CHAPTER VIII.

Marriage and Divorce.

“You said that the occupations of women became varied and ceased to be domestic in a majority of cases; what effect did that have on marriage and divorce?” I enquired.

“Various causes tended to make marriage almost universal and celibacy became the rare exception. The chief cause was the assumption by the state of the care and education of the children. Another was the ability of women to support themselves. Men did not feel it such a burden to be married when they did not have to greatly exert themselves for the support of either wife or children. Women did not feel it such a burden when they were released from the care and responsibility of a household of children and servants. Marriage moreover has become less of a lottery than in your day, because men and women meet each other in business relations in which they act their natural selves. Neither is obliged to marry in order to live, and less art and deceit are used for the purpose of entrapping a partner. The property of neither man nor woman is affected by marriage, and neither acquires any rights over the property of the other except, that each is bound to care and provide for the other in case of sickness or disability. There are fewer conditions that are liable to produce inharmony, because greater freedom is conceded to the parties, and there are fewer points on which absolute unanimity is essential. Marriage is on the whole much happier than formerly, and although divorces are easily obtained they are much less frequent. These conditions have had a marked effect on the increase of population as you might suppose. There is no longer any temptation to avoid the natural results of marriage, and those unnatural expedients women formerly resorted to for that purpose, ruinous to health and morals, are now almost unknown. The health and strength of women have vastly improved. Women dress sensibly, and live natural hygienic lives, and the terrors of childbearing have practically vanished. As Americans took upon themselves the furnishing of native born citizens to people this country, immigration from Europe fell off rapidly and practically ceased sixty years ago. But notwithstanding this, the population has more than doubled three times, and for the territory that formed the United States in your day it is now over 600,000,000.”

“Six hundred millions!” I repeated. “What an enormous number! It takes my breath to think of it. Is it possible so many people can be supported in that territory? Nearly all the really valuable land seemed to be taken up when the population was but 70,000,000.”

“Aye,” said he, “six hundred millions are easily supported, and supported in greater comfort than when the population was but 70,000,000; and they may even double several times more before the capacity of the country is exhausted.”

“I am amazed at what you say,” said I, “but there must be a limit. Let me see, if 600,000,000 are doubled three times it will amount to 4,800,000,000. Is it possible the land could produce food and clothing for so many; and yet from what you say about the rate of increase that enormous number of people will be in this country before the end of the twenty-first century.”

“We will not cross that bridge till we come to it,” he answered, “we will explain that when we come to look forward into the twenty-first century. It is true we shall find a limit. The breeding instinct of any race of animals, not excepting man, would if unchecked and unopposed in the course of time absolutely fill up the earth till it could support no more. Man has for many ages been the dominant animal of the earth. Yet he has failed to stock the world to its capacity or anywhere near it for reasons you can easily supply yourself. In the first place the profession of arms or the art of keeping down the population by war has always held the most honorable rank among human employments; second the human race has been the absolutely helpless victim of pestilence and plague. Hundreds of different kinds of microbes, vibrios, bacteria and zymases have from age to age apparently whenever they saw fit, or thought men were getting too numerous, unseen and unsuspected, planted their colonies in their vital organs, and swarmed in their blood, living at their expense and sweeping them to death by myriads and millions. Next, men were at the mercy of the elements both on sea and land. Whenever a crop failed from drought or flood there followed a famine, and millions were periodically swept away by gaunt starvation, because there was no way of conveying to a needy district, the superabundance that might exist in another. But even where all nature was favorable, and nations happened to be at peace there was always the native and hereditary stupidity of the individual that blinded him to all rational ways of taking care of himself or his dependents and made it impossible for him to rear to maturity more than one out of five of his children. Thus many causes conspired to kill people off almost as fast as they were born and sometimes faster, and many times to prevent them from being born when they ought to have been. These inimical causes have all practically been eliminated. The destructive agencies supplied by nature for limiting the increase of the population having been set at defiance by art, it is evident that art must likewise find a way for limiting the increase of population, or else sometime in the future that increase will by its very success put a stop to itself, and the brutal methods of untamed nature again assert themselves. After all, art is only a subdivision of nature. It may modify the action of nature as to details, but cannot set aside the principles that govern it.”

“You spoke a little while ago of the territory of the United States, as it was in my day. This would appear to intimate that the boundaries have changed since then, is that so?”

“Well yes, you will think so, when you know that the United States of the present day covers the entire Continent of North America, and embraces besides, New Zealand, Australia, the English Colonies in South Africa, Ireland, Cuba and most of the West India Islands, and numerous islands in the Pacific ocean. I see this astonishes you and I will proceed to tell you how it happened. If we begin at the beginning, it appears to have been very largely due to the construction of railroads in Asia by the Russians; that is it, would never have happened if these roads had not been built. The great transcontinental Siberian road was completed from St. Petersburg to Vladivostock on the Pacific ocean in 1904 and formally opened with a great flourish by the Russian emperor. The Russians were not entirely satisfied however with this road. It was essential as a military road, and as a means of settling a vast extent of fertile country in Siberia, but as a commercial line it did not meet their rather sanguine expectations.

“Their ambition was to monopolize the trade between China and Europe. The new road by going around the east side of Mantchooria instead of through it to Pekin, imposed on that trade an unnecessary transportation of 1800 miles. They saw directly that they needed a line to Pekin and Teentsin, from Irkutsk. They obtained a concession from the Chinese government and built this line for commercial purposes. Then, later, they found it desirable to build another line west of the first and reaching the ocean at Shanghai. They also tapped the western part of the Chinese empire by a line from Bokara.

“From these lines others soon grew, commanding the business of the country and mostly owned by the Russians. In no long time jealousy of the enterprising “foreign devils” on the part of some of the more conservative and reactionary of the Chinese, led to outrages on their part which furnished a good pretext for military occupation of the country and finally to its conquest and annexation by the Russians. These encroachments of the Russians had been bitterly, but ineffectually opposed by the English. Their opposition provoked the Russians to place England on the defensive with regard to her Indian possessions so they pushed their railway line through Tartary to the very borders of northwestern India and threatened it with a large army of invasion. The Hindoos who had for years been waiting for such an opportunity to throw off the British yoke now revolted. They had been taught the art of war by their masters and now practiced it upon them, turning upon their teachers the weapons they had put into their hands and taught them to use. The very soldiers that were counted on to repel the Russians took their side against the English. Between the Russians and the Indians the British power in India was totally crushed, and several independent kingdoms were set up under Russian protection. France also assisted Russia in this war, especially on the ocean. British commerce was almost destroyed by Russian and French cruisers. After the war was over these two nations almost monopolized the Indian trade under discriminating commerce regulations, the Russians by land carriage over their railway and the French by sea. In the end the Russians became masters of almost the whole of Asia. Turkey was dismembered, the city of Constantinople and all Asiatic Turkey falling to the Russians.”

“Professor, in my day there was a great war between Russia and Japan, which you have not mentioned. Was it not a factor in the settlement of the Asiatic questions?”

“No, it did not assist in making a settlement, for none was made, its only effect was to postpone a settlement. The events I have narrated were greatly to the advantage of the United States. The destruction of England’s commerce largely involved her manufacturers also, and in like degree made room for and stimulated those of the United States. Her trade with all the British Colonies soon eclipsed that of the mother country herself. As the tremendous natural resources of the United States became more and more developed under the energy and skill of the most enlightened methods, the contrast between America and England enforced itself on the attention of all.

“Treaties looking to the abolition of war, and the settlement of all international questions by arbitration had already been adopted between the United States and Great Britain and her Colonies, and there had been a strong feeling and agitation for a closer political union of all the English speaking people. The aggressive foreign policy of England stood in the way of this. But to her, this aggressive policy appeared essential. She had held India, Birmah and large territories in Africa, by conquest, and her trade to these countries depended on her continued military control over them.

“After the war with Russia and France in which she lost India, her commerce, and her prestige, England still felt her only chance for retaining her importance as an influential factor in the politics of the world, to be in cultivating her interests in Birmah and Africa. She could colonize neither of these countries to any great extent. All she could do was to conquer and rule them and compel them to trade with her on terms that turned all their surplus wealth into her coffers—as she had done in India. Her misfortunes had soured her temper and made her more truculent and bulldozing than ever. Her manner towards her colonies changed. They had been of little or no assistance to her in her struggle with Russia, and had but little sympathy with her foreign policy and the truculent and aggressive bearing towards weaker nations that had made her to be thoroughly unpopular in some parts of the world. England now began to resent the cold attitude of the colonies toward her, and to talk of the duty of the daughters towards the mother. She began to be sorely pinched for money. The war had doubled her already enormous debt, and halved her resources. The number of her unemployed at home had greatly increased by reason of the diminution of her trade and the foreign demand for her manufacturers. Taxation enormously increased and the rich were reduced to poverty in providing for the poor. Millions emigrated to America and to the colonies, generally people of the thrifty and productive classes, thereby reducing the resources of the country without diminishing her liabilities. She now proposed to the colonies to tax themselves for her benefit. This they were not inclined to do. They were all comparatively poor. They needed all the money they could raise for public improvements in their own settlements. Most of them were heavily in debt. Canada was hopelessly so, practically bankrupt in fact. Finally the colonies all declined to be taxed for the benefit of the mother country. The condition of affairs in the British empire gave a great impulse to the idea of confederation with the United States. The plan gained favor rapidly with the colonies. No nation on earth was so prosperous then, or possessed of such vast resources as the United States. The country was out of debt and enormously wealthy.

“Her army was small, but she had a powerful navy. She was respected by all the world and had great influence, as much from her fairness and justice to other nations as from her known reserved power and ability to enforce justice to herself. The British felt the need of an alliance that would place them in the front rank of nations again, and all the branches of the empire appeared anxious for the consolidation with the United States. This country was desirous of obtaining Canada, and this made it the more ready to adopt the union, because it was supposed it must be with all or none. As this country was by far the most populous number of the proposed union, it was conceded that Washington should be the capital of the new empire. The constitution of the United States was taken as the basis of the new government with certain modifications. The President and Vice President were to be elected by direct vote of the people, a plurality to elect. They were to serve six years only. They could not both be from the same continent or state. The President was not to have the veto power. The Representatives were to be 600 in number apportioned among the states according to population. The senate was to consist of 100 members elected by the people. The term of office for both houses was to be two years. Each natural division as a continent or island or group of islands was to be divided into senatorial districts following state boundaries when practicable, but throwing together small states or fractions of large ones when necessary to give the proper quota of population. All bills were to originate in the House of Representatives, but were also to pass the senate before becoming laws; but that body could not alter or amend—only veto or approve, and the House could pass any bill in spite of the senate by a two thirds vote. The President was to appoint his cabinet with the approval of the senate, but all or any one was to be required to resign upon a vote of “want of confidence” by the House of Representatives. Both the President and Vice President could be removed from office by a two-thirds vote of both House and senate and a new election ordered to fill the unexpired term.

“There was to be free trade amongst all the states under this constitution and also between these states and foreign nations except that a tariff on importations might be imposed when ordered by a three-fourths vote of the Congress. The general revenue was to be collected by the County Commissioners and Treasurers of the counties of the several states, such officers being for such purpose, officers of the general government, and levying such rate of tax as ordered by the law of Congress in addition to the taxes ordered by the state, county, city, ward, or school district authorities.

“Suffrage was to be restricted to men and women who could read and write the English language. Foreign immigrants were not to be permitted to settle in colonies in any of the states or to maintain public schools—except high schools—in which any other than the English language is used.

“No state could engage in aggressive foreign war, but might repel invasion. Only the general government could engage in war.

“This scheme of government was prepared by a joint commission appointed for the purpose, and submitted to the people of the several countries interested, the British Colonies, each separately, England, Ireland, the United States and Scotland. All the colonies, the United States and Ireland voted for the plan; England and Scotland voted against it. They were dissatisfied with the provision prohibiting them from going to war. They had always enjoyed this luxury and were loth to be deprived of it. They had hoped the plan of union would allow them to pursue their schemes of settlement and annexation as before with the right to call on the confederation for succor in case they were hard pressed by foreign enemies. They argued indeed that actual active assistance would never in any probable event be required, because with the mere moral support of such formidable backing they felt sure that almost any nation would put up with any amount of insult and injury rather than resent it against such odds.

“It was supposed by many that the failure of Great Britain to ratify the general constitution would defeat the whole scheme. But the colonies and Ireland had become very much in favor of it, and hated to be balked by what they termed the selfish action of the mother country; and they demanded her consent to the union, of as many as might choose to join it without her. She was in no condition to resist their demands if they should choose to enforce them. But it would have been folly to have come to blows or even to words over such a question. The colonies had never been a source of profit to England, but rather a bill of expense. She traded with them, but did not possess a monopoly of their trade, and paid their tariff dues the same as other people. The United States enjoyed a larger trade with Canada than she, and had almost driven her out of the trade with several of her own West India Islands. Whatever the position might be that she held with reference to this commerce, it would not be made worse by this proposed union, but rather better, for free trade would take the place of tariffs. She would also enjoy free trade with the United States, which alone was worth to her a dozen colonies. The union of England with her colonies was chiefly one of sentiment. They governed themselves according to their own ideas, and were practically so many independent nations, which she was in sentiment bound to protect when they got into trouble, but which had little or nothing to give her in return for her maternal solicitude and worry. Their relationship to her tended to make them impertinent and presumptuous in their intercourse with other nations. Canada in particular by her bumptiousness had more than once come very nearly involving her in ruinous war with the United States, in which her loss would have been the destruction of her commerce, and her only gain, the loss of her pert colony. All these points were discussed by the English. It was urged that if Britain tried to keep the Colonies against their will, the time would surely come when she would have to give them up against hers. They recalled the Controversy with the United States and reflected how much better it would have been for England if she had permitted them to go off as friends rather than enemies. And they averred that if she should give her cordial approbation to the new union and send off the colonies with the maternal blessing to join their big brother Jonathan, it would go far toward curing the unfilial, but not entirely causeless feeling of bitterness he had entertained for her since 1776 and 1812.

“As a result of all these reflections and many more of the same sort, the conclusion was finally reached and the parliament gave its solemn sanction to the new State, but with characteristic foresight exacted one promise to which all the states acceded before the final act was consummated, and that was, that the said new nation should forever be the friend of Great Britain and in case her existence as a nation were threatened it should be bound to interpose in her behalf, and if necessary take up arms in her defense. The name proposed for the new nation was the “Pan Anglic Union.” When England failed to ratify, “Pan” was dropped, and the name became simply the “Anglic Union.” But it was playfully nicknamed the “Lion’s Cubs,” the “Old Hen’s Chickens” etc.”

“When did these things happen?” I inquired.

“They were finished by the year 1950,” he replied.

“Did not the various states have to do considerable remodeling of their forms and procedure to fit them for this consolidation?”

“Very little, their governments were all much like that of the United States. Like this country, they had already turned over to the control of the state all monopolies, such as railroads, and had reached the same conclusions as to money, the suffrage, taxation and most other questions. They had their legislatures and executive and judicial branches of government, all about alike. Ireland had for a decade or more enjoyed home rule. She came into the new Union as two states, Ulster and South Ireland. These were soon afterward reconsolidated into one—Ireland—the causes that led to their separation, viz, religious jealousy and the teaching of religion in the schools having been eliminated by the severance of all connection between church and state, which the new constitution required.

“The new nation had hardly got settled down to business, before new annexations and consolidations were proposed and after much hesitation and reflection were agreed to. Mexico, Central America and Japan proposed to come into the Union, and shortly after Chili and Argentine made application for admission. The fact is that in forming the “Anglic Union” the promoters were building far more than they realized. Time had without their knowing it reached a new epoch, and was about to turn over a new leaf. Men were becoming educated and mentally developed by strides instead of inches, by moles instead of molecules. In forming the “Anglic Union” they had given expression to a new feeling into which mankind was just being born, a feeling of human brotherhood, a new instinct that drew men together and acquainted them with the fact that they were all the result of common natural causes and animated by common loves and hopes and fears. It showed them they were not naturally and necessarily enemies, but might and ought to be friends and mutually helpful to each other. It was the beginning of the end of war, the epoch of peace and good will.

“When they began to think of taking other than English speaking nations into the “Anglic Union,” it was at once perceived that the name was inadequate, and so was the constitution. The name was changed to “The Great Union” and the constitution was amended in regard to the official language so far as the non-English speaking nations were concerned. English however was to be taught in these nations and it has gradually superseded the other languages. Schools have everywhere been established, and the church has been rigidly separated from the state. The state protects the church, but contributes nothing to its support, nor does it compel any unwilling citizen to contribute to its support by the exemption of its property from its due proportion of taxation.”

“Have any other nations joined the Great Union up to the present time besides those you have mentioned?”

“None others have been admitted into full membership as equal states, but all the states of South America have been taken under the protection of the “Great Union.” They are being settled and developed by northern people and the native population gradually educated up to the required standard. The equatorial climate is naturally unfavorable to enterprise, and development proceeds slowly. The church has been a serious obstacle, claiming time and attention of the natives that ought to be devoted to business and education. The country is being covered with railways by northern enterprise. The most important of these is the great international road extending from the city of Mexico through Central America and the isthmus of Darien and traversing the whole length of South America, even into Patagonia. Branches from this trunk diverge toward all important points and enormous progress has been made in agriculture and mining. The resources of this continent furnish a vast support to the teeming population of North America.”

Mention of these railways led me to inquire of the Professor concerning the progress of transportation, and commerce and whether any radical innovations had been introduced.

“All the old methods of transportation,” said he, “have been greatly improved upon, but none of them entirely superseded. Flying machines have been brought to a reasonable degree of perfection at the expense of much thought and many experiments, many fortunes and many broken necks. But they cannot take the place of the freight car or the steamship. They are more rapid, easily making 100 to 150 miles an hour, but they are as yet of limited capacity carrying light letter mails, and a few passengers, but at too great an expense to compete with the improved rail and water carriage of the present. Besides most people would rather be near the ground in case of accident. I mentioned to you the greatly reduced cost of railway transportation in North America where all the lines are operated by the state. In most of the South American states, the roads are merely controlled—not owned—by the state and there is active agitation in favor of the annexation of these states to the Great Union, in anticipation in part of the advantage that will be obtained by the state control of roads that will follow.

“The most beneficent service that the flying machine has rendered is its potent contribution toward the abolition of war. Men have indeed been rapidly educated out of the spirit and habit of war, but the flying machine simply prohibited it. Without it, an age of peace would undoubtedly have been reached in the future, with it, the age of peace is here. International warfare is at an end and probably forever.”

“I don’t quite see how,” said I.

“It is very easy. One of these machines can carry enough dynamite, gun cotton and other destructive explosives to devastate a city of 100,000 inhabitants. It can at will, fly over any place and drop its deadly stuff precisely where it will do the most execution. It can select the palace of the king, the houses of parliament or congress, the barracks, the citadel, or the magazine, or the thickly peopled camp of a great army. It can do this with little risk, deliberately, in broad daylight, poised two or three miles above its victim out of reach of practical gunnery; but in the night it can drop death upon defenseless and unsuspecting sleepers without a moments warning. Battle ships are equally useless. A charge of dynamite dropped from a flyer being able to reduce the greatest ship to scrap iron and send it to the bottom in a moment. As personal armor became a useless encumbrance, when gunpowder was introduced, so the armoring of ships has entirely passed away in the presence of the flying machine and naval warfare is no more practicable than war or land.”

“I should think,” said I, “that the “flyer” could be converted into a dangerous instrument for criminal use. What’s the reason pirates and robbers could not sail down upon a community small enough to be overpowered by them, and then sail off again with their booty to some inaccessible or solitary place?”

“That has been done,” he answered, “but it is no longer easy. Whenever a fresh emergency arises in human affairs, a fresh remedy is found to meet it. It often brings its own remedy. The flyer is as great an agent in the hands of the police as it is in the hands of the criminal. As to solitary places, there are very few left on earth that are habitable, and there is not a spot that has not been seen by men, and that is not subject to police surveillance.”

“Then,” said I, “they must have discovered the north pole.”

“Yes they have, and the south pole too,” he replied. “The first trip to the north pole was made from Cape Prince of Wales in Alaska. The party flew in a straight line from that point, in midsummer, north over the pole and continuing in almost the same direction to the south, reached Hammerfest in Norway a distance of 3,000 miles in forty hours without stopping. Parties have gone from Minneapolis by way of the north pole in an air line to the town of Tomsk in Siberia a distance of 5,500 miles, stopping at the pole twelve hours, and finishing the journey within four days. These trips have often been repeated and many similar ones made. It is possible to make the circuit of the earth in twelve days by means of relays at certain continental points and on some of the Pacific Islands; but it can also be made by rail and water with only four changes, two to rail and two to steamer in fifteen to seventeen days. Railroads run to Alaska reaching Bering Sea and the Pacific at several points, and are met by corresponding roads on the Russian side. The water carriage in summer is only across Bering Strait, but in winter on account of ice the passage is made further south and is longer.”

“Why don’t they tunnel Bering Strait,” I inquired, “or bridge it?”

“They will in the future tunnel it part way and build a dam or embankment the rest of the way,” he replied, “and utilize the enormous power of the current passing through there to drive the trains 1,000 miles on each side of the strait, but the time has not yet arrived. A bridge would not stay there, it would be swept away by the ice.”

“Isn’t there danger of collision between these flying machines?”

“Many fatal collisions took place when the flyers were first introduced. It was found necessary to regulate them by government supervision. The routes between all points have been carefully laid out and the going and returning paths separated by a wide and safe space.

“You mentioned the abolition of war. I hardly see how it could be while there were any uncivilized nations on earth,” I observed.

“I said international warfare was abolished.” he returned. “After Russia had taken possession of Asia and settled its ownership, and Africa had been divided up amongst the western European nations, the governments of all nations were civilized. The regulation of such barbarous subjects as they might be responsible for, was simply a question of policing, not war. An insurrection by them could not succeed against the destructive weapons held by the government. But as international affairs are now settled, there is no excuse for any responsible body of men to resort to force. The principle of arbitration first adopted between the United States and Great Britain was subsequently extended to all civilized nations. Later there was framed for the guidance of Arbitrators of international questions, an international constitution or law of nations agreed to by treaty between the principal nations and finally ratified by all. This constitution described the boundaries of all nations, which it was agreed were not to be disturbed except on consent of all the parties concerned, thus doing away with wars for conquest.

“A criminal code was enacted, by which all crimes between subjects of different nations were to be tried, and an international court was established, composed of Judges from every nation. When a suit is brought before this court, those judges appointed by the nations parties to the suit, are excused from serving, and the case is tried by the others. Questions of damages by one nation and its decrees when finally reached are acquiesced in without hesitation, because it is keenly recognized that any settlement even when not entirely satisfactory, is preferable to war. In fact war is not recognized as a practical method of settling anything.”

“If war is at an end, what have the European Nations done with their great armies,” I inquired. “In my day most of the surplus wealth of those nations went to support their vast armies, and the masses of the industrial classes were kept in poverty, because their earnings were so largely diverted to that purpose. And yet there appeared to be too many workers, for their wages were very low. If the soldiers were set to work at peaceful occupations and married and raised families, the population must have increased and the wages gone still lower. How was that?”

“Well, not quite like that,” he replied. “The more workers the more wealth, provided they have plenty of raw material to work on. The abolition of war gave a great impetus to the production of wealth in Europe. A great demand was created for raw materials, such as wool, cotton, timber, iron and other metals and for food stuffs. A large part of these supplies had to be furnished from other countries. The United States furnished vast quantities. This increased commerce, and as the population increased, emigration was stimulated. As the United States filled up, the emigration was diverted from this country to South America and to Africa. The products and exports of these countries correspondingly increased. The equatorial regions are most prolific in all the products of the soil. The temperate zones furnish the most vigorous people for consuming these and turning them into wealth. The relations between these two regions are reciprocal and complemental rather than competitive. Free trade was first established in those directions and it soon forced itself in others, until it became the rule the world over. The history of western Europe during the twentieth century, is bound up with the development and settlement of South America and Africa, especially the latter. Modern Africa is as much a child of Europe as America is, and the native races and tongues are being rapidly displaced by the European. Population in Europe naturally increases in a more rapid ratio than ever before, due to the suppression of the ravages and waste of war, the more scientific treatment of disease, and control of epidemics, the greater comfort and prosperity of the people. But with their increased possibilities for comfort have come, an increased standard and expectation of life, so that it cannot be said that the people are any better satisfied with life than they were before. The struggles are as intense and the disappointments as stinging as ever. The incentives to emigration have not diminished while facilities inducements and flattering prospects to the immigrant are vastly greater than ever.

“Europe is the great breeding ground for Africa, as it was formerly for North America. And the human inundation that formerly poured itself into the United States is diverted chiefly to Africa, but in four fold volume.”

“Surely,” said I, “the capacity of the earth for supporting the human family must be almost exhausted. It is sickening to contemplate the suffering that will be entailed in the struggle for existence that it seems to me must inevitably come soon. Evidently from what you say, Europe must be about as full as it will hold. I suppose the great migration you speak of represents the surplus crop of folks that the continent must get rid of in order to let those that remain live in tolerable comfort. When Africa and South America get to be as full as Europe and the United States, so that they can no longer receive this tide of emigration, then what is to be done? For anything I can see famine will have to sweep away some of the race in order that the rest may exist, and after all is that any better than war?”

“At any rate,” said he, “we have not reached that yet. We have now reached the beginning of the twenty-first century. The population of the earth has reached the very considerable number of 4,000,000,000 or almost three times what is was in your day. Yet we concede a three fold increase of that figure before starvation or some other repressive agency will be necessary to stop the increase of the population and that will only be reached by the year 2070.”

He here pulled out a pencil of curious make and with his middle left hand dashed off some strange looking characters on a blank space on the profile. He was evidently figuring, for in a moment he went on to say that he found that when the 40,000,000 square miles of habitable land on the earth were divided equally between 12,000,000,000, of people they would have about two acres each.

I ventured to say, I did not think two acres enough to furnish an individual with food, taking his chances of bad seasons from droughts, floods etc. Besides men could hardly live without timber and they could have none if all the land were cultivated. Moreover, they must have animals to furnish leather, wool etc., and land would be required for their sustenance.

Land must be also devoted to cotton, flax hemp and so on for clothes etc. When you allow for such things as these, I said, I thought the area devoted to the production of food would not be much over one acre to the individual by the year 2070, if he was right about the number of people there would then be.

“You are only thinking of the crude methods people had in your day of getting their food from the earth,” said he. “They were at the mercy of the uncontrolled action of natural forces and accidents. The rain and sunshine naturally falling on an acre of land enabled them to raise so many bushels of wheat or beans or carrots or beets. But if the rain did not fall or the sun failed to shine or there was too much rain or too much sunshine or the weather was too cold or the wind too boisterous, the farmer was at the mercy of the fickle elements and his crop a failure. In a few places irrigation was practiced, men got a partial control of the conditions, but these places were limited, and the control incomplete.

“If you will call to mind the information I have given you of the artificial production of food and other necessaries of existence among the Lunarians, you will readily see that the resources of the earth to sustain its population do not depend altogether on the amount of land surface that men can cultivate to beets and potatoes—the amount on which the sun shines and the rain falls. Surface you must have of course for people to live and to move on. But when you learn how to utilize it there is material under every acre on an average, more than sufficient for the sustenance of all the people that could stand on it. The soil in which you plant your seeds is nothing but the disintegrated rock of a thin layer of the surface of the earth. Below it are rocks of the same sort in quantities enough to make millions of such soils. If you knew how, you could make your food products out of the soil directly instead of waiting for the growth of plants in it, and if the soil should give out you could make them from the rocks below.”

“Yes,” said I, “but will mankind ever find out how to do this? Will you wise and experienced Lunarians show us?”

“No, it is not necessary that we should. You will find it out fast enough yourselves. Your chemists even in your day had begun to take lessons in chemical synthesis, and as time went on, and the necessity increased, their efforts were stimulated and constantly became more successful until now they can produce a number of artificial foods from the original elements without the necessity of raising vegetables or animals by the action of natural growth. Looking over into the twenty-first century, we see that they will easily be able to produce food from the elements as fast as required. Their abilities and facilities will keep pace with the population. This implies that the race will not have to be checked in its expansion by lack of food. The feature of evolution and selection of the fittest by means of a struggle for food will be entirely eliminated. The matter will be entirely in the hands of the people themselves.”

“How about clothing,” I asked, “will they produce that too by the aid of chemistry?”

“Yes they will. Sheep will not be required for their wool any more than their flesh. A substitute will be found for leather as well as beef. Better and more durable clothing will be made directly from minerals than were produced in your time from vegetable and animal substances. Metals and artificial mineral products began early in the twentieth century and even before, to supplant wood in buildings and many other structures. So at present the use of wood is greatly reduced and during the coming century it will be almost discontinued; a great many things are now made of Alumina that were formerly made of wood, and that metal has become cheaper and more abundant than iron. Glass is also very much used, and methods have been discovered of giving it any desired temper, so that it is made flexible and tough like pewter or firm and elastic like steel. It can also be made fibrous and soft as cotton and can be spun and woven into textile fabrics.”

“But what are they going to do for power and fuel?” I asked. “If there is to be such an increase of population, an enormous consumption of fuel and power will follow. Of course they will use the coal while it lasts, but the supply of that limited, and if that is the only dependence, all industries will sooner or later be brought to an end.”

“The coal,” said he, “was an excellent makeshift for temporary use until a more enduring supply of power was discovered to supersede it. But even now it could if necessary be almost entirely dispensed with and yet there are still vast deposits of it untouched. In the long distant future the time will come when the coal will be regarded as a deposit of food for your race as it is now with ours, but it will not be consumed for its heat or its power except in that way.”

“Have our people then learned how to get power as you do from the use of the principle of the repulsion of gravitation?”

“Indeed they have not,” he answered, “and they are very unlikely ever to find out how to do it unless instructed by us; and that will never be till the Lunarians become lunatics. The new power that has been developed and already brought into considerable use and which will soon become a substitute for all others and endure as long as the earth is habitable is simply sunlight; and the discovery that is to prove by far the most valuable ever made by your race is the direct conversion of its force into electricity, which can as you know be conveyed hundreds of miles and applied to any sort of machinery required. When coal is used to produce electricity, the process is after all an indirect way of utilizing the force of the sun’s rays. Ages ago these rays created the vegetation that afterwards became coal, and in burning the coal now, the force of the sun’s rays consumed in its production is again brought into action in heating the water, that expands into steam that drives the engine, that turns the dynamo, that creates the electric current. It was seen long ago that if some process could be devised by which the force of the sunlight could be consumed in the creation of electricity directly, the suns rays of to-day could be utilized in the production of power instead of using up the coal that was produced by them in former ages. It was discovered in your day that sunlight falling upon the metal selenium is turned in part into electricity. Acting on this hint your scientists experimented with that metal and others, and tried hundreds of combinations and alloys. They have discovered many compounds that possess this property, which is found to depend on the sizes and shapes of the spaces between the molecules of the metal. The impact of the undulations of the ether that give rise to light, striking into the ether confined in these peculiarly shaped spaces impart to it the sort of motion these shapes make it competent to take, which is the new form of motion, electricity. They were largely assisted and guided in their investigations by spectrum analysis. The apparatus for the production of electricity in this way is necessarily of large dimensions presenting large surface to the sun, and as yet is rather expensive, but once made, it lasts forever and produces electricity whenever the sun shines. Improvements are constantly being made that reduce the cost and increase the efficiency. These machines are arranged to turn automatically, a certain face to the sun, revolving on a horizontal plane diurnally and changing their declination vertically to follow the north and south movement of the sun through the seasons. The electricity is transmitted to storage batteries and a surplus thus accumulated during sunshine to be used at night and in cloudy weather or carried off to be used elsewhere. These machines yield especially good results in tropical latitudes and in localities where clear weather predominates, such as southern California, Arizona, northern Mexico, the Sahara desert, Egypt, Arabia, Tartary, Central Australia, etc. In all such countries railroads are operated at nominal expense.

“Stations at intervals transmit the power several hundred miles on either side. As there is practically no limit to this power it has come to be used for the accomplishment of undertakings that were hardly dreamed of before. The irrigation and development of deserts by means of artesian wells and by streams brought from a distance, followed by the construction of roads, settlement and cultivation are being vigorously prosecuted in all parts where the climate is not too cold. Large tracts notably in the Sahara and Gobi deserts and in Arabia and Tartary, have already been made productive and populous. This power can be conveyed to great distances from the point where it is developed, and made to do work in places practically inaccessible to any other form of power. Excavation of canals, railway cuts, tunnels and mines with the transportation of materials for embankments is prosecuted with tremendous energy. Innumerable mines are being pushed far into the bowels of the earth and the interior explored and honeycombed in many directions. This work is however destined to be of vastly more importance in the distant future than at the present. But I think you can now see that with practically unlimited power and unlimited raw materials for the construction of the human race placed in the hands of the race itself your fears that the increase of population will ever press uncomfortably on the means of subsistence are not well founded.”

“Yes I do begin to see that,” said I. “It is all very wonderful. What a career the race has before it! Why it has hardly got out of its cradle yet. What a misfortune that I was not reserved to be born two or three centuries later so I could see some of these future glories!”

“Nay, nay,” he replied, “that is a vain wish. You may be as happy in your own time as you could be in the future. In all the ages of the past, people have been found expressing a poor opinion of their own times, extolling the golden age that was past or the millennium that was to come; and it will be so in the future. If you were to live two centuries hence you would see as many defects and shortcomings, and anticipate as many still future improvements and achievements as you did in your day.”

“Well, I suppose, that must be so; and yet with such an apparently absolute control over the earth it would seem that mankind might make themselves comfortable and contented.”