There remains the population question, which,
ever since the time of Malthus, has been the last
refuge of those to whom the possibility of a better
world is disagreeable. But this question is now
a very different one from what it was a hundred
years ago. The decline of the birth-rate in all
civilized countries, which is pretty certain to continue,
whatever economic system is adopted, suggests
that, especially when the probable effects of the war
are taken into account, the population of Western
Europe is not likely to increase very much beyond
its present level, and that of America is likely only to
increase through immigration. Negroes may continue
to increase in the tropics, but are not likely to
be a serious menace to the white inhabitants of temperate
regions. There remains, of course, the Yellow
Peril; but by the time that begins to be serious
it is quite likely that the birth-rate will also have
begun to decline among the races of Asia If not,
there are other means of dealing with this question;
and in any case the whole matter is too conjectural
to be set up seriously as a bar to our hopes. I conclude
that, though no certain forecast is possible,
there is not any valid reason for regarding the possible
increase of population as a serious obstacle to
Socialism.
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