president ? address. — section g 

 Graph No. 1. 



185 



Population Growth. 



per cent, per annum. This rate will double the population every 

 69 years; say in 70 years. Thus, were it possible for such a rate 

 to continue, we should have: — 



It is evident from these figures, that the overspiU of rapidly 

 increasing pojnihftions must more, to suitable regions where popu- 

 lation is less dense: hence arise both the problems of food supply 

 and migration in acute form. So long as there are national dis- 

 tinctions based upon the conception of national or race solidarity 

 rather than upon human solidarity, so long will conflict inevit- 

 ably tend to arise. Other things being equal, power will lie with 

 the larger population-groups, which, if thus differentiated into 

 nations, necessarily constitute, in times of shortage, a. menace to 

 the smaller groups. For this reason population-control, food- 

 supply, and the development of national instinct (or prejudice?) 

 are of the first order of importance; and these will engage the 

 attention of statesmen who have foresight, and of statisticians and 

 economists. 



The rate at which the earth's known sources of energy and 

 required material are being exploited has commanded the atten- 

 tion of thougEtful men for several decades: for example, that of 

 the late Sir William Ramsay, F.R.S., and quite recently Dr. E. 

 G. Acheson.* In regard to the world's coal fields and its oil 

 fields; it is easy to' see that the increase of population involves a 

 correspondingly early arrival at the date of their exhaustion. 



* The Forum, viz., 1920, pp. 229-304, " Our Vanishing Coal and Oil." 



