Evening star., 1932-11-29
EVEN POPULATION
|GROWTHEXPLA|NED
Recent World AcceIeration
Credited Largely to Machine
and Technical Methods.
[ny the kssocie .ed press.


NEW YORK, November 29-Even
gro N OF the worlas population is
paTsc.y dependent on the machine and
tecnlical m.tnods sin the opinion of
Howard Scott, director of democracy,
recealch G-oap of engineers and tecn-
niclSns worling at Columbia University.
Writing in Liging Age in copy
r1ghted article published yesterday,
Scc.s deo2--S this observation as one OF
tne many consequences Of the earthS
Rccelerating use of its energy resources
results that have occurred in a little
more than 100 years. after all mans
preceding history had shown practical
no change.
During the 100000 years prior to
800" Scott writes. tine biologlc pro-
preston Of man. in his struggle fer
FulS-stcnce en- this earth, had advanced
30 1a- that the tosal world population
n that year reached the approximate
humber Of 850,oo9, 900.
Turing the subsequent 1872 years
world population has attained such
heights that Il now exceeds total of
800 100000 IN other words, the popu-
ation increase in the last 1872 years
has been greater than it was in the
previous 100000
Change in Means of Living.
"McSt of this increase in the human
Species has been made possible by the
social Introduction of chronological pro-
cedures, that is, change in the means
whereby we live as brought about solely
by the introduction of technology"
CFor example, the steam locomotive
and the steamship have made immigra-
tion possible and have provided means
of transporting food, machines and
RI 10 1nAI hat
could not otherwise be made for so vast
population. Practically every depart
ment of life is dependent on some form
OF the machine. Without 1t population
would not grow, because people would
starve)
"A century ago." Scott says, ''these
United States had a population of ap-
proximately 100000, whereas today
our census figures give total Of over
l22 ,000. .000-a tenfold increase in the
century.
'One hundred years ago in these
United States we consumed less than
75,0Go, ,0O0,000,000 British thermal units
la measure of encrgy) per annum,
whereas in 1929 we consumed approx
irnately $1,000, 100000 100000 British
thermal units-an increase of 353-fold
IN the century.
Energy Consumption.
"Our energy consumption now exceeds
100000 kilogram calories per capita per
day, whereas in the year 1900 our con-
sumption OF extraneous energy was
probably not less than 1,600 or more
than 1000 kilogram calories per capita
per day
'The United States of our forefathers.
with l2,000,000 inhabitants, performed
its necessary work in almost entire
dependence upon the human engine,
which, as its chief means of energy
conversion, was aided and abetted only
by domestic animals and a few water
wheels
THE United States today have one
billion installed horse power. In 1929
these engines of energy conversion,
though operated only to partial capacity,
nevertheless had an output that repre-
sented approximately so per cent of the
total work of the world . 3
Physical science has outdistanced
present social institutions to such an
extcnS that man, for the first time in
histo-T, finds himself occupying posi-
ton in which he knows enough to
operate this country SO as to provide
efficiently for all.
Pathway Blockaded.
"Man, in his age-long struggle for
leisure and the elimination of toll, is
now at last confronted not only by the
possibility, but by the probability of
this arrival. Such a new era is tech
nologically dependent physically pos
sible) only upon an extension of the
physical sciences and the equipment at
hand
But the pathway to that new era is
blockaded with all the riffraff of social
institutions carried over from yester-
days 1000 static years.
America, and America alone. has the
resources necessary to "inaugurate
new era in the life of man." but TO do
so. Scott writes she must abandon the
romantic" ideas Of the price system
and accept the necessity of purely ply
sical control Of social system totally
dependent on its physical resources.
rather than of control actuated by an
accelerating burden of debt, with its
huge waste of resources, and its in
evttable failure properly to distribute
the products of an advanced techno-
lruir 111av vaia