LOOKING FORWARD IN AMERICA

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 152, 21 March 1908, Page 10

LOOKING FORWARD IN AMERICA

POPULATION OF 201,0-11,223 IN-1950. ~ A pessimistic, picture ■ of' America's future is sketched by Mr. James J. Hill, one of tho American railway.magnates, in. tho current issue of the "National Review. 1 ! ■. ■ ..-r----..H0, looks forward over four decades,.'and estimates tho ; jirobablo. incrcaso in population. : Allowing moderate . calculations for increased .birthrrato and immigration, -ho i|rrives at tho following figures■

- Population in 1910 , 95;248,895'. 1920 117,036,229 . »»• '" „ 1930 „ ..... 142,091,663 ." » 1940 '170,905.412 ' 1950 204,041,223 ... Tliu. problem,. wincti Mr. .Hill presents, is how theso people are to be fed. ' ■'Within forty-four years,'.' ho says, ''we shall have to meet tho .wants of. moro. than t\ro hundred million people., ,Iu less than twenty years from this momont the TJiuted States wil| have 130,000,000 ipeople! Ayhere aro these peoplo, not oi some dim, distant age, but 1 of this very generation now.growing to manhood, to bo employed and how supported? ■ '

■AYlien tho' searchlight' is thus suddenly turned on, we recogniso not a mere 'speculation, but the grim lace of that spoctre which confronts tho unemployed, tramping" hateful streets in hope of: food and shelter." The remedy Mr. Hill sees in a "back to tho laud' policy. These are his words:— The country needs more workers on the soil. . Not to. turn tho. stranger away, but to dircct him ,to tho ,farm 'instead .'of tho city; not to lyatch with fear a possible inciease of the birth-rate, but to, use every means to keep, tho, boys on tiio'farm, anil to send youth from' the city to swell the depleted ranks of agricultural • industry is tho necessjiry'task of,a well-advised political economy and an intelligent patriotism." .Mr. Hill declares that the timber and mineral resources of the country nro fast being depleted,. , JSy 1950, ho declares, America will be approaching an ironless, ago, and by tho same date all the best and.most eonyienieiit coal will .hiivo been consumed.' .

'Again," ho. urges, "a profitable husbandry is.thq very foundation from which all other .occupations flow, and by which thoy are nourished Mo strength'."