago every
country in the world was capable of
raising SUFFICIENT food for its own con-
sumption. and almost every one did so.
Man found his loaf growing convniently
at his own doorstep, and looking out
from his unglazed window he saw his
own beef ard butter and cheese. and
very often his own clothing. walking
about in his own paddock. In
national sense he was Independent. His
country could not be starved out by any
blockade. He did not need to maintain
vast armed squadrons to protect the
lines of his food supply.
Then a change gradually set In. First
of all, Britain became dependent in
measure on foreign food supplies-part-
Iy through the wonderful increase of
1t has grown more and more
dependent ever since. until at last its
local supply Of provender has ceased to
be worth consideration. At first 1t got its
inward Punishment from the nations
close at hand, and as the countries with
surplus food to sell were many while the
buyers were few, prices ranged very low
and supplies seemed unlimited.
1T was only In 1903 that Germany
ceased to figure as a big supplier Of the
loaf and Turkey only
dropped out of the supplying industry
about 1907. Roumania was once q very
great wheat seller. but It Is now a very
small one and promises soon to be no
seller at all. The United States reached
Its highest figure in 1902. when It headed
the list of the countries with surplus
wheat to dispose of. In 1907 It sold to
England over 100000 hundredweight
n grain and nearly 1900. 900 hundred
weight Of -four. That was a short nine
years ago, and II 10 difhcult to realize
how many changes have befanen since
then. The trouble IL that the United
states has q birth rate Just the same
Is England. also It has an immigration
rata Already the surnlua whAak. II has