CHAPTER VII
THE MIGRATION OF POPULATIONS
THE considerations referred to at the close of the
preceding chapter raise at once the question of the
distribution of the human race over the earth’s surface;
since to increase Man’s numbers greatly his territorial
distribution must accord with the potential advantages
of each region of that surface. They show, for instance,
that to attain even to the population-density of gg-o
per square mile, corresponding to East’s estimate, that
15 about 2-7 times that now existing as an average,
vast progress has to be made in human affairs generally,
while to attain to the highest limit, or over §-67 times
the existing average density, the co-ordination of all
Man’s activities will need to be very highly perfected.
The great wastage directly and indirectly arising from
every form of ruthless competition, which in part is a
consequence of his existing distribution, will have to
disappear in order to reach the limits in question.
Human energies will have to be devoted, not to attain-
ing efficiency in the making of engines of destruction
in order to maintain substantially the present features
of that distribution, but to correlated studies in the
difficult social and economic problems that even now
call for solution. Even to-day the social and economic
aspects of Man’s rapid growth in certain parts of the
world, and the necessity of some readjustment of his
“scatter ” over its surface, constitute problems of
great intrinsic difficulty.
We have to face not only the situation as it is, but
as it will be in the very near future. The first question
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