POPULATION PROBLEMS 207 



for parenthood, are just the factors nowadays which 

 too often coexist with large families." 



§ 5. The Persistent Increase of the Population 

 OF THE Globe 

 There are some careful students of Population Prob- 

 lems who warn us that concern about the present 

 decline of the birth-rate is very short-sighted, since 

 the real cloud in the sky is the persistent increase in 

 the number of the world's inhabitants. We may refer 

 to an able address by a distinguished biologist, Professor 

 E. M. East {Scientific Monthly, June, 1920). At pres- 

 ent the population of the globe stands at about 1,700 

 milhons. But it does not stand ; it is being added 

 to at the rate of between 14 and 16 milHons a year. 

 The white race is increasing much more rapidly than 

 the yellow or the black ; China's 300 million population 

 is practically stationary. With the exception of France, 

 few white peoples are increasing at a less rate than 10 

 per thousand every year. It is true that in most civihsed 

 countries there is a steady decrease in the birth-rate, but 

 the effect of this in reducing the population is counter- 

 acted by the lowering of the death-rate. 



In his Presidential Address to the Agricultural Sec- 

 tion of the British Association in 1920, Professor Keeble 

 maintained that as a population increases, so does the 

 intensity of its cultivation ; but Professor East finds 

 little satisfaction in this idea. The law of diminishing 

 returns operates widely ; it is even now in operation 

 in a comparatively new country hke America, thought 



