The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1913-01-30

aEERa Copyright 1918. by Herbert ouek)
The Passengers are getting crowded-in spots.
r This voyage on the Good ship Earth differs from
other voyages in this that nobody gets on the ship
Death is only name for being reabsorbed into her
decks and Birth is only expression OF the idea
that portions of the decks have taken the form OF
baby, which will take into itself and more OF
the ship. until 1t grows up. And, with birth en-
bodied in the earth OF the body. and with death
disembodied from IT, is the mystery Of the soul.
And inasmuch nobody gets on, the number that
born among becomes an important matter
wen come TO fuller contact with that problem
later Just now what concerns is the fact that
in spots the Passengers getting too thick. New
quarters must be found for the increase.
Millions may be slowed in the places now recog-
nized desirable and still unoccupied only half
occupied Then We are going to spread northward
In the Northern Hemisphere into Siberia. Canada. and
other lands sparsely occupied by reason OF the
cod-beeause the climate OF the whole world Will
grow warmer and warmer the air Is filled with
carbonic acid gas from the consumption of coal-and
we shall even be able re-people Greenland and
toward the South Pole into the Antarctic
Continent All this within thousand years, as
there is reason to believe.
But are we to leave the tropics uninhabited or
sparsely peopled junges and lanos and pampas and
silyas? We have been able to develop
full collective life In the torrid zone Why? Is the
land there lacking in the elements OF plant food
which alone human life Is based? Far from it. The
richest lands in the world judged by their products
in the tropics of Southern ASIA Central Africa.
Central South America, and such huge islands
Borneo Paqua, and the Philippines. They we'll
watered. They bring forth amazingly. Where
themselves capable OF producing food and shelter
for dense populations.
Why then do not all the crowded Passengers in
the Ship go to the tropics where these rich lands
by the millions of occupied only by the wild
beasts, birds and the riotous vegetation7
There many reasons-reasons OF state. reasons
prejudice. OF difculty the part of
the migration OF poor people And there are natural
The very richness Of the tropics makes them hard
to reclaim In the Canal Zone, road built TO farm
is grown ND and impossible In few weeks The
trees and vines and huge weeds foes to man.
They overwhelm them They daunt him. They make
it impossible for him to clear the land. and
almost as impossible to keep II cleared.
Then there is the question OF health. Until recent
y white men have found II impossible to live full
strong life in the tropics perpetuate their
there The British in India last but two three
generations Our people in the Philippines may be
expected to perish In the way, unless-unless
we Gorgasize and Goethalsize the Philippines.
mean unless do TO them have done In the
Canal Zone
In making the Panama Canal, seem to have
solved the problem OF white life In the tropics DR..
Gorgas and his health department under the rule OF
Col. Goethals have made the most pestilental spot
on earth, perhaps. a region where white men can
work and work hard, and where white family life
seems perfectly possible a permanent thing.
This Is a bigger thing than the canal Itself!
Disease comes In the tropics, ~ elsewhere mostly
the form of evil bacteria In the blood and animal