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Disquisition by Scripps, E.W., Industrialism and decay, October 23, 1909

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Ohio University Libraries, E.W. Scripps Papers, MSS 117, Series 4, http://media.library.ohiou.edu/scripps
O~tober 23 , 1909.
INDUSTRIALI8M AND DECAY.
-----~--------~----------
Germany has a population of Bome sixty millions of people; the
land area of' the German Elnpire is J I believe, slightly grea.ter than that
of France, and it may be a little larger or smaller than the territory of t
the United Kingdom; it is, pemapa, fifty per cent larger than the State
of California and considerably 1es8 in size than the state of Texas.
In 80il productiveness and otb.er natural resources the terri tory
of the German Empire is BUllposed to be inferior to France, and ve:ry much
inferior to England. All things considered it is perhaps not much superior
to that of Califofnia, and is far inferior to that of Texas.
Genmany's popUlation is fifty per cent greater than that of
France, and forty per cent greater than that .of the British Isles; i.t
is, perhaps, thirty times greater than the population of the State of
California and twenty times greater than that of Texas. PopUlation
is practically stationary in France. The rate of increase of the Brit-ish
population is perhaps not one-half that of GernlanY. The increase of
the German popUlation is what we would call the natural increase - that is
to say the increase caused by births ,being greater than deaths.
At the present rate of growth or increase in the popUlation of
Gennan.y the population of this country might more than double in fifty
years.
Up to forty years ago the peoples that now compose the Gennan
:Empire were mainly engaged in agriculture; manufacturing in Germany was
insignificant in proportion as compared with En~arld. The German people
were poor people.
For a hundred years or more - for more than three generations-the
English people have been a ma.nufacturing people; - prior to the beg~
rmirJ6 of the nineteenth century the English were mai:tJ!.ly engaged in agrlcul
ture.

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Title	Disquisition by Scripps, E.W., Industrialism and decay, October 23, 1909
Collection	E. W. Scripps Papers, 1868-1926
Creator/Author	Scripps, E. W. (Edward Willis), 1854-1926
Date Original	1909-10-23
Subject-Place	Germany England
Subject-LCSH	Economic development Industrialization
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/book02/340-346
Original Format-AAT	Essays
Publisher	Ohio University Libraries. Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections
Type	Text
Format [IMT]	Application/pdf
Physical dimensions	7 p.; 11 x 8.5
Identifier	ser4_box01_vol02_340-346_industrialism.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 O~tober 23 , 1909. INDUSTRIALI8M AND DECAY. -----~--------~---------- Germany has a population of Bome sixty millions of people; the land area of' the German Elnpire is J I believe, slightly grea.ter than that of France, and it may be a little larger or smaller than the territory of t the United Kingdom; it is, pemapa, fifty per cent larger than the State of California and considerably 1es8 in size than the state of Texas. In 80il productiveness and otb.er natural resources the terri tory of the German Empire is BUllposed to be inferior to France, and ve:ry much inferior to England. All things considered it is perhaps not much superior to that of Califofnia, and is far inferior to that of Texas. Genmany's popUlation is fifty per cent greater than that of France, and forty per cent greater than that.of the British Isles; i.t is, perhaps, thirty times greater than the population of the State of California and twenty times greater than that of Texas. PopUlation is practically stationary in France. The rate of increase of the Brit-ish population is perhaps not one-half that of GernlanY. The increase of the German popUlation is what we would call the natural increase - that is to say the increase caused by births ,being greater than deaths. At the present rate of growth or increase in the popUlation of Gennan.y the population of this country might more than double in fifty years. Up to forty years ago the peoples that now compose the Gennan :Empire were mainly engaged in agriculture; manufacturing in Germany was insignificant in proportion as compared with En~arld. The German people were poor people. For a hundred years or more - for more than three generations-the English people have been a ma.nufacturing people; - prior to the beg~ rmirJ6 of the nineteenth century the English were mai:tJ!.ly engaged in agrlcul ture. Intiust·rialimn alld Decay-... 2. The English people engaged in large industrial pursuits - that is to say, labored in 19.r~e factories situated in the cities, some two generations or more before the Gennan peasant turned from agriculture to factory tool s; they left the pure air of the fields and began breatirlg in the poison of the city factory. English industry is now decadent. German industry has not, perhaps J rea.ched its zenith. The physique of the ingliah working classes is J I believe, supposed to be tremendously inferior to that of the same classes one hundred years ago. Germans. There appears to have been no such deterioration among the I have been speculating on some of the above facts, and I believe there have been two causes contributing to the deterioration of the inhabitants of England; one of these causes has been the enormous emigration of the best type of Englishman to English colonies and to other lands. A very large proportion of the most vigorous, in mind and body, of Englishmen have deserted their native land, and only the residue - the inferior cla.ss... have been left at home to breed. Another cause has been industrialism itself. The heal thy, strong and vigorous peasantry of the English fields and" villages have been tempted into the large manufacturing cities; there the men have been employed in unsanitarJwork and lived in a most unsanitary environment. Their wages being increased enornwusly more rapidly than their culture, these men have, to a large extent, at least, devoted their increase of earnings to the gr.atification of their sensual proclivities, excessive drinking, and have indulged in other vices. This manner of life has undennined their physical and spiritual constitution; - and these men have become the fathers· of the succeeding generation. Industrialism and Decay--3. The women - the wives and da~ters of these men - have also been removed from the more healthful surroundings and pursuits of their forefathers, and as a consequence have deteriorated. Opportunities being presented> parents have been tempted to employ their children in factory and other urihealthful work with the result that, being not only handicapped by lessened vitality of their parents, they have been further stunted and injured physically before they arrived at mahhood and womanhood, fatherhood and motherhood. The sum total of all these causes has been the effect of a vast number of inefficient, unfit, men and women; - all that class that is called in England "The unemployed." As England. has grown rioher pau.. perism has grown in extent. Almost the whole body of human material on which industrialism must rest has, in England, become deteriorated. Industrial i am in Ger-many is new yet; it has barely passed through one generation. What will be the effect of three genera.tions of industrialism in Germany? Germany has ceased to be an emigration country and has become an imnigration country. The German peasants are rapidly leaving the. faIm and are as rapidly being repla.ced there by laborers from alien lands - Poles, Russians, various peoples from the Balkans, and large numbers from Italy. The German popUlation ha.s already outgro\Vl1 the capacity of German lands to feed them. Germany bas become a great exporter of factory-made goode). and is rapidly growing greater in this direction; at the s~e time Germany has become a great importer of food-stuffs, and it is inevitable that she will grow much more rapidly in this direction, since all her new population must be fed on provisions produced outside of Gennany. Every yearJ 'l. i. t is estimated that Germa.ny has a million more mouths to feed than she had. the year before... 342 j Industrialism and Deaa.y--4. Agricultural lands in Gennany must, of necessity, decrease in area to make room for growing cities, factories, and all sorts of trans-portatidn and other industrial facilities. The a.rea of productive agricul tural lands will al so be cut down by increasing numbers of weal thy families who 1 while maintaining their old landed estates and securing other landed estates will not depend upon the small returns of agriculture but rather on profits from manufacture and trade J and thus they will neglect either altogether or partly the economic cultivation of the lands. It may be expected that Gennany will avoid the mistakes of the English people - mistakes that were the resul t of pure ignorance; Ger~ y will have had its object lesson in England's experience. Genmany is more careful and will continue to be more careful of the health and vi tali ty of her people But, on the other hand, progress isfao much more rapid in this oentury than it was in the nineteenth century that the development of industry, and hence its demands upon the vitality of the people, will be probably more than doubly as rapid in the twentieth century as it was in the nineteenth. Is there any reason then to expect that Germany will not be in a far worse plight in the year 2009 than England is today? But how long will Germany continue to increase its population at the present high rate? It is well known that city life is race suicide; there are few of the third and hardly any of the fourth generations of city dwellers. It is as yet unknown what the exact effect will be of intensive and universal school life amongst the young. German scientists and investigators have already for some time been sounding a warning and declaring that the intense work of the German public schools is undermining the health and constitution of attendants. School life and child labor, factor! work and city dwelling Industrialism and Decay--5. may be all set down as physically injurious to the human family. England sent her best sons abroad to found empires and nations, and, though England may die as a nation, there will rem.ain mighty empires of English. Germany has in past times eliminated from her people vast numbers of the best kind of Gennans to the advantage of other lands, 8...1').d yet has founded no colonies. But, for the most part, Germany has kept her people at home and is over-crowdi:rlg if not over-working her people to such an extent that the end of German glory may well be not a century hence. English statesmanship is not to be credited with the glory and success of the En~ish people; individually unefficient Englishmen saved the English people by individual enterprise. Genmul statemnanship may save Germany. It is a well known fa.ct tha.t plant and animal life is often and a.lways greatly improved by transplanting into other soils and other climates and other condi tiona than those of origin. There is no reason to suppose that the human animal is not benefited by the same process. Germany is toda.y one of the richest of nations; she is overwhelmingly the superior of any other nation in land milita.ry strength; she is erecting a navy with startling rapidity. Such are her human re-sources that there can be ho question but that if she willed it her navy would surpass that of England befo re a half century is over - may be before a. quarter century is past. Either the crucial moment has arri veti, or is about to arri va J when Germany may choose that her people shall long endure and enjoy a. masterful position in the world or consent to become decadent. Nearly all of the world's spaces have been occupied - that is nea.rly all of those spaces that will penni t Europeans to thrive have been. d.. :\44: OCCUp16 - but the peoples OCCUPYlllg these vast areas are veryune4.ua1 1ll Industrialism and Deeay--6. the scale ofdlationa! foree and civilization. There 11, in particular, one vast area of land, in a'temperate climte which ie occupied. by.. very inferior and mengrel rtce '-iif~opl· whol8 govemmenta are t:reDl8'fJd.oUtt,. weak, as compared with ani~~goft~n~th&t the country' cotdlMiDM.Jn. The South half ot, South_Ii_MY be left for an indetinitfJ'tbalt!li:-, possession of the incapable lBOngreltS'OtMtift, African and Iberian stocks I or it -y be nized by some superior r-.ee o'X"'natlon. The English people have preempt".. 'terr1tftythat wlll require centuries for i t,t~ fill by 'natural incte':8fJ'.tffi •..,.rf _ rDa"e , a whole continent to cover, and from Alaska to the southernmo.t1t.~.r of the Republic of Mexico, excepting the hot lands of the Gulf and. the two seas 1 allover this continent there is a living pla.oe for people." of European stock.. The French and all otper 'Latin:lpeoples are deca.dent. The Sla". wi th their various branches already a ccupy mighty areae in northern Atsia and all of eastern Europe. Slav civilization lags and although the Slav popUlation grows more rapidly in numbers than that of all other Euro,ean peoples, tm re are sufficiently eood reasons why we should expect that several generations shomld pass before the nation would have either ability or desir e to go over seas. Gennany needs more space. South America. is uneconomically occupied and used. German statesmanship and German power can and should possess and 00 cupy and people all of South America. Such is the condition of Europe to-day tha.t there nnst be an explosion and a Gennan eruption soon. Shall this explosion disrupt Europe and develop into a mighty war of Genna.Il conquest of Europe, or 'shall it take the direction pf the least resistance and perfonn a. great world's service in a German conquest of South America? It is true Australia. might be lost to the English Finpire t t~~e JiJrtpire of Anglo-Saxondom not be crippled; it llli~t be benefited.", Ind.u strialism and Deca.v --? But Australia is not so £!,ood a field for the Germans as is South.America; Australia is farther away from Germany than South America and Australia is defended not onlj' by a great naval nation but by a citizenship of nati ve born Anglo-Saxons far more capable of defending their home than a.re the South Americans. Perhaps i tJ would be easy for England to conquer 30) 000 ,000 South Ar>.1eri cans as against 3» 000 1 000 Austral iana, even if the Australians were unprotected. The United States of America alone stands in the way and bars the road from Germany to South America; but the opposition of the Unit-ed States to German conquest of the South American continent is purely sentimental. No matter how atrol1fo~ thi s sentiment is aentimentali ty has never been stroru~ enoUf-:;h to overcome the onrush of practical i ty • There can be no la8tin:~ world peace so long as Europe contains such a powerfully expensive body as the Gennan people on a small area of land from which there is no escape-valve throue:j1 'ivhich the nation can pass as a nation for further national e:x:pansion. Dictated by E.W. Scripps Miranar) California. ,n., c..v. O·1 · ler 2o'1ra:'. , It":;'1o:n :, • ~46

Title	Page 1
Collection finding aid	http://www.library.ohiou.edu/archives/mss/mss117.html
Transcript	Ohio University Libraries, E.W. Scripps Papers, MSS 117, Series 4, http://media.library.ohiou.edu/scripps O~tober 23 , 1909. INDUSTRIALI8M AND DECAY. -----~--------~---------- Germany has a population of Bome sixty millions of people; the land area of' the German Elnpire is J I believe, slightly grea.ter than that of France, and it may be a little larger or smaller than the territory of t the United Kingdom; it is, pemapa, fifty per cent larger than the State of California and considerably 1es8 in size than the state of Texas. In 80il productiveness and otb.er natural resources the terri tory of the German Empire is BUllposed to be inferior to France, and ve:ry much inferior to England. All things considered it is perhaps not much superior to that of Califofnia, and is far inferior to that of Texas. Genmany's popUlation is fifty per cent greater than that of France, and forty per cent greater than that.of the British Isles; i.t is, perhaps, thirty times greater than the population of the State of California and twenty times greater than that of Texas. PopUlation is practically stationary in France. The rate of increase of the Brit-ish population is perhaps not one-half that of GernlanY. The increase of the German popUlation is what we would call the natural increase - that is to say the increase caused by births ,being greater than deaths. At the present rate of growth or increase in the popUlation of Gennan.y the population of this country might more than double in fifty years. Up to forty years ago the peoples that now compose the Gennan :Empire were mainly engaged in agriculture; manufacturing in Germany was insignificant in proportion as compared with En~arld. The German people were poor people. For a hundred years or more - for more than three generations-the English people have been a ma.nufacturing people; - prior to the beg~ rmirJ6 of the nineteenth century the English were mai:tJ!.ly engaged in agrlcul ture.

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