of excessive
population, but as the result of a robber system that accomplishes the
feat of spreading the desert ever further from decade to decade. The
marvelous results attainable in all these countries by the agriculture
and horticulture of middle Europe is a matter that eludes all
calculation.

With the present state of agriculture, the United States could easily
feed fifteen and twenty times its present population (63,000,000)--that
is, 1,200,000,000 people. Under the same conditions, Canada could feed,
instead of 5,000,000 people, 100,000,000 people. Then there are
Australia, the numerous and in some instances large and extraordinarily
fertile islands of the great Indian Ocean, etc. "Multiply!"--such, and
not "Reduce your numbers!"--is the call that in the name of civilization
reaches the human race.

Everywhere, it is the social conditions--the existing method of
production and distribution--that bring on privation and misery, not the
number of people. A few rich crops in succession lower the prices of
food in such manner that a considerable number of our cultivators of the
soil are ruined. Instead of the condition of the cultivator being
improved, it declines. A large number of farmers to-day look upon a good
crop as a misfortune: it lowers prices so that the cost of production is
barely covered. And this is called a rational state of things! With the
view of keeping far away from us the abundance of the harvests of other
countries, high duties are placed on grain: thus the entry of foreign
grain is made difficult and the price of the domestic article is raised.
We have no scarcity but a superabundance of food, the same as of
industrial products. The same as millions of people need the yield of
the factories, but can not satisfy their wants under the existing system
of property and production, so are millions in want of food, being
unable to pay for it, although the prices are low and the necessaries of
life abundant. We ask again, Can this be called a rational state of
things? The craziness and insanity of it all is obvious. Our speculators
in corn often, when the crops are good, deliberately allow a large part
to perish: they know the prices rise in the measure that the products
are scarce. And yet we are told to look out for overpopulation! In
Russia, southern Europe and many other countries of the world, hundreds
of thousands of loads of grain perish yearly for want of proper storage
and transportation. M