The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1924-08-12
STANDING ROOM
ONLY IN WORLD,
SCIENCE FEARS
Professor Warns u, S, May
Pass China'S Popula-
ton in in 70 Years,
BIZ Times SpeciGI

BIZ Times Special
VILLA STOWN, Mass, Aug.
lis the world becoming over
populated?
DR.. Henry Pratt Fairchild, profess
sor of social economy at New York
University, and an authority on i'm
migration. believes there is DANCE
of it. He says the population OF
the United States, at its present rate
Of increase~at the end of the TWEEN
tieth century, would be 55.000,000, or
one-third greater than the present
population Of China. Increase in the
birthrate. safeguarded by better liv-
ing conditions, in 10000 years, he
calculated, would produce more hui
man beings than could be provided
with standing room.
Untold Billions in 10000 Years
Before experts assembled TO dis
cuss Population and Related Prob
lens" DR.. Fairchild produced sta
tistics TO show the earth's probable
density of population in future
ages. His estimate of the worlds
population a hundred centuries
hence was represented by a figure
followed by a, series Of cyphers that
extended into space like the mouse's
tail in alice in Wonderland"
At that remote period in the fu-
ture, ne said, the human species, II
unchecked by war or disease, would
number 1922 billions of billions of
billions OF billions" and each per-
son wouh have to stand upon only
one and rone-half square feet in all
the earth's area, including the North
and South poles At present the
earth's I,72S,OOO,OO0 inhabitants each
has thirty square miles to move in.
Many Young Perish
''In the animal and vegetable
world" said DR.. Fairchild. there
is no species, however low its rate
of reproduction, which could not
cover the earth in very few years
il all the young produced could
survive to the normal lifetime Of
the species"
Taking the oyster ASIAN example,
he said its unchecked reproduction
in five generations, starting from
one oyster alone, would result in a
mass Ol ONSl6IS eight NAllACo AAAC o-<1C
of the earth. He quoted Havelock
Ellis, the British expert on animal
reproduction, as showing that there
exists a minute animal organism
which, If not killed off as rapidly as
it was produced. would in a short
period create a mass larger than the
sun.
More in e. S. Than World
when he face the question CT
dense population" continued DR..
Fairchild, the element Of standing
room becomes important, for stand
ing room takes from the space avail
able for the production of food. To
what extent man may enlarge his
standing room upward. we do not
know. He has produced remarkable
results in the skyscrapers in New
York City, but we do not know how
much farther his expansion in this
direction may be carried.
IN the United States, at the rate
based on the census figures Of 1910
and 1920, in spite of war and cpl
denies, we will have by the end of
the century a population one-third
larger than China's present popu-
lation. China is always cited as an
example of intense overpopulation,
but there will be teeming millions
in the United States if our present
increase continues. About the
middle Of the next century. at the
same rate, we would have in this
county as many people as there are
-->< IN the entire world"