Page:The empire and the century.djvu/105

 be over 70,000,000 (no conceivable emigration or reduction of the birth-rate will much abate that figure); and the population of these islands cannot be expected to exceed at the outside 48,000,000. It is already late in the day for any attempt to redress the balance, and we do not realize how decisively the scales are turning against us. President Roosevelt and Congress are spending upon the fleet with both hands. Germany's National Debt is but a fraction of ours, and her army costs no more; the increase in her wealth and productive power more than keeps pace with the growth of her population; and every augmentation of her resources will now go to strengthen the navy. It is a perfectly fair and well-reasoned calculation on the part of Americans and Germans alike, that when the former, in another ten or twelve years, have 100,000,000 of inhabitants and the latter over 70,000,000 (against only 48,000,000 or less in the British Islands), an overshadowing preponderance in numbers and industrial strength will enable each of these Powers, however comparing with each other, to support a larger navy than we shall be able to afford. Our sea-supremacy, and inevitably with it our present