Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1928-02-26
CENTURY Will
DOUBLE TOTAL
FOLKNW WORLD
Present Permanent I'm
provements To Re.
duce Worries of Fu-
ture, Said
Bx E. E. DUFFY


By the year 1000 the population
Of the United States, If the present
rate of increase is continued, will be
double the 1920 figure, or 10000. 900
people BY 1850. only p years from
now, 5000. 900 people will inhabit
this country.
Where will these people live? Will
the great cities Of today become
even larger? Can New York City.
Chicago. Detroit. Philadelphia and
other larger centers build outward
ard upward, to contain lei more
thickly massed populations? Or will
h smaller communities and the
country absorb them?
The question arises also as to
what will become of the automobile
Small cities and owns, as well as
large, are already writing in the
tolls Of traffic congestion. What
will be the condition in the city of
the future, when perhaps the aim
Of automobile manufacturers will be
realized with every third person
running q carr Seventy million OF
them are anticipated for the year
1000.
Population increase is inevitable.
History shows that transportation
definitely affects the rate Of in
crease. Before the coming of the
steam engine, bringing with 1t rapid
travel, population growth was slow.
As soon as the great steam liners
began to plough the sea and Iron
Horses" the prairies, people who had
been confined to congested COM
munities packed up the "old KIT bag
and lit out" for greener pastures
where freedom and possession OF
more of the worlds goods induced
greater parenthood.
Steam Increased Total
When steam became of widespread
use in about 1880, the population OF
the world was just half what 1t Is
today. Japan has doubled its popu-
lation in fifty years. With improved
sanitary conditions and medical
science, the United States bids fair
to grow substantially. But where
this growth will lead, TO or from the
city, is both meat and dessert for
speculation. The recently published
report Of the Chicago Regional
Planning commission reveals that
suburban communities are gaining
citizens more rapidly than Chicago
o This indicates a tendency
to avoid the crowded large city with
its skyscraping office structures and
towering apartment buildings.
Considering the definite trend to-
ward more people and all the prob
lens they may bring with them, II
may be good business for the larger
cities to stimulate suburban growth
rather than growth inside the me-
tropolis. Even now parks, swimming
pools, lake fronts and other munich
nal outdoor recreational facilities
are fully occupied. Sunlight and
fresh air allotments are already sub
divided into ~niggardly pieces. BY
spreading its population over larger
areas, even though this tends TO
-d1Atralize business, il Is believed
that the city will profit through a
happier, healthier and more produc-
tive c~itizenry.
Small cities, too. should cast a
weather eye to the future. Perhaps
the population trend will be towards
the villages and towns of today,
making them equal in size TO ON
Of the present large communities.
With more people. more autoro-
h;Ies ard more everything else. star
ing an expectsnt world IN the face, II
Is mandatory that plans be made to
forestall top-heaviness. The auto
mobile, the real progenitor al TINS
twentieth century prosperity and
nrorressiveness, will be the most i'm
nrotant factor in distributing any
future population increases.
II il not a human trait to worry
over the future, especially the future
~ other people. Fortunately, in pro-
viding permanent and substantial IA
%eilities for present use. the future
will be benefited. Communities now
engaged in widening streets, build
ing better highway outlets to the
country, and zoning city property Tor
logical and sensible o", 20, oPs
for themselves but the generations
inst ahead will have less to worry
.kruf