The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-24
M. E.TracySays:

HAVING studied the subject at some length,
4 committee on social trends decides that
the population of the United States will be
about 100000 900 in sixty years. While the i'm
possibility Of making accurate predictions is
apparent, habit and customs are developing
which leave no doubt that the enormous in
crease of population we have enjoyed should
not be expected in the immediate future
But-and this is an important point-When
| the American people realize what these Gus
toms and habits imply there is more than
likely to be a reaction
Just now, the small family birth control,
and restricted immigration are very popular.
We have come to one of those curious phases
of national life which often follows a period
of too rapid growth. The country is nlotivated
by nothing so distinctly as that tired feeling
At the same time we want business to i'm
prove and work for everybody, and we forget
that our industrial establishment has been
tuned to a probable increase Of thirteen or
twenty million in population each decade.
Take that increase away, or even reduce it
to a large extent, and the problem Of providing
work becomes very different from what it was.
TOR one thing, the city building orgy by
Il which we have set a record for all time
would cease With the population growing at
the rate of l per cent year, New York would
face very slim prospects Of containing
80 0OoOo people in the year 2o33, as some of
those planning it's future have guessed.
During the last century, the population of
this country doubled approximately five times.
If the same rate of increase were to continue,
it would be more than that of the whole world
now century hence
l. It was on such a rate of increase that we de-
veloped the industrial enterprises and ideas out
of which prosperity was created
If population is to become a matter Of con-
troll it follows that industry must adjust it
self to the consequences and not industry alone,
but all those phases of collective effort which
depend on number and movement of people.
THERE is no reason why America should not
l. be as happy with static population as with
one which doubles every twenty Or thirty years,
but not unless it changes its fundamental ideas
of what constitutes progress.
Up to this time, the great American fetish
has been growth, with unequaled bignesS as the
object. We have striven to build the greatest
city, the tallest building, the most conmodious
stadium.
We have measured our progress by counting
noses, money in the bank, stories in the sky
scraper and other quantitative units Quality
has come to play less and less important part
in our sense of value.
decline in the rate Of increase of popu-
lation would change all that, and possibly for
the better. We have grown too materialistic
for our own good, too infatuated with accumu-
lating inorganic substances, too negligent of
those intangible forces, which, after ALL deter
mine human destiny.
declining birth rate is the natural by
product Of a philosophy which visualizes phys
al comfort and physical convenience as the
most worthwhile objective in life, but whether
such philosophy can survive the ultimate effect
OF its own devitalizng influence is another story.