| Show UNIVERSAL starvation PREDICTED A question now worrying some statisticians is whether the world is nearing a period of starvation whether a time will come when the human family can no longer find food enough for its support A belgian expert with wi th figures believes that such a time will come in less than four hundred years the alax alarming ming view of the future is based on calculations as to the probable denseness of the population four hundred years from the pres ent date and the estimated area of land necessary for or the support of one human being according to these calculations cu there ought to be twenty seven and a half billion people on the earth in the year 2282 where is this immense crowd to obtain food from it takes about two and a halt half acres to supply three persons and if this be taken as the limit to the capacity of the soil there is land enough on all the earth only for six billion people a figure which it is supposed will he be reached in years the figures and terrible conclusions drawn from them are interesting only as indicating exceedingly remote possibilities ties the improbability not to say the absurdity of the calculation Is shown by a contributor to the Cok cosmos fios who argues as follows ac cording according to the law of malthus w when en the population is not arrested by any obstacle it doubles every twenty five years in geometrical proportion let us turn the process the other way about and try to find out by the aid of this progression in inverted order when the population of the globe should have started to have haive become a thousand millions in 1825 1826 the calculation is very simple since we have to do with twenty five year periods at the beginning of the century there should have been only at the beginning of louis reign and finally keeping on in the same way we shall findt that in 1575 the population of the glob globed should have been only 11 keeping the calculation up in the same way it is easily ascertained that the human race should date its beginning on earth only to the year 1100 and no further refutation to ip needed of the premises on which the argument rests undoubtedly were there no providence to guide the course of the earth in its silent speed through the immeasurable space or the affairs of the inhabitants of the globe disaster would long ago have overtaken them but mankind is not being hurled through the universe as passengers on a vessel without commanding officers without provisions for the voyage everything is calculated the tiow and course are well determined the means of supply will last as long as the voyage lasts and if old resources are insufficient new ones will be found and the more plentifully as the need increases there will always be something left over in the great household of providence the belief that wars and famine are am necessary to reduce the population in order to keep the lords family within his resources for supply is not supported by facts as observed wars wan particularly destroy property as well as men and it is clear from history that countries after the scenes sennels of wars ward and other visitations are less able to support the reduced population thim than they are their teeming millions in prolonged times of peace and application to the pursuits of commerce and industry it generally takes years to repair the damage of a few 0 of destruction the maine man who has tt used sea the gold dug out of his own farm to pay his fare to klondike probably feels that by the change he likely to find a much worse climate for farming and he may find more gold the complaint of good citizens that they cannot find a policeman when they want one will not be considered conss dered important if of the thieves ii may be said that they always fird find a policeman when they dont wart want one 0 one ne cannot help but wonder and worry as aa to what kind of a merry christmas hristeas the poor fellows at dawson city klondike are boino going to have |
