432 The National Geographic Magazine 



EUROPEAN POPULATIONS 



IN the fifty years, 1850 to 1900, Rus- 

 sia shows the largest increase and 

 France the smallest in the principal 

 populations of Europe. The figures, in 

 round millions, are : 





1850. 



1900. 



Increase. 



Russia 



Great Britain 



Austria-Hungary 



Italy 



67,000,000 

 26,000,000 

 27,000,000 

 30,000.000 

 23,000,000 

 35,000,000 



129,000,000 

 56,000,000 

 41,000,000 

 45,000,000 

 32,000,000 

 39,000,000 



62,000,000 

 30,000,000 

 14,000,000 

 15,000,000 

 9,000,000 

 4,000,000 





Two reasons account for the small 

 French increase, namely, the loss of 

 Alsace-Lorraine and thedecreasingbirth 

 rate. The last is the most serious. In 

 1899 tne excess of births over deaths in 

 five of the countries named was: 



Germany 795, 107 



Austria-Hungary 530,806 



Great Britain 422,156 



Italy 385,165 



France 31,321 



The following year, 1900, the French 

 excess of births was only 20,330. It is 

 a fact that 1,808,839 French families are 

 without children. That is 16.68 per 

 cent of all the families in France. It 

 is also a fact that 2,638,752 French fam- 

 ilies, or 24.33 P er cent, have only two 

 children each. 



In 1800 the population of Europe was 

 98,000,000, of which 26,000,000 were 

 French ; in 1900 the figures were 343,- 

 000 , 000 and39,ooo,ooo. Inother wo r d s , 

 total Europe increased 245,000,000 in 

 the century, but France can only be 

 credited with i3,ooo,oooof thatincrease. 

 Thus France fell from 26 per cent to 1 1 

 per cent of Europe's population in the 

 one hundred years. 



"At one time," says American Con- 

 sul Haynes, of Rouen, France, " French 

 was spoken all over the world ; now 

 (1905) it is the language of 45,000,000 

 people (including the French colonies), 

 while German is spoken by 100,000,000 

 and English by 150,000.000." 



In the fifty years, 1850 to 1900, the 

 increase in the population of the United 

 States was 53,000,000, or 14,000,000 

 more than the present population of 

 France proper. It can be put another 

 way : The population of the leading 

 republic of the new world, which was 

 12,000,000 less in 1850 than that of the 

 leading republic of the old world, is 

 now more than double that of its chief 

 republican competitor. Of course, the 

 heavy American immigration largely 

 accounts for this; but the American 

 excess of births over deaths is, year 

 after year, much larger proportionately 

 than that of France. 



Until 1850 France was in point of 

 population the first of the great Euro- 

 pean nations ; today she stands sixth, 

 with Italy pressing hard to set her back 

 to seventh and last place. 



In Germany there are 600,000 more 

 births each year than in France ; that 

 is why Count von Moltke said : ' ' Every 

 year by our birth rate we gain a battle 

 over France." 



Russia doubles her population each 

 50 years ; Norway and Sweden, each 

 52 ; Great Britain and Germany, each 

 55 ; Belgium, each 79 ; Italy, each 84 ; 

 Spain, each 104 ; Austria-Hungary, 

 each no, but France only each 183 

 years. 



Walter J. Ballard. 



Schenectady \ New York. 



JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES 



THE remarkable growth of Japa- 

 nese foreign commerce during 

 the first six months of this year, espe- 

 cially of imports from foreign countries, 

 is shown in the June Monthly Return 

 of the Foreign Trade of the Empire of 

 Japan. 



As compared with the six months' 

 figures for the previous year, the im- 

 ports show the remarkable increase of 

 56.9 per cent, from $90,952,000 to 

 $142,659,000, while exports for the 

 same period show a relatively insignifi- 



