New-York tribune., 1921-12-04


lonesome counties Of Nevada and
rexas all to themselves may be crowded out
by human beings-the swarms Of homeseek-
ers that the town-lot seller in the boom days
81 Kansas used to see in his feverish imaci-
ration.
# war is to be eliminated as the final out
come Of the present conference at Wash
ington, and if there arc to be no more Arma-
geddons, one of the great Malthusian checks
upon the growth of population is thereby done
away with.
Likewise. If the present Live-To- -Be-a-Hun,
dred campaign succeeds and the average per
son holds on to his more or less valuable
checks in hfe's game Just so much longer
than he is managing to do at present, the
late Professor Thomas Robert Malthus's net
theory receives another upset
Vice and crime were held to be necessitie,
by Nautilus, because, he averred, they tended
to keep down the alarming growth Of popula-
ton. If the reformers succeed in cutting
down these ancient aids to the moro or less
cinty of the Malthus solar plexus.
Also If the physicians and surgeons go on
conquering hitherto unconquerable diseases
and If sanitation goes on keeping King Pest
SO far in the background that he becomes
merely tradition, it looks as if lot Of new
textbooks political economy will have to
be written, with the one big achievement Of
the Nautilus family left out or denoted to the
appendix. That is, if agriculture lives up to
the strain that is going to be put upon it.
Professor Malthus, whose theory was pro-
mulgated at the very beginning of the nine
tenth century, did not figure on the coming
achievements of the inventors and scientists
who were to turn their thoughts to improve
Tent of agricultural possibilities It is not
probable that, when he spoke gloomily about
the disproportionate growth of unchecked
population, compared with the possible devel-
oprnent of agriculture, Nautilus had a vision
Of modern harvest scene on "bonanza"
ranch in the West; nor could he have visoned
.he things that were to be accomplished in
soil incubation and the commercial develop
ment Of then unknown plants Nor could he
have caught a hint of Henry Ford and Thorn
as A. Edison at Muscle Shoals, planning on
getting enough fertilizer out of the air to
rehabilitate the starved-out lands Of the Eas,
and South.
But with everybody living longer and with
no more wars or pestilences to carry them off
in the mass, is scientific agriculture, even
though it be developed to the final degree, 60
ing to prove sufficient to keep pace with the
growth Of population? When population en-
ters upon a long, untroubled stretch of years
it Increases in marvellous way. It's very
name is almost too much so. 1t
comes from the Latin populus (people), con-
nected with plenus (fulD In 1914 the popu-
ation of the earth was estimated at 1876
0OOoo0. It had almost doubled in the last
century. Double the population once in every
hundred years and the spectacle of crowded
earth is not so difficult to imagine. Even
crowded Nevada or Texas does not seem out of
the range Of possibilities. Yet the United
States went far ahead of the general world
average-due to immigration well as natu-
raj growth. In the first half of the last CEN
tury the population Of this country increased
Sa0 per cent. In the last half it increased
222S per cent.
With neither war nor disease making whole
sale inroads on the earths peoples, and with
the parade avenues filled with sprightly young
folk of 80, 90 or even 100 years Of age, it
would seem as If this era Of pereptual peace
Tor which every one has sighed is bringing it's
own weighty problem with 1.-THE struggle
Tor an existence that cannot exist and for food
Saat simply cannot be created.
Right here is where one of Professor
aalthus's aids enters, with the promise Of
alleviation of all these possible ills due to
overcrowding of the earth's surface.
To-day this aid is known as the birth control
popagandist Malthus would call such an in
aivdua representative Of the personal check
q moral restraint Political economists have
0ng taken this check Of moral restraint into
account in studying the engrossing figures Of
world population. The check has appeared
most strongly in France, among the upper
ssasses in England and among the native born
the United States. There was excitement
'ecenty in New York over police interference
Mlh birth control meeting. The officers did
a0s argue the pros and cons Of the Malthusian
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