DEPARTMENT OF SOCLVL SCIENCE. 



POPULATION AND SUSTENANCE. 



BY DR. G. "W. STEELE, LL.D., 

 President of Lawrence University, Appletou. 



The question of the increase of population and its relation 

 to sustenance is one of the most interesting with which social 

 science has to do. The subject, it is true, does not affect us so 

 directly and imperatively here in the United States as it does 

 the more crowded communities of the old world. We have as 

 yet thousands of unoccupied acres, where for centuries to come 

 additional millions may gather subsistence ; while in Europe 

 there are millions who are in continual danger of pauperism if 

 not of starvation. There are supposed to be too many people 

 for the territory they occupy, and the question is how to cure 

 the evil or rectify their social irregularity. This question be- 

 comes a serious one in view of the doctrine largely prevalent 

 in certain circles that by a natural law population increases by 

 a ratio ever becoming greater than that of the increase of sus- 

 tenance. 



The remedies proposed for this state of things are mainly 

 two, viz., emigration, and the restraint implied in abstinence 

 from marriage. So far as the former is concerned it is a 

 fortunate fact that there are countries to which the surplus of 

 over-populated communities can emigrate. Yet this resource 

 is unavailable to multitudes of those who need it most; and 

 at best, it is only a temporary relief. Sooner or later the 



