Evening star., 1947-10-12
The Population Outlook

In 1916, according to the latest Census
Bureau estimates, the United States
gained 2279,000 in population-the great
est one-year increase in our history. The
total now stands at 142,673,0 900, growth
of about II 100000 since 1910. The figures
explain in part why Americans are eating
more than ever. They have an important
bearing, too, on problems like housing, and
on the supply -and-demand situation in
general.
But the figures are far more important
in this sense: That they reflect world
wide trend and serve to remind US that
population is shaping up into problem
demanding the most careful national and
international attention. A century ago the
earth was peopled by 1,000,000,000 human
beings. Today there are about 2,000,000000
of us. hundred years from now, given
the present rate of births over deaths and
the expected increase in average life ex-
pectancy the total may approximate
40O0,00O,0O0.
It labors the obvious to say that this
trend is significant in the extreme. The
population of the earth is growing by about
country like Russia were being added to
the planet with each passing decade. Our
own American numbers are expected to
reach a peak of around 160,000,000 and
level off there, but the same is not true OF
other lands, especially in the Slav region
and eastward from there. The prospect
thus involves the balance of power among
races and nationalities, and it raises ques-
tions of great meaning as regards future
economic, political and social change in
both a national and international sense.
Not the least of these questions-prob-
ably the most important, basically-has to
do with food. AS of today, the earth's
arabic acres, under present conditions, are
not enough to feed the earth's inhabitants.
Accordingly, with the overall popula ton
increasing by 2O00OO,00O each decade, the
world is faced with what amounts to the
immediate necessity of making its land
more fruitful. AS H. H. Bennett, chief of
our Soil Conservation Service, declared
some time ago, what is needed is prompt
planning and action to improve the agri-
cultural yield everywhere with new tech
niques and programs, including the de-
velopment of a network of projects like the
iva to bring new life to arid or semiarid
lands.
Looked at in one light, the world popula-
ton trend can be frightening If there
are 4,000,0o0,0oO. human beings a century
from now, where today there are only
2,000, ,000,0 900, fearsome events could happen
If nothing were done in the meantime to
prepare for the increase. But things can
be done If nations have the vision and will
to do them. Thus, wholly apart from
Twas or similar projects, it is entirely
conceivable that atomic energy alone may
one day be capable of making gardens out
of deserts or of banishing all fear of
hunger by showing man how to produce
limitless quantities of food synthetically.
This all depends on man himself The
earth can support many more of his kind
if he uses it we'll. Otherwise, if he merely
multiplies and does nothing to provide
proper sustenance and order in keeping
with the multiplication, the world may yet
become crowded enough to welcome the
catastrophe of war with A-weapons To
be sure, that would solve the population
problem, but simple sanity should impel
all peoples and governments to embrace
peaceful cooperation as the only solution
than can keep our growing members intact
and adequately fed.