Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-09-21
BY GARRETT p. SERVISS

| Ioll WhdI nave Ttdu IlInt
to time it seems to be the opinion of
scientists that the human race has in
habited this planet for hundreds of
| thousands of years. If that is a fact.
why is it that they have in the last
few thousand years only spread over
! the earth in such great numbers,
I and what will be the result if they
continue to increase in the same ratio
for three or four thousand years?-
A. B. CALDWELL.
1t is well to have a twelve-inch ter
restrial globe before you when con-
sidering such questions. BY enabling
you to visualize the situation it will
simplify the problem.
1t will make clear to you how very
different, in many ways. are the con-
ditions of life on the surface of a ro-
tating sphere, revolving around the
sun, from what they would be on an
immovable plane. Conspicuous among
these differences are the effects of
| widely divergent climates and OF
changing seasons often running into
| extremes of contrast.
Then, the globe will show you at a
| glance the formidable nature of the
| obstacles to communication between
| the various lands of the earth which
| are interposed by the oceans. If your
globe has raised topographic features,
| 1t VIII be worth hundreds of pages
of print in impressing upon your mind
| the seriousness of mountain masses
| and ranges as impediments to the free
! spread of population.
! You VIII see that only about three
eighths of the entire surface of the
earth is land, and that this land,
| which alone can sustain human in
habitants, instead of being collected
in one connected mass, is scattered
over the globe in several large and
many small portions and that the
larger ones are divided into many
parts by mountains and deserts.
With these facts in your mind S
eye, take next into account the place
and mode of origin of mankind, ac-
| cording to the general opinion of men
| of science.
For reasons that we have not space
to discuss it is generally held that
! the first men made their appearance
somewhere in the Eastern world,
probably on the continent of Asia,
and that they gradually spread from
one great center over the contiguous
| regions. Even those who believe that
mankind originated Independently in
more than one quarter of the globe, or
| that there were several primitive
| stocks of man, instead of one only.
was a very limited number of human
'procreant cradles" not more than
three or four, perhaps, for the whole
earth, so that the problem of distribu-
tion over the planet remains much the
| same under either view.
When you remember that the very
| first creatures to whom the term
'man-like" could be applied had no
way to advance toward the status of
| man as we know him to-day, except
| the way of evolution, you see at once
! what long ages must have been re-
| quired to bring about the necessary
| alteration.
Even if the progress was hastened
these leaps, or mutations" are sepa-
! ated by long spaces of time, so that,
in any event, tens of thousands of
years must have been consumed in
| lifting a creature that, at the start.
was hardly less brutal than an ape
| up to an incomparably higher level,
level at which human intelligence
became the distinctive characteristic
of the new being. 1t probably took
| thousands of years for man to learn
to be farmer. And, even if We were
| to assume that man was created sud-
denly, as an Independent creation,
with his powers latent within him, to
be developed in response to his en-
vironment (and history certainly
shows that is the way in which his
| development has really come about.
hundreds of centuries would still be
required to bring. him to the point
ny lhc edTHeSC historic
civilizations The simple fact that in
ancient Crete, several thousand years
| before the Christian era, the palace
! of King Minos possessed a system of
drainage that included all the essen
tial principles of modern scientific
plumbing, while the ladies of the
court wore dresses and ornaments
| which made them look like Partisan
models. combined with the facts of
later history, showing that Greece and
Rome made only minor advances upon
these Cretan achievements, and that,
after six. or perhaps eight thousand
years we, in our day, have only just
begun to develop a material civiliza-
ferent from, and superior to that
whose beginnings were familiar to
King Minos-these facts, 1 say. are in
themselves the strongest proofs of
| the exceeding slowness of human ad-
| vancements, taken in the mass.
| Now, the march of progress being
| so slow, the advance of the distribu-
tion of human beings over the globe
could not but be correspondingly
slow. Consider that population could
| not grow in limited areas beyond the
capacity of the soil in and immedi-
| But in order to spread beyond those
limits population must possess means
| of transportation across and over the
natural obstacles which everywhere
| 1nterSect ana dlVlde the lands where
| the earliest known races dwelt
| Dip a little into history and see
| how many thousand years it took to
carry commerce and with commerce
colonization entirely around the Medi-
terranean Sea. Observe how many
centuries were required for the might
of Rome to open up simply the Medi-
terranean world to intercommunica-
ton. Commerce increases the capac-
ity of all the lands that enjoy its ad-
vantages to support population, but
commerce could not develop until
| roads, bridges, tunnels had opened
the lands and rapid navigation had
turned the oceans into highways.
| AS commerce grew. agriculture in
all its forms. mining. manufacture, in
vention, every sort of industry was
forced to grow with it, and all these
things made more population neces-
sary and at the same time increased
the capacity of the earth as a whole
to support a greater population.
| AS to the future, I have not space
here to speculate. These are a few
hints of the delightful realm of study
and thought that lies behind your
question.