Evening star., 1938-07-10
Americas Coming Of Age
Told in Population Table
Smaller Increase in Census Figure May Mean
Countrys Next Growth Will Be in Wisdom
and in Tolerance

the Nation boasted so proudly up to about
two decades ago.
In 10 years the population had advanced
to $4,000. an increase in a decade of over
one-haf. Reluctantly the red man re.
treated westward, staggering and stumbling
with load Of the white mans alcohol,
with white mans gun over his shoulder.
and white mans wampum in his hands
given as reward for bringing in the scalps
OF other white men for the greater glory of
God. He war-whooped his staggering way
westward over the Alleghanies to make room
for new villages and bigger cornfields-and
for new graveyards to receive the bodies of
half the eight children born to each woman
and of the women themselves, two or three
wives to man in an average lifetime.
Life became less precarious, homes more
comfortable. A slightly smaller percentage
of the babies died and things even reached
the point where a healthy, self-assertiye
woman had vague chance Of living out
an average lifetime. The emigrants kept
coming-and by 1910 there were 114.00o
persons of white blood within the present
limits OF the United States, an increase of
IS per cent over 1860. Twenty-one was. in
sense. ripe old age for either a man or
woman in those daya-that is. IT, was
about the total life expectancy of the aver
age person at birth. corresponding to the
early SOS at present.
America was very-little- boy nation in
those days, childish in mind and childish
IN stature. But the pine-scented air was
healthful. The country went on adding
about one-third to its population every 10
years until, in ITO, 1t boasted a stature
OF 2,2O5.OOO human beings It began to
nave a mind Of its own and to feel the
strength OF its muscles. It proceeded to
Wnlp its parent country England, with a
Will and to set out for itself in the world.
Fewer Children.
But it still was far even from the
growth squirt of adolescence. The birth
rate continued high, although there was
slight but constantly accruing drop each
decade from the average Of eight children
per mother. After the Revolution the
struggle for food in Europe was growing
constantly more acute And Europe also
was increasing in population-not so fast
as America, but far too fast for its re-
sources. Something was happening to the
white race for which, even today. there
is no adequate explanation Up to this
time its numbers had remained pretty con-
slant from the dawn of human history.
Suddenly, about the middle of the 18th
century. started the biggest population in
crease ever known in human history. It
is an increase that has continued up to
within the past few decades at an ac-
celebrating pace as new agricultural meth
ods have increased the supply of food and
medicine has vastly cut down the death
rates of infants. Why this increase In
human beings nobody knows. 1t has lasted
only few seconds in the hour of history.
Some still mysterious law of Nature seems
to have come into operation The same
thing happens among various species of
mammals every now and then. They dou.
Die, triple and quadruple their numbers.
Then some equally mysterious epidemic
wipes out all the gain in generation or so,
Man is a mammal. It is likely the
except for two things, the beginnings of
modern science and the discovery of Amer
lea with its vast potential food resources.
About the time of the American Revolu-
ton an Englishman named Nautilus was
predicting dire things. The race was null
tlplylng too fast for the possible food SUD-
ply. Sooner or later it would be neces-
sary to cut down the population by a new
black death or an equally effective general
massacre in the form of universal war.
Malthus reckoned without the Midwest
corn belt, the Argentine wheat fields, phos-
pilates. harvesters, plant genetics They
were still far in the future. That the
time ever would come when man would
have too much to eat-one of the troubles
OF the present. disregarding distribution
problems-was unthinkable,
Cure for Smallpox.
America was the bulge in the bag of the
white mans world where the increasing
populations of Englishmen, 1rishmen. Gep-
mans, Italians, Poles, Russians, Swedes-
and Negroes not voluntarily-could find
room for themselves. They came in
swarms. The birth rate continued high.
Doctors found way to prevent smallpox.
An American doctor discovered the anaes-
thetic effects of ether-perhaps the most
momentous event in the history of the hu-
man race since some cave man discovered
now to build fire. Other doctors found
ways to prevent diphtheria. The noble pro-
fesslon OF plumbing advanced and became
highly profitable for its practitioners. Not
So much new land was needed to bury
babies in.
And thus, decade by decade. America
grew up:
1890 ooo nm