Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/482

Rh IN the fifty years, 1850 to 1900, Russia shows the largest increase and France the smallest in the principal populations of Europe. The figures, in round millions, are : 1850. 1900. Increase. Russia Great Britain Austria-Hungary Italy 67,000,000 26,000,000 27,000,000 30,000.000 23,000,000 35,000,000 129,000,000 56,000,000 41,000,000 45,000,000 32,000,000 39,000,000 62,000,000 30,000,000 14,000,000 15,000,000 9,000,000 4,000,000 Two reasons account for the small French increase, namely, the loss of Alsace-Lorraine and thedecreasingbirth rate. The last is the most serious. In 1899 tne excess of births over deaths in five of the countries named was: Germany 795, 107 Austria-Hungary 530,806 Great Britain 422,156 Italy 385,165 France 31,321 The following year, 1900, the French excess of births was only 20,330. It is a fact that 1,808,839 French families are without children. That is 16.68 per cent of all the families in France. It is also a fact that 2,638,752 French fam- ilies, or 24.33 P er cent, have only two children each. In 1800 the population of Europe was 98,000,000, of which 26,000,000 were French ; in 1900 the figures were 343,- 000, 000 and39,ooo,ooo. Inother wo r d s , total Europe increased 245,000,000 in the century, but France can only be credited with i3,ooo,oooof thatincrease. Thus France fell from 26 per cent to 1 1 per cent of Europe's population in the one hundred years. "At one time," says American Con- sul Haynes, of Rouen, France, " French was spoken all over the world ; now (1905) it is the language of 45,000,000 people (including the French colonies), while German is spoken by 100,000,000 and English by 150,000.000." In the fifty years, 1850 to 1900, the increase in the population of the United States was 53,000,000, or 14,000,000 more than the present population of France proper. It can be put another way : The population of the leading republic of the new world, which was 12,000,000 less in 1850 than that of the leading republic of the old world, is now more than double that of its chief republican competitor. Of course, the heavy American immigration largely accounts for this; but the American excess of births over deaths is, year after year, much larger proportionately than that of France. Until 1850 France was in point of population the first of the great Euro- pean nations ; today she stands sixth, with Italy pressing hard to set her back to seventh and last place. In Germany there are 600,000 more births each year than in France ; that is why Count von Moltke said : ' ' Every year by our birth rate we gain a battle over France." Russia doubles her population each 50 years ; Norway and Sweden, each 52 ; Great Britain and Germany, each 55 ; Belgium, each 79 ; Italy, each 84 ; Spain, each 104 ; Austria-Hungary, each no, but France only each 183 years. Walter J. Ballard. Schenectady New York.

THE remarkable growth of Japanese foreign commerce during the first six months of this year, especially of imports from foreign countries, is shown in the June Monthly Return of the Foreign Trade of the Empire of Japan.

As compared with the six months' figures for the previous year, the imports show the remarkable increase of 56.9 per cent, from $90,952,000 to $142,659,000, while exports for the same period show a relatively insignifi-