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Show Will help keep America going. What is responsible for that sharp increase in births? You've got the answer to that, mother you know it far better than the economists. In part it's undoubtedly your own courage, your own confidence in your country coun-try and yourself. Girls are marrying earlier. It used to be assumed at girls' colleges, col-leges, Dr. Moulton said, that only 20 percent of a graduating class would be married in the first year after leaving school. Now, however, large numbers of girls and young men are married mar-ried before they graduate. The figures fig-ures show, too, that they want larger lar-ger families. Higher incomes, and the fact that there are jobs for all, encourages them. But whatever the reason, you mothers were smarter than the gloomy "experts." Your instincts told you America was sound and you were right. But what good is all this what good higher incomes, and increasing increas-ing markets, if America can't support sup-port those new babies? You've heard that America's natural resources re-sources are exhausted that there isn't enough to go around. You've heard that we'll have to lower our standard of living. Mother that just isn't true. Dr. Moulton looked ahead for 100 years, and asked: "So far as natural resources and productive capacity are concerned, might the United States a century hence support a population double that of the present day on a plane of living eight times as high as that now prevailing?" The answer was "yes." "There can be little doubt," he wrote, "that the onward sweep of science and technology as a whole is such that in one way or another scientific advancement as applied to the processes of production could yield results of (this) magnitude." mag-nitude." Dr. Moulton did not predict that we would have twice the present population, with a standard of living liv-ing eight times as high, in another 100 years. What he said was that we can have it and that American Ameri-can resources can support it. How so? He found that five things go to make up the basic parts of a high standard of living: Food and nutrition, nutri-tion, for which, in 1946, we spent $55,000,000,000; shelter and home maintenance, for which we spent ($31,000,000,000; attire and per- sonal care, $24,000,000,000; education educa-tion and health, $12,500,000,000, and recreation and travel $21,500,-000,000. $21,500,-000,000. First, then, could we feed 300,-000,000 300,-000,000 people with a higher standard of living? Yes. Dr. Moulton estimates that we would need to triple our present pres-ent food supply to do it. But by bringing new land under cultivation cultiva-tion through reclaiming swampland swamp-land and irrigating deserts; by controlling soil erosion to protect existing land; and through the use of scientific discoveries to increase the crop yield, we can feed your children, and their children's children. child-ren. America need not go hungry. Can we shelter 300,000,000 people ? Yes. Dr. Moulton estimates that we'd need eight times the amount of building materials we're now using, and he continues: "Residential construction materials mater-ials are entirely adequate. They are of many kinds, of which the most important are wood, brick and tile, cement, stone, cinders, glass, aluminum and steel. In the case of stone, brick, glass, cement and cinders raw materials are vir-utally vir-utally unlimited." Systematic reforestation can preserve our supply of wood. Plastics Plas-tics and other synthetic materials will be used increasingly. Steel and other metals, he found, will not be exhausted. "It seems clear," he said, "that there is no danger of running short of materials." Our needs for attire and personal care, he estimated, would be increased in-creased 20 times. But there, he found, the supply of natural and synthetic materials is virtually inexhaustible. The fields of sducation and health, he said, make little demand on material resources. America can meet the requirements. The largest rate of increase, he found, would be in recreation and travel; which make heavy drafts on mineral resources. You've heard, perhaps, that we're coming to the end of our iron ore that the great Mesabi ranges in Minnesota hold only 40 years' supply of high grade ore at the rate of wartime consumption. con-sumption. But Dr. Moulton showed that newly discovered Canadian ores, modern methods of using low (Continued on Page Six) Bountiful future ' By David Camelon " Reprinted from the February 19, 1950 issue of THE AMERICAN AMERI-CAN WEEKLY. "What chance have my babies got?" The nice young mother was worried and confused. She'd heard calamity howlers say America is through. Its natural nat-ural resources are exhausted. Opportunity Op-portunity is dead. The courage that made America has vanished and there is no future. "I don't really believe it,"' she said. "But I want so much for my babies and sometimes I'm scared." You don't have to be, mother. The calamity howlers are wrong. The future belongs to your babies bab-ies and to you. The coming century cen-tury is theirs and it can be the finest, richest century America has ever known. Our country is not exhausted we are only beginning to realize its possibilities. You can take the word of such outstanding men as Dr. Harold G. Moulton, president of the Brookings Brook-ings Institution, and one of the world's leading economists, for that. There are some "ifs," of course. There are some things you'll have to fight against such things as repressive taxes. But you're a good fighter. Baby's future is in your hands. First what is this America you brought your baby into? It has put more money into the hands of more people than any other country in the world and it is progressively giving more and more to those the Communists like to call the "masses" or the "little people." Dr. Moulton gives the facts in his latest book, "Controlling Factors Fac-tors in Economic Development," published by the Brookings Institution. Insti-tution. Twenty years ago, only about 10,000,000 families 28 percent of 11 the families in America had incomes in the $2,000-?5,000 range. But by 1946, half of all the families famil-ies in the country 23,000,000 were in this group. Twenty years ago, the families in the $2,000-$5,000 range got only one-third of the total individual income. But by 1946 more than half of America's income 55 percent per-cent went to families in that group. The picture is even more striking strik-ing if you lump together all of the moderate-income groups those families whose incomes ranged from $2,000 to $7,500 a year. In 1929, they received only $38,000,-000,000 $38,000,-000,000 but in 1946, they shared $111,000,000,000 65 percent of America's income. Does that look as though America Amer-ica were dying as though opportunity oppor-tunity were dead? Every year there are fewer really poor people in our country. In 1929, Dr. Moulton's figures show, 65 percent of the 'families in America had incomes of less than than $2,000. By 1946 only 40 percent per-cent were in that group and the number is going down all the time. It's folks like you mother folks in the great American middle class who are getting a constantly greater chunk of our country's wealth. Meanwhile, the people in the higher brackets are getting-less. getting-less. Those earning more than $7,500 received 30 percent of the country's income in 1929. In 1946 they got only 20 percent. Dr. Moulton describes what's happening in this way: "Prior to 1929, and especially in the decade of the '20's, the distribution distri-bution of income in the United States was becoming increasingly concentrated. Since 1929, the situation has been strikingly reversed." re-versed." Meanwhile, figures provided by Dr. Moulton showed that, despite the inflated dollar, wages were rising far more swiftly than prices. pric-es. By 1946, hourly wage rates were seven times as high as they had been in 1900 while wholesale prices were only 2 times as high. That meant that more people could buy more things. And those who talked of America being "through," Dr. Moulton said, did not see the big market that existed in the unfilled desires of the existing exist-ing population desires that could increasingly be attained as incomes in-comes rose. So that part of it is all right, mother. Never before has a baby been born with such a good chance to earn a comfortable income. But the calamity howlers say our country is running down. They used to contend, for instance, that our population was leveling off they went so far, Dr. Moulton said, as to predict that America's population popu-lation would become "stationary" by 1980 with births balancing deaths. You made them look silly on that prediction, mother you and all the other mothers of America. In the last 10 years, Dr. Moulton said, the records show an "astounding" "as-tounding" and progressive increase in births. During the depressed '30's, births ranged from 2,074,042 in 1932 to 2,286,962 in 1938. The insecurity of the depression years kept the birthrate down. It was expected, Dr. Moulton continued, that the rate would increase in-crease during the war as it did. In 1940 there were 2.4 million births, and the war-time peak was reached in 1943, when 2.9 million were born. There were 2.7 million babies born in 1945. But the amazing thing, Dr. Moulton said, is the way the babies kept increasing after the war. From 1946 through 1949, births averaged 3.6 million a year. There were 30,000,000 babies born in America from 1940 to 1950. Subtracting Sub-tracting dealths during those years, that meant our population increased by 18,000,000. That completely confounded the gloomy "experts." The more optimistic op-timistic had predicted a population popula-tion of 141,000,000 by 1950. The fact is that the population reached 150,000,000 last October. That doesn't sound like a dying country, does it? Those youngsters your babies and the others will be grown up in the 1960s and the early '70s They will be getting jobs, marrying, marry-ing, establishing their own homes. They will want automobiles, and refrigerators, and all the other things that go with homes. They'll form a new market in 1 the '60s and '70s a market that new enterprise." He explained: 1 "To state the matter in extreme terms, there can scarcelly be any question that the private enterprise enter-prise system would function more vigorously with a tax system that absorbs, say 10 to 15 percent of the national income rather than under one that absorbs 25 to 30 percent." You can fight for lower taxes. But most of all, you can face the future with confidence for yourself and your babies. America is not exhausted. The future is alive and strong. Bountiful Future 1 (Continued from Page Four) grade ores,1 and the use of substitute substi-tute metals for many purposes, assure as-sure adequate supplies for hundreds hund-reds of years. Coal is virtually unlimited. The sources of electric power are "superabundant." And the potential poten-tial supplies of natural and synthetic syn-thetic oils, he found are "adequate." "ade-quate." "Abundant supplies of oil and gasoline seem assured," he continued, "for many generations to come." So great is the progress in making synthetic oils, he continued, contin-ued, that much of our reserve of natural petroleum may be left in the ground. Yes, mother, your babies have a future a great one. What can you do to make sure that they achieve it? Protection and conservation of our natural resources is necessary. You can help fight for that. We've got to produce more every one of us. For if you double the population, and raise the standard stan-dard of living you far more than double the things people want to buy. We can't sell or use things we don't make. You can help achieve that. Too high taxes can injure your babies' chances. Beyond a certain point, Dr. Moulton said, taxes "dull incentives, and may destroy the principal source of funds for |