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Ohio University Libraries, E.W. Scripps Papers, MSS 117, Series 4, http://media.library.ohiou.edu/scripps
April 25 J 1909.
··· ·
PEOPLING THE EARrH. ··· ·
-------------------------------
Several weeks ago in a. brief talk I had with Benj wnin Ide
lnleeler he incidentally expressed the idea that the world was getting
too full of people and that governments would soon have to begin taking
steps to regulate not only the growth but the character of popula-tiona
He said that nearly all the waste spaces fonnerly existing in
the world livere being filled with people and that there Vias not 1!lUch
room left for further spread.
A century or more ago the English sociologist Malthu8 formula.
ted a theory that the earth's capacity for supporting human beings
was then nearly reached and that intelligent people should be seeking
to limit the number of births rather than increase them. I believe his
idea was that the food supply could not be much further increased to
meet the growing requirements of the race. For many years now it has
been 01 aimed that the Malthusian theory has been exploded for the reason
that Mal thus had ba.sed all his calculations on false data concerning
the food productiveness of known agricultural areas, and further
because he was in entire ignorance of the existence of other great untouched
agricultural areas, and that hence he wa.s a false prophet.
I have never read Malthus' book.
For my own part I do not consider that the N.tal thus ian theory
has been exploded just because of a. few even important errors in calCUlation.
The earth's surface is limited; there is also necessarily
a limit beyond which the productiveness of any given space can not be
increased. On the other hand there can be no other Ihni t to the
~t.2 9
Object Description
| Rating | |
| Title | Disquisition by Scripps, E.W., Peopling the earth, April 25, 1909 |
| Collection | E. W. Scripps Papers, 1868-1926 |
| Creator/Author | Scripps, E. W. (Edward Willis), 1854-1926 |
| Date Original | 1909-04-25 |
| Subject-People |
Wheeler, Benjamin Ide, 1854-1927 Malthus, T. R. (Thomas Robert), 1766-1834 Galton, Francis, Sir, 1822-1911 |
| Subject-LCSH |
Population Food supply Eugenics Social evolution |
| Is Part Of |
E. W. Scripps Papers, Series 4, Box 01, Vol 02 E. W. Scripps' Writings 1909, Book 2 |
| Collection finding aid | http://www.library.ohiou.edu/archives/mss/mss117.html |
| Call Number | mss117/ser4/box01/book02/129-139 |
| Original Format-AAT | Essays |
| Publisher | Ohio University Libraries. Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections |
| Type | Text |
| Format [IMT] | Application/pdf |
| Physical dimensions | 11 p.; 11 x 8.5 |
| Identifier | ser04_box01_vol02_129-139_peopling_earth.pdf |
| Donor | Scripps, Charles E. (Charles Edward), 1920- |
| Rights Information | In the public domain. Unpublished works are under copyright for the life of the author + 70 years |
| Citation | E.W. Scripps Papers, Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections, Ohio University Libraries |
| Transcript | Ohio University Libraries, E.W. Scripps Papers, MSS 117, Series 4, http://media.library.ohiou.edu/scripps April 25 J 1909. ··· · PEOPLING THE EARrH. ··· · ------------------------------- Several weeks ago in a. brief talk I had with Benj wnin Ide lnleeler he incidentally expressed the idea that the world was getting too full of people and that governments would soon have to begin taking steps to regulate not only the growth but the character of popula-tiona He said that nearly all the waste spaces fonnerly existing in the world livere being filled with people and that there Vias not 1!lUch room left for further spread. A century or more ago the English sociologist Malthu8 formula. ted a theory that the earth's capacity for supporting human beings was then nearly reached and that intelligent people should be seeking to limit the number of births rather than increase them. I believe his idea was that the food supply could not be much further increased to meet the growing requirements of the race. For many years now it has been 01 aimed that the Malthusian theory has been exploded for the reason that Mal thus had ba.sed all his calculations on false data concerning the food productiveness of known agricultural areas, and further because he was in entire ignorance of the existence of other great untouched agricultural areas, and that hence he wa.s a false prophet. I have never read Malthus' book. For my own part I do not consider that the N.tal thus ian theory has been exploded just because of a. few even important errors in calCUlation. The earth's surface is limited; there is also necessarily a limit beyond which the productiveness of any given space can not be increased. On the other hand there can be no other Ihni t to the ~t.2 9 Peopli!Lth~ Ea..rth--2., growth of population than that voluntarily imposed upon itself by the race, or that which shall be imposed by the earthts incapacity to furnishmore than a given amount of food stuffs and other material needed to maintain hUJnan life. There are now, in the civilized part of the world, a nmnber of states which are unable to furnish the food stuffs required by their citizens; among these are England, Gennany and Belgium. France is necessarily an importer of food stuffs in order that her people shall li;v;e up to their present standards of subsistence. Not only are these states possessed of populations larger than is warranted by their capacity for food production, but they are rapidly using up nature's stores of other needful corrmodities. The coal and iron supplies of Europe are being so ra.pidly consumed that it will be only a few years before her people~ill have to depend entirely upon imports for such supplies. Yet the population of Europe is even nmv rapidly increasing. Every year there are between six and ten millions more mouths to feed in Europe. more bodies to be clothed, more houses to be built for, more iron, coal and wood and implements to be supplied to. Scientists and medical eJqJerts have already discovered means to utterly route the pl~eJ and to reduce to a comparatively very small number the victims of contagious diseases. Sani tation and hygiene have also contributed greatly to the prolongation of life of in-dividuals. Wars are few, and while they may still be very destruc-tive to the actual com.batants they are conducted in such a way as to hardly produce B..Yly effect whatever upon the non-combatant part of the population. In more ancient days J even only a few centuries ago. of the number of human beings destroyed by war only an infinitesstmal portion were among the actual combatants; in those days even populous 1-30 cities were practically annihilated, and whole territories of land lost the major portion of their population by war and its consequences. The strong ann. of the law, represented by the police, has prevented cases of homicide to such an extent that today violent J , deaths by this means have been reduced to two or three per cent of what they were only a few score years ~o. About a century ago the average longevity of the natives of civilized sta.tes was a.bout thirty years; today it is reckoned at fortyfour years.. The length of life of all classes has been increased,--w the sane and sound and the insane and imbecile. The prisons are preserving the lives of those criminals who would have once gone to the gallows. Not only have civilized states labored hard, and effectively, to preserve the lives and multiply the births &~ong their citizens, but they have reached out over the whole world and taken into their control the goverronent and life affairs of uncivilized and partially civilized peoples, and through their policemen, their doctors and their socalled philanthropists) have worked so effectively as to almost end petty wars and homicide. They have, to a large enent, conquered disease and famine. The war against nature has been so successful in the way of defending against death the Ii ving, and of increasing new births, that population increase allover the world is going on with startling rapidity .. Four hundred years ago Queen Elizabeth was the sovereign ruler of the whole .Anglo-Saxon race, and had as subj ects only some four millions of people J ---a population in number just about one-half of that of one of the English colonies toda.y J namely Canada. The population of ~o-Saxon countries today ~regates one hundred twenty mil-lions. In 400 years the increase has been thirty fold. But by far the great- 131 er part of the total increase has been during the past century. During the past half century the Anglo-Saxon peoples have more than doubled. The other Teuton branches of the race are growing in percent-. age even more rapidly than are the English. Back of the Teutons stand the Slavs-dsome two hundred millions of people---~~d they are increasing in numbers, even under present ~ondi to,s amongst ~hem, - --even more rapidly than are the Engl i sh and Ger-mans. None of the Slav nations is very far advanced in civilization yet. While their birth rate is great their mortality is correspondi~ y great. The aver~e longevity of the Slav is not much greater than sixty per cent that of the Gennan and Anglo-Saxon ra.ces. It is only a question of a short time, however, when civilization amongst the Slavs will develop to an extent Which will cause these people to increase even rJ10re rapidlJT in number. The Latin races alone are not piling up huge surpluses of births over deaths. The world is not yet nearly full of people. Even western Europe, under improved conditions resulting from further development of civilization, mdght support, without imports of food supplies, at least a. population considerably larger than at present.. But since there are parts of western ~rope that are full to over-flowing,---so ~ill that the soil in them is incapable, even under the most intense culture, of supplying for their people food stuffB,--~it can be easily deduced that the reraainder of ·western Europe will soon be in the srune condition. Eastern Europe,occupied by the Scandinavians and Slavs, is filling up so rapidly that it is more than probable that population there will reach the point of saturation quite by the thne the same condition ex- 1 ~2 ists in western Europe. Peo:gling th~ ~arth--5. lsial notwithstanding its enonnous yellow and brown populations, becau.se . it is 80 large a terri tory) is capable of holding a much larger population than at present. But lsia' s present enormous population is so fecund that there are only needed the arts of civilization to per-mi tits people to increase by such leaps and bounds as may in a century completely saturate the whole of that great continent. There remain the continents of the two Americas , Mrica , and !ustralia and the islands. To speak of the last first: The islands allover the world have a population today so great as to permit of very little increase. !ustralia is a great territory in extent, but, owing to natural conditione, only a small part of it---it is said only the fringe of the ocean coast line---ia capable of supporting populations like those of western Europe today. Still there is considerable vacant space left there for humanity. 113 to the American continents it can be said that there is on the Northern continent today, perhaps, a population of one hundred twenty millions, which is approximately five times greater than it was a. century ago. By way of enmigration and excess of births over deaths it can be confidently predicted that a century from now this population will have increased four fold, and will number five hundred millions of people. There is very little doubt that during the century to come all that part of Mexioo which is capable of becoming a dwelling place of Northern European stock will be occupied by this stock, the present indigenous race in part being absorbed by miscegenation and in part crowded into those sections where men of European stock can not thrive. In South Jmerj.ca. it i B reckoned that there are today about Peopling the Earth--6. thirty millions of people. Perhaps not more than one-fourth of these people are of pure European stock, and probably not one-half are possessed of any appreciable amount of European blood; for the most part the people of South America consist of Indian,; negro, and Latin stock. It has already been demonstrated thl:tt there is no Indian or native American stock that can hold its own against the European, but it has also been proven that the negro stock is virile and capable, biologically 7 of maintainirlg itself in opposition to the finest breeds of white men. The Spanish and Portuguese, the representatives of Europe in South America, belong to the almost decadent Latin race. Perhaps over two-thirds of the continent of South America is unfit for penmanent occupation by descendants of northern Europeans. There remains then only about one-third of South America that is capable of being peopled as numerously as are some of the territories of western Europe and North America;---that is, populated by the hardier stocks of northern Europee Perhaps there is in Africa, in the extreme northern end of the continent and on the southern end, a territory capable of furnishing homes for Europeans of the most virile breed equal to the same kind of territory in South America. But in Africa is to be found the negro in enorn~us numbers, and, as has been said before, the negro is,biologically speaking, the equal of the Caucasian. The negro and the Mongo- White lian are both able to endure in any part of the earth where 1\ mer can live. The Mongolian can thrive further south than can the Caucasian, and as far or farther north. The negro can not thrive as well in the extreme north as the Caucasian, but there is no part of Africa where the negro can not thrive well. On account of the great and increasing number of negroes in Africa there will be little room for any very great extension of the .J_34 white population. ~ Even under present conditione it would appear that a century hence the world's population may be so great as to produce a crowded condition. Up to the present time most of the increased number of the European people has remained at home, and emigration from Europe can hardly be said to have been largely the result of crowding out. But every year will cause the land of Europe to grow more full and emigration will be more and more largely the result of crowding out. In the Pacific Ocean the great islands of the Japanese Empire have become so stocked with humanity that emigration has become a necessi ty. There are also large parts of China and India that are so over-full that emdgration has become necessary. It is probable that the coming century will be marked by vast movements of emigrants induced solely by crowded-cut conditions. Already a la~e portion of the immigration to America, both North and South, results from crowded home conditions. Germany has almost reached the limit in the way of room for increasing popUlation, and the Ger:mans must find some new territory to occupy and to colonize as a German state, or else soon be dumping at the rate of a million or more a year her surplus population, in the way of individuals, on the scattered parts of the earth. The time has already come when some of the nations are giving grave consideration to the subject of what kind of emigrants is desirable; all the peoples of North America., excepting Mexico J are opposed to Asiatic emigrants; Australia is also opposed to them. The people of the United States are even now regarding the presence of the la~e negro population as a burden, and the time is certainly comdng when these people of the United States will recognize tha.t every negro in their midst is taking the place of some white man who would otherwise be in his placee ta5 By the end of another century, or perhaps before, the governments of the world will be changing their views and their attitudes toward popUlation. Up to the present time there appears to have been only one desire respecting population and that was to increase its numbere--- increase in quantity,---but very little attention has been given to the subject of quality. Owing to the almost universal acceptance of the Christian religion by Europeans there has been but one effort made by them;--that of preventing the death of living citizens and desiring the birth of more citizens. No distinction has been made between the desirable and the undesirable) the insane, the imbecile and the criminal; all these inferior classes of humanity have been carefully nurtured and preserved against destruction. The, physically weak. and inefficient, whether young or old, have had the nations' affectionate care and protection. These European peoples have been rich enough and free enough from care for their own selfish wants to be liberal and generous in their care for their unfortunate hrothers and sisters. But the time has already come when far-s6ei~~ scientific men are warning the peoples of civilized countries ~ain8t sentimentality in this respect. Galton, the father of eugenic philosophy, has been most pronounced and out-spoken in this direction. This would appear to be Gal ton' s theory: If a farmer has an acre of land that will produce so many com plants, every' weed or other unvaluable plant that grows in that acre will take the place of a valuable com-producing plant. The farmer will not then permit any of these weeds to grow in hie corn field. The terri tory of a nation may be compared to the farmer t s plot of ground.. Every human being in the state must be a consumer of the land's products. When there are enough human beings, of the able ~ and efficient sort, to fill up all the territory, the state, like the !t1~6 farmer, will carefully weed out the inefficienta,--.the men of an inferior race, the physical and mental weaklings even of the superior race,-in orde~ to give standing room and support to the men of superior race and to those healthy and efficient individuals of that race. The broad and fe~tile field of the United States is so productive that, at present, only a small portion of it is cultivated and made to yield valuable products of the soil and of the mines. But such portions as are cultivated produce more than is sufficient for the support of all the men of a superior race, and all the efficient members of the sup~rior race as well as many millions of men of an inferior race, and other rudllions of the weaklings of the superior race. This great field is occupied by productive human plants and it is al so being occupied by human weeds. All of these inferior people are not equally harmful or useless; some of them are useful up to such a degree that, in the absence of better human material, they can be ~e use of. For instance the negroes--inefficient workmen as they are-.. can do some work, and some sorts of work that are valuable to the white population. So long as there is plenty of room and there are no more efficient men of other races to do the s~~e work that the negro does, the negro will not only be tolerated but will be reckoned as, temporarily at least, a valuable asset. But when the whole country is crowded so that there is not enough food and other commodities to supply sustenance and employment for the most fit kind of men then inevitably will the government and people begin) in some fonn or other, the practice of weeding out all of the least valuable stock and replacing it with more valuable, or at least making room for human animals more valuable to the state. If the human race eliminates war, plague and famine as popu- .\~tion checks it will have to find and use some artificial checks. 1_3.t. ""(" even The time will come when it will be said"in the most civilized lands that ftlife is cheap,ft just as the same is said of conditions existing in such crowded portions of the world today as China and India. At present there seems to be no indication that any of the civilized peoples of the world have begun to consider the benefits or propriety of capital punishment for the offense of inefficiency. There stands in the way of such a step all of the great world religions that have come into being. However, the world is filling up and filling up rapidly, and the time is comdng when there will be no room in the world, or not enough room, for the strong and effective human beings in it; and when that time comes nature will;bid the strong to vollP.'ltarily sacrifice his life to make room for the weak, and it will~~id the strong man to reI!lain childless sooner than make room for the child he desires, by closing the existence of the weak offspring of his weakling neighbor. Allover the civilized world the agriculturalist is eliminating the poorer breeds of cattle and the less productive varieties of cereals and fruits in order to make places for more valuable animals and more valuable cereals and frui te. In time the governments of the world will deal with the human stock as the farmer has dealt with his -11 4':)'~ .. ...LUI."'*.: cattle, gra.ins and fruits. The theory of Mal thus J as I understand it, is based entirely upon the lind tation of food supply. Since the days of Mal thus human-ity has discovered that just as the ordinary human animal depends upon food for hi s 1 i feci viI i zed man depends upon many othe r comrnodi ties J in order to make life endurable. While it'has been possible vastly to increase the SUPpl3r of food stuffs, by the new discovery and conquest of vir;gin land and by the discovery of methods of cultivation, which greatly increase the produce of any partiMUlar area, there is no room Peopl~ng tlt~ Earth--ll. for the similar development of the supply of other comnodities, and conDTIodities absolutely essential to progressive civilization. The stores of coal, and iron and other minerals, accessible to man, are so lirndted that even at the present rate of consumption of such materials the supply bidB fair to give out in the course of a very few generations. ; VVhen it is considered that the annual rate of consumption of these commodities is increasing many times faster than the rate of growth of population it can be seen clearly enough that the only way of extending the duration of supply of many things needful for growing civilization will be by cutting down consrumption, that is by checking the growth of or decreasing the number of consumers. The iron, the wood and the coal that is consumed by the negro today is a reduction of the supply of these materials that will some day be sorely needed by the descendants of the negro's fanner white master. Even soil wears out, or is lost by erosion, as a result of cuI ti vation. The ten mill ions of negroes in the United State s today are gradually 7 but surely, wearing out great areas of agricultural lands which would, were it no~ for the negroes of today, the past or the future, be still fit to nourish great white populations ages hence. Dictated by E. We Scripps, Miramarie- CaJ.ifornia, April 20, 1909. |
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