lube Conservative. 3
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STATISTICAL
CHANGES.
British
cian , recently addressed the statistical
society of Manchester on the statistical
changes of the country and produced
figures that will prove interesting to the
people of the United States. He said in
part :
"The population of Europe and of na
tions of European origin like the United
States may now be put at something
over 600,000,000. A century ago the
corresponding figure would not have
been more than about 170,000,000. , A
French statistician gave the figure in
1788 for Europe alone , excluding the
United States as a little less than 160-
000,000. In the century , therefore , Eu
rope and nations of European origin
have grown to three times their former
numbers and this without counting the
population of Mexico and South Amer
ica , amounting now to 45,000,000 , which
ought perhaps to be included as Euro-
r peauized , though not wholly European
in race.
"Not only is the century interesting ,
therefore , as a characteristically statistical -
_ , cal century , but
Economic.
the statistics them
selves are in the highest degree surpris-
ing. For generations and centuries the
growth of Europe must have been slow
owing to war and pestilence and the
other checks to population of which
Malthus wrote , and then all at once in
a single century we have this sudden
multiplication of numbers. The econo
mic development of the people is even
more marvelous. Agriculture has ex
tended indefinitely over the new terri
tory , and there have been vast improve
ments in new and old territory alike.
The figures of trade have been multi
plied ten times and more. The wealth
of the peoples all told , which would
probably not have been reckoned at
more than than 5,000,000,000 at the be
ginning of the century , must be reckoned
now by tens of thousands of millions.
' 'It would probably not be far short of
the mark to say that while the millions
of the advanced portion of the human
race have increased in numbers as de
scribed each unit on the average is two
or three times better off than the corresponding
pending unit at the beginning of the
period. Again , the development is for
the most part not uniform among the
European populations. It is most rnark-
ed in the Anglo- American section. The
increase here is from a population of
not more than about 20,000,000 , which
was the population of the United
States and the United Kingdom togeth
er 100 years ago , to a population of not
less than 130,000,000 at the present
time.
"Germany , Russia and the United
Kingdom had all grown , while France
. . , and Austria had by
Four World Powers.
comparison re
mained stationary , so that now the great
world powers were four only , the United
States , Britain , Russia and Germany ,
with France a doubtful fifth. The ex
tent of the revolution that had taken
place in a century was evident and ob
viously accounted for much that was
going on in international politics. If
the forces now in existence continue to
operate as they had done in the past
century for only a few more genera
tions , the close of the coming century
must witness a further transformation ,
whose beginnings would be apparent in
the lifetime of some among us.
"It was a reasonable probability that
unless some great internal change
should take place in the ideas and con
duct of the European races themselves
the population of 500,000,000 would in
another century become one of 1,500-
000,000 to 2,000,000,000. The black and
yellow races still remaining , as far as
one could see , comparatively stationary ,
this would make a greatly changed
world. The yellow peril , for instance ,
of which we heard so much , would have
vanished , because the yellow races
themselves would be so much outnum
bered. What would be the 400,000,000
of China compared with 1,500,000,000 or
2,000,000,000 of European race ?
Further progress must also be made
in the redistribution of power among
European nations. International poli
tics would be more and more limited
to the affairs of what were already the
four great powers the United States ,
the United Kingdom , Germany and
Russia. The most serious problem
would of course be whether the dilem
ma stated by Mulchus and hitherto put
aside by the occupation of new lands
would at length become an urgently
practical question. It was impossible
not to wonder which of the two forces ,
the growth of population and the in
crease of the needs of the growing pop
ulation on the one side and the growth
of invention and mechanical power in
supplying human wants on the other
side would gain as time went on. "
FOOD'S EFFECT UPON CHARACTER.
The output of the brain is virtually
the input of the stomach. The human
being , strange as it may sound , is but
the sum of the bills of fare of a human
life. Doctors are more rapidly than
ever coming to the conclusion that
"man is what he eats" as much as what
he is bred , so far as the influence upon
his character and physical up-building
is concerned.
Indigestion produced by some im
proper or wrongly cooked food twists a
man's temper all day. A lifelong repe
tition of such a diet twists his life out of
joint , and produces an ill-tempered dys
peptic. Give the human stomach a
nourishing , easily digested steak or
pther food , and yon wreath a smile on
the countenance of the diner. He will
be pleased at anything , and will sub
scribe to relief funds or any other bene
ficence instead of throwing dishes at his
wife , the cook , the dog or what not that
happens to cross his mind or his path
while the upsetting of his stomach by
indifferent digestion lasts within him.
The character of food and its general
influence upon the character of the individual - '
dividual , and hence , upon the character
of the nation , is not taken seriously
enough into consideration by those'
whose duty it is to watch such things. '
Such neglect is criminal , because
through it our foods have become , in
hundreds of cases , so perverted from
their dietetic to their commercial char
acter that our stomachs are painting the
horrors of the thing in our visage and in
our daily thoughts.
The American meat and provision
factories , luckily , have not followed the
ghoulish greed of the makers of other
lines of food. By careful analysis and
gastronomic experiments the concerns
working up the by-products of the ani
mal carcass have succeeded in improv
ing instead of deteriorating the quality
and character of our diet made from'
the flesh of edible animals.
The American meat and provision
packer has put up his article with the
full knowledge of the fact that every
laboratory of Europe , and not a few of
this country , are ready to pounce upon
his product and examine it for its im
purities. It is regretable that other
edible substances are not treated in the
same inquisitorial way for the sake of
mankind. The distribution of diseased
animal flesh and of chemical compounds
under the name of table delicacies and
condiments is a menace to both national
happiness and to national strength
moral and physical. Man is the sum of
his bills of fare. He is half animal and
half spirit. An injurious diet has an
evil effect upon both halves. National
Provisioned
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.
One of the most distinctly American
of our magazines is the Atlantic
Monthly. It is ably edited , appeals
to all phases of national life and is ad
apted to the varied tastes of the
reading public. Among the special
articles for the coming year , those par
ticularly deserving of mention are the
ones relating to the reconstruction per
iod of American history. Each will be
written by a specialist. Among those
who will contribute to the pages of the
Atlantic Monthly upon questions per
taining to southern life are , Woodrow
Wilson , Hilary A. Herbert , Thomas
Nelson Page and other deservedly pop
ular American writers.
In Old Missouri Colonel Peppah "I
believe in votin' early an' often , suhl"
Colonel Redeye "I don't , suh. Its -
too much trouble to vote early , an' its
a waste o * time to vote often. I prefer
to chuck in a good big bundle o' ballots
all to once an' hev yer duty over with , "
Judge.
