s from producer to consumer, due to
breakage, decay, etc., but butter has an equally great loss.... It is
not an over-estimate, therefore, to say that between 30 and 40 per
cent. of the perishables which are raised on the farms are never
consumed at all, but are a complete social loss."--"Marketing
Perishable Farm Products." Studies in History, Economics and Public
Law. Columbia University. Vol. LXXII, No. 3, p. 25. New York, 1916.

[16] It is of course assumed that no means will soon be found by which
cheap food can be produced synthetically; if that happens, all our
conclusions go by the board.

[17] In the decade 1850-59 the death rate in New York City was 35.6 per
cent., in the period 1900-13 only 15.3 per cent.; in Massachusetts, in
the same periods, the death rate was 18.0 and 15.5 per cent.
respectively. The diminution was due, partly to a change in the
age-constitution of the population and partly to a progressive control
of diseases.--Walter F. Willcox, "The Nature and Significance of the
Changes in the Birth and Death Rates in Recent Years." _American
Statistical Association Quarterly_, March, 1916, p. 2.

[18] Prof. Willcox, who presents the table from which these figures are
drawn, illustrates the decline by showing that its continuation would
wipe out all births in 160 years, so that by 2070 we should live in a
baby-less world.--_Op cit._, pp. 11, 12.

[19] Quoted by Prof. Willcox, _op. cit._, pp. 13, 14.

[20] That there lies a danger in exactly the opposite direction cannot
be denied. There are limits to the fall in the death rate, but
practically no limits to the possible decline in child-bearing. The
limitation of births is almost entirely determined by individual (or
family) considerations, and may proceed to a point where population
will decline rapidly and perhaps deteriorate in quality. A linking up
of the individual interest in small families to the social interest in
having the population maintained or slowly increased, as well as
improved in quality, is essential.

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CHAPTER XIV

AN ANTIDOTE TO IMPERIALISM

A nation, though economically complete, in the sense that it could, if
it desired, maintain its population upon its own resources may yet be
lured into an imperialistic and warlike policy. Just as political
disintegration leads to internal conflicts, disorders and finally
foreign intervention, so an economic disequilibrium, by placing the
interests of certain