Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-01-31
The Question
of Population
~ Frederic ]. Haskiu
81 Frederic j. Ha1m

that another ten million or 30 nnvo ie]i.
added to tho population Of these United
StntGM.
Thh rapid and steady growth Of our
nation i commonly regarded - rAtny.
ing thing But just exactly what docs =
mean7 Where dosa this increase lcad, and
when will it stop7 Can you imagine
United States of America twice ~ hig ~
tho present one, with New York ana
Chicago double their present si1esf Al
ready we are becoming acc.Htoned 70
ovcrcrowds and shortages There ~ not
enough sugar 70 70 around; you have 70
reserve a room d week ahead IN New
York hotel; there IL waiting line at the
dor OF every theatre with q s'icccssIui
play: the subway cant run enough trains
10 carry its rush hour business. In way,
there seem TO be too many Of us already.
but the optimists assure us that science
and industry can take care OF IFS all.
When there are four hundred million oi US,
and the city Of New York is four tunes is
present size, the commnter Will commute IN
an airplnnc, leaving his office IN downtown
New York Mt four in the afternoon, and
getting off at his farm in Western Penn
sylyania 81 minutes later. When he goes
to hear a famous actor, il will be in
theatre four times as large as any now
feet TINT he can hear every word, and he
will view the star through q glass so power
full that he can see the paint. The sugar
shortage will bc made up by clearing the
Jungle out OF the Amazon Valley and piant-
ing il to cape.
New York hotels viii supply the de-
mand for a place on Manhattan Island
by rising right up toward the stars hall
mile or more. and quick lunch win be
served on the elevators. The power TO
run all of these things7 The sun and the
tide will have been harncsaed, and the
last few chunks Of coal will have been
placed in the museums. The oil supply
will be dead issue, for the motors OF our
airpanes will be operated on alcohol
mnde out OF vegetation grown m waste
land like the Rocky Mountains, and pro-
duced at almost no cost at all
In some such WAYS IS these our DOUBTS
are laid ut reat by scientific optifnists IKE
II. G. Wells. Science, they assure us, can
do IL all. And beyond doubt, science
can do lot. Yet good authority can pc
found 10 doubt whether this rapid increase
OF population is an uninixed blessing
NAUTILUS MADE BLOOM.
There /. no question upon which the
public has been moro consistently DAM
boo,led and confused than that Of popula-
ton The first Of the wise men TO throw q
scare into the common herd WAS old Mai
thus. Nearly all of us remember having
heard something about Nautilus. He was
widely reputed TO have said that popuia-
fion was increasing fsster than the food
sunpIy and that we were therefore beaded
straight toward universal starvation. AZ
matter of fact. that Is not what he said at
oil. But that Is what he got credit Tor
saving. and he succeeded IN dlffuslng an
air Of gloom over the world for while
Then came the scientific optlmists,
above mentioned, who said that Maltniis
was all wrong, and there WAS really
nothing TO worry about. These gentlemen
were followed by another school OF think
ers who went still farther. They asserted
that "a a matter Of fact babies were not
being born fast enough. Race suicide
then became a term which everyone had
heard, and the exact meaning oil when
very Nv had seriously considered. France
was widely exploited IN the public prints
a an eYarnnle Of this national catastrophe.
We were told that IN France the poptiia-
tiou was not increasing at all, and we were
led to believe that it was ony marter oi
time until France as nation and the
French as a race would ds.appear on the
face Of the earth. II was SAID that France
was In a state OF decay. The righteous
minded pointed to the decadent state OF Its
morals. ,howing that it was in the same
fix rs the Roman Empire Just betoTe ITS
collapse Military men declared that u II
eame TO q war. the French would be licked
all over the place by almost any Oh It's
morn yirtuolls and fund neIghbors. Ad-
ministrators said that the French govern
rncut was q diving organism. All had 70 ad-
NIT that French art and literature showed
beauty and vitality. but this was asserted
tn be the very flower Of decay, the bealtl-
ful orchid that sprouts from dying tree.
The French themselves were worried
about themselves. They feared that I'm
migration wou q denationahze France, and
they also feared that ths nation could not
weather war Cola, the great French
novelist, wrote a book designed to en-
coursge people TO have more children.
Roosevelt vas, of course, the great race
suicide alarmist in this country. lie WAS
especially fond OF pointing 10 South
America, bidding us note how much last
er the South Americans were breeding
than were we, aud asking how we ex-
uected TO maintain our predominance II
the western hemisphere If We allowed the
people to the South 10 outbreed Us SO
rapidly.
PEoPLING THE WILDERNESS.
What the Colonel over looked. among
other things, was the fact that the South
Americans have constantly increasing
food supply, and 8 great wilderness to
populate, We, too, increased rapidly IN
our pioneer days when an empty wilder
ness of wealth lay to the west of us. Our
rate of increase, at least by birth of native
citizens, showed tendency TO drop off as
that wilderness filed, UP. And there is
every reason to believe that the same thing
will happen In South America
This is an illustration Of what Nautilus
really said. lie said that population will
increase faster than the food supply, unless
it is checked by some great and obvious
cause. As q result of this tendency
population TO press upon the food supply,
there is fringe of misery and want. This
fringe OF misery and want viii tend 10 dis
appear whenever the pressure OF popula-
tion on the food supply IS relieved by any
cause Thus, If pestilence or war destroys
a great many people, there usually fol-
lows after little while period OF pros
perity in which everyone gets enough 20
eat. II people occupies new continent
everyone will get enough to eat for a
while. This Is now the case IN South
America, and was the case IN North
America a century ago. Likewise, II
people deliberately chooses TO have fewer
children. this too will tend to lessen the
amount of starvation.
srrak4 80 xxfh