HUMAN IMPLICATIONS 217 



because the development of modern science made 

 the world safer for them. 



In these three hundred years the world popula- 

 tion has doubled, on the average, approximately 

 every sixty-four years. Today mankind is increasing 

 in numbers at such a rate that if the increase should 

 continue as it was going in 1935 we could expect 

 another doubling of the number of people in the 

 world in approximately seventy years, and we should 

 have about eighty people per square mile in the 

 year 2005. 



What then? Will not the coming generations at 

 some time be obliged to fight for their place in the 

 sun? 



This prospect is somewhat altered, however, by 

 the fact that many students of population trends 

 believe that the rate of human increase is slowing 

 down. In the case of the United States, Dr. Baker, 

 (20) economist of our Department of Agriculture, 

 has estimated recently that unless present trends are 

 changed (and they may be) there will be a further 

 population increase in the United States of only 

 about eight million in the next two decades. He 

 thinks that the population will then have reached 

 its maximum, if conditions remain as they are today. 

 Thus, according to Dr. Baker, we are looking for- 

 ward to a maximum population of less than 150 



