Full text: The shadow of the world's future, or The earth's population possibilities & the consequences of the present rate of increase of the earth's inhabitants

78 THE SHADOW OF THE WORLD’S FUTURE 
lead to larger and more dense aggregations, and by the 
sheer influence of numbers, one which can often 
express itself in the field of politics and otherwise for 
its own immediate advantage. Such aggregations 
tend to increase in size, and to attract individuals of 
certain types of mind and character. This would 
appear to be inevitable. Ultimately these tendencies 
frequently produce sharp collisions of interest between 
the scattered agricultural populations and the dense 
industrial and commercial ones. The political power 
of the latter aggregates, especially in so-called demo- 
cratic communities, tends also to accentuate the 
diversity by the obtaining of greater privileges and 
advantages in many ways as compared with the agri- 
cultural aggregates. Often, for example, this is ex- 
pressed by high tariffs, which, as between the two 
classes, are by no means equitable. 
Operating continuously, and over extended periods 
of time, factors such as have been mentioned, and 
similar ones, create a distinct heterogeneity, out of 
what initially were homogeneous groups of people. 
As a consequence the world now exhibits great 
diversities of population-density, even where the 
language and social ideals are, or were, either identical 
or very similar, and these are not always referable to 
physical diversities. 
‘The world-situation in respect of these matters is by 
no means a simple one, or one easy of betterment. 
Owing to the multiplying power of the human race, 
the world-populations are already threatened with 
the difficulties of an adequate provision of food-stuffs, 
and with the cost and labour of transporting them 
to the places where they are needed. The question 
consequently arises, “ How shall the population-carry- 
ing power be increased without accentuating exist- 
ing difficulties?” While obviously migration can 
help, the conditions governing migration are by no
	        
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