52 HAUPT— NATION AND THE WATERWAYS. [April 22, 



imperious instinct of life, from the lowest barbarianism to the high- 

 est civilization. 



To level up these hordes of humanity, free circulation, tending 

 to promote community of interests, is necessary, and yet some of 

 the most favored nations are enacting legislative barriers to prevent 

 migration and restrict commercial intercourse, not only between 

 nations but even between states. 



From these two factors of available area and present population 

 it appears that, if uniformily distributed, there would be a density 

 of 53.6 individuals to the square mile, or 11 acres per capita. But 

 it will give a better idea of the capacity of the earth to state that 

 the entire population of the globe could be included in the State 

 of Texas, at the rate of nine to the acre, whereas the safe sanitary 

 limit is taken at one hundred per acre. Belgium, one of the most 

 densely settled and prosperous countries, has a density of 1.12 acres 

 per capita, or 0.9 of a person per acre. 



The annual increment of the world is stated to be: births, 

 36,792,000; deaths, 35,639,835 — difference or increase, 1,162,165. 

 Were this rate to remain constant, on this basis, it would require 

 over a thousand years to even double the present population, so 

 that there would appear to be ample room for the normal increase 

 even within present limits of territory. But these figures must be 

 discredited inasmuch as they give only three fourths of one per 

 cent, increment per decade, while the annual excess for Europe, as 

 determined by Professor Marshall, was 1.06 per cent., or fourteen- 

 fold greater. 



Suffice it to say, however, that while there appears to be ample 

 room in the world for thousands of years to come, yet the increase 

 in the United States is believed to be far more rapid than in any 

 other country on earth. Here the rate is more than double that of 

 Europe, and this fact also is an earnest of her influence as a world 

 power in the maintenance of peace, regardless of great armaments. 

 Large portions of the industrial world are dependent upon her 

 granaries for their materials and subsistence, thus intensifying the 

 necessity of reducing the cost of transportation and increasing her 

 facilities, by providing capacious channels as well as an adequate 

 merchant marine, for the distribution of her products. 



