iscovery and
application of scientific principles, was brought about a tremendous
increase in Europe's food-getting efficiency. And immediately her
population sprang up.

According to the census of Ireland, of 1659, that country had a
population of 500,000. One hundred and fifty years later, her population
was 8,000,000. For many centuries the population of Japan was
stationary. There seemed no way of increasing her food-getting
efficiency. Then, sixty years ago, came Commodore Perry, knocking down
her doors and letting in the knowledge and machinery of the superior food-
getting efficiency of the Western world. Immediately upon this rise in
subsistence began the rise of population; and it is only the other day
that Japan, finding her population once again pressing against
subsistence, embarked, sword in hand, on a westward drift in search of
more room. And, sword in hand, killing and being killed, she has carved
out for herself Formosa and Korea, and driven the vanguard of her drift
far into the rich interior of Manchuria.

For an immense period of time China's population has remained at
400,000,000--the saturation point. The only reason that the Yellow River
periodically drowns millions of Chinese is that there is no other land
for those millions to farm. And after every such catastrophe the wave of
human life rolls up and now millions flood out upon that precarious
territory. They are driven to it, because they are pressed remorselessly
against subsistence. It is inevitable that China, sooner or later, like
Japan, will learn and put into application our own superior food-getting
efficiency. And when that time comes, it is likewise inevitable that her
population will increase by unguessed millions until it again reaches the
saturation point. And then, inoculated with Western ideas, may she not,
like Japan, take sword in hand and start forth colossally on a drift of
her own for more room? This is another reputed bogie--the Yellow Peril;
yet the men of China are only men, like any other race of men, and all
men, down all history, have drifted hungrily, here, there and everywhere
over the planet, seeking for something to eat. What other men do, may
not the Chinese do?

But a change has long been coming in the affairs of man. The more recent
drifts of the stronger races, carving their way through the lesser breeds
to more earth-space, has led to peace, ever to wider and more lasting
peace. The lesser b