Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1893 — Are There Too Many of Us? [ARTICLE]

Are There Too Many of Us?

The sons of men wax ever a greater host. Europe, with its 156,000,000, increases, we are told, seven-tenth* oi 1 per cent, each year, thus threatening to have 600,000,000 by 1970, and 13,005.. 000,000 by the year 2150. Could such growth possibly continue, the failure of standing room would be but a matter of time. Under the above heading a writer introduces us to some startling statistics. He says the entire globe measures about 600,000,000 ; 000,000 square yards, or, allowing a yard as standing room for four persons, there is ipaqq for 2,4j20,7)o0,OO6 ( 0OO,OOQ persontf. No#, the population of England and Wales, which may be regarded as about normal for civilized lands, doubled between 1801 and 1851. At this rate population would in 100 years multiply itself by 4; in 200 by 16; in 1,000 by 1,000,000; and in 3,000 by 1,000,000,000,000,000,000. So that even if we begin with a simple pair the increase would in 3,000 years have become two quintillions of human beings, viz., to every square yard 3.333 J persons instead of 4; or the earth would be covered with men in columns of 8331 each, standing on each other’s heads. If they averaged five feet in height, each column would be 4,166£ feet high.