Evening star., 1926-03-23

The population Of the United
States next 4th Of July will be Ill.,
400 .oI7, according to the latest calcu-
lation of the Census Bureau.
The census of 1920 showed a popu-
lation of only 105.710.620. The in
crease Of nearly 100000 in six
years shows an average growth Of
100000 a year. in spite Of our re-
striction Of immigration and also in
spite Of the decrease in the number
Of births per 1000 families. The net
increase is attributed to the lowering
Of the death rate, particularly Of in
fants under 5 years Of age. 1t is
credited, therefore. to the advance
in medical science, sanitation and
particularly to increased intelligence
as to the laws Of health.
=: \ 4 x
That we have not yet reached the
limit of improvement in conservation
of human life is indicated by DIR.
Louis /. Dublin Of the Metropolitan
Life Insurance Co., who in an address
stated that compared with the 1910
census we may yet reduce the death
| rate through preventive medicine.
applied sanitary science, Industrial
hygiene, the popularization Of annual
physical examinations and their by.
gienic follow-up, with the following
results:
Age 0-o, assumed reduction pos
s1ble from 1910 rate. approximately
two thirds; 5-l0, two-thirds to one
half; 1860, onehalf; 60-7O, onehalf
to no reduction; 20 and over, no re-
duction.
Scientists do not always hold out the
encouragement supposed to be due the
human race because of this science of
health and longevity. The scientific i'm
provement does not tend to enhance
| the high average of the race, for it
conserves the weaklings who would
otherwise succumb to their weak.
nesses and leave only "the survival of
the f1ttest." One authority points out
that vice and disease purify the race
because they kill the weak and
vicious"
| Another modern scientist offsets
the conservation of the weak, and
points to the automobile as equalizing
the conservation of science, it being
the modern "foolkiller," yet he con.
fesses that the automobile, like war.
tends<to strike down the vigorous
rather~than the weaklings. A table
of deaths shows that organic heart
disease has greatly increased its rate
of victims since 1900. which is at
tributed partly to the rapid pace Of
modern life.
| In 1900 the number of deaths per
100000 population, due to organic
heart disease. was 1884. while now il
is in excess of 1914. Throughout the
world the death rate from contagious
disease has been remarkably reduced,
with little reduction as to organic dis
eases. Child mortality in 1900 was
17.6, while in 1923 it had fallen to
only 1913. These figures refer to the
which is assumed to indicate the trend
for the whole.
4 x *
What will be the effect Of the con.
servation of life and its resultant per.
sistent increase of population? A cen.
tury ago, Nautilus pointed out that at
the rate the world population was
growing the time was not distant
when there would be more people than
the world could feed. Since then the
improvements in farm machinery and
knowledge Of agriculture have been
SO great that opti1nists have been
eager to cast ridicule upon the Nal
,thusian foreboding. We have been as.
sured that the United States never
could be overcrowded, but that we
might feed 500, 100000 east Of the
Rocky Mountains and 100000, 900 west
lof the Rockies. Recognized statis'
ticians warn us that such vaunting is
not based on facts. The time is not
distant. they say, when the United
States will reach saturation of pOpu.
| lation, as have China. Japan. Italy.
! Holland and certain other regions.
In a book, Population Problems,
written by several professors OF
economics Of leading universities and
compiled by DIR. Dublin--published
| this month-Dr. Dublin says in the
preface:
THE population question, important
everywhere, is today most pressing in