Evening star., 1938-07-10
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,

BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
~ HIS is the story of column of fig
ures-ranging from five digits to
nine digits.
Upon that column of figures the
history Of the world has hinged for 200
years.
For that column is the epic Of Amer
ica's coming of age, the story of its de-
velopment from a sprawling waif left on
the cold doorstep of a continent by a
poverty-stricken mother, through its years
Of tantrums and stormy adolescence to the
status Of sober, giant-bodied young adult
with bulging muscles.
1t Is one of the most amazing stories
IN human history as it emerges from the
statistical report on the Nations popu-
iation problems just presented to Presi-
dent Roosevelt by the National Resources
Committee. The committee, of course, is
concerned with what will happen to the
adult. This has been the subject of
speculation after speculation for the last
10 years, ever since sociologists became
aware that the growing period was about
over and that the problems of an adult
nation would be far different from those
of growing boy nation.
But the story of that growth itself has
not been told so comprehensively before.
The story starts in the middle of the
18th century. There was a vast habit
able continent inhabited only by semi
migratory bands of hunters and corn
raisers with copper skins and languages
and cultures alien, if not so vastly in
ferior as is sometimes supposed to those
OF Europe. For the most part this con-
tinent was covered with thick, dark forest.
Europe Reached Crisis
Meanwhile, the continent of Europe had
reached crisis. Fifteen hundred years
before 1t had presented much the same
picture, vast forest inhabited sparsely by
semi migrant bands of savages, except
for thickly populated and highly cultured
areas on its Mediterranean coast. This
culture had spread northward The saw
ages had been civilized. Forests had
been cleared and cities built Almost every
available inch of the land was cultivated,
after fashion, to feed the growing popu-
lation Of the continent
This agriculture was highly inefficient
1t was not much better, in fact, than that
of the Indians in the then unknown North
America. The larder of the individual,
who didn't happen to be of noble birth,
was pretty bare. When in 1892 the
Geonese sailor, Christopher Columbus first
sighted the shores of the New World he
had more to eat. more to wear, better
homes, better security for old age, better
medical attention when they were sick
than any one of his sailors could have OBJ
tanned in their European homes Unfor-
tunately for the savages, however, they had
not yet discovered those two flowers of
civilization, gunpowder and whisky.
At this time in Europe the population
problem was a major factor in a turmoil
religious and political. Little groups of
hardy adventures set out for the new con-
tinent and established precarious settle
ments on its eastern shore-St. Augustine,
Jamestown, Boston, New Amsterdam, st.
Marys City. Philadelphia, Savannah. They
came for various overt reasons, chiefly to
escape religious persecution. 1t is hard to
say how far this was a naturalization of
an all-powerful underlying reason-escape
from hunger. 1t is hard to say, in fact,
how much the religious persecution itself
was an expression of the eternal struggle
for enough to eat.
Colonies Were Well Of.
These struggling colonies found them
selves very well off. The new land fur
nshed them with an abundance to eat
and wear--most of the time. The struggle
with the wilderness was hard. This was
no place for weaklings. But generally
speaking the lot of the colonist after a few
years of adjustment was vastly better than
1t would have been if he had remained in
England, Holland. Spain or France. There
was, of course. the danger of being mas
sacred in his sleep by the hostile Indians
who, hospitable at first. soon became dis
gusted with the skullduggeries of the unin-
vited guests. But even this danger was
probably no greater than the European
peasant ran at home at the hands of raid
ing barons compared to whom Powhatan
and King Philip were merciful gentlemen.
The chief terror was psychological-the
great. dark, hostile forest stretching into
eternity from the outposts of the settle
n1ents.
so the story starts, for convenience in
the year 1850, with a total of $4,000 white
men, women and children within the pres
eat boundaries of the United States. There
was too much land for them-potentially
4 too much to eat. 1t was a strange expert
ence indeed for these West European
peasants. The great need was for power
to till and clear the land-and power in
those days meant manpower. There were
two ways of getting it. In those days, 1t
Is pointed out in the committees report,
there was an average of eight children born
to each married woman. Half of them, of
course, died in infancy, but even this was
q considerable gain over what would have
happened If the parents had stayed in
overcrowded Europe. The other way was
by attracting immigration from the home
lands-not so difficult when one considers
what the new country had to offer them,
. especially when it was described in the
language of such glowing real estate pro-
motion circulars as one recently unearthed
in the library of ST. Johns College at An
napolis, which was circulated in London to