THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 227 



emigration had taken place. In this manner the 

 labour market continues to be supplied to the full 

 extent of its requirements. Secondly, because this influx 

 of younger men into the labour market produces within 

 two or three years an abnormal number of marriages 

 that is, a number of marriages much in excess of what 

 would have taken place if the men who emigrated had 

 remained in the country. The abnormal production 

 of children caused by these marriages adds to the 

 population numbers equivalent to the direct loss from 

 the emigration. 



In the prevailing ignorance of this economical law, 

 it was inevitable that where large numbers were seen 

 leaving a country, year after year, it should be inferred 

 that the country was in this way being relieved of a 

 surplus population. But when the operation of this 

 law is fully understood, it will be seen to be a happy 

 arrangement in the economy of Nature whereby the 

 more enterprising portion of a community are enabled, 

 without inflicting injury upon the home labour market, 

 to take advantage of the opportunities of bettering their 

 condition presented by countries that crave imported 

 labour for the development of their resources. 



Under this arrangement it has come about that 

 continents and territories, which were originally 

 roamed over by a few unimprovable nomads, have 

 become in the present, or are destined to become in 

 the future, the populous seats of the most civilised 

 races of mankind. 



It is a consequence of the operation of this law 



