ial-protective policy of immigration. Sec. 15.
Population and militarism. Sec. 16. Problem of maximum military power.

Sec. 1. #Nature of the population problem.# No one of the problems of
labor thus far discussed is of so great importance in relation to
popular welfare as is "the problem of population." By this is meant
the problem of determining and maintaining the best relation between
the population and the area and resources of the land. What is to be
deemed "best" in this case depends, of course, on the various human
sympathies and points of view of those pronouncing judgment. Very
generally, until the nineteenth century, the only view that found
expression was that of a small ruling class which favored all increase
in population as magnifying the political power of the rulers and as
increasing the wealth of the landed aristocracy. This view still is
unconsciously taken by the members of a small but influential class,
and is echoed without independent thought by many other persons.
But more and more, in this and other labor problems, another more
democratic standard of judgment has come to be taken, that of the
abiding welfare of the masses of the people. This is the point of view
that must be taken by the political economist in a free republic.

The problem of population presents two main aspects: one as to
composition, and the other as to numbers of the people. Changes in
either of these respects concern the welfare of the masses. Changes in
the kinds of people, or in their relative numbers, may greatly affect
the welfare of the people, in some cases touching special large
classes, and in others affecting the whole mass of the people.

Sec. 2. #Complexity of race problems.# The questions of race composition
that we shall here consider are those of the negro and of the
immigrant.[1] Both of these questions are complex and go beyond
the limits of mere economic considerations, touching the most vital
political and social interests of the nation. Indeed they involve the
very soul and existence of peoples, for who can doubt that ultimately
racial survival and success are mainly to be determined by physical
and spiritual capacity?

The negro in America is the gravest of our population problems. In
large portions of our land it overshadows every other public question.
Yet the negro is here because men of the seventeenth century ignored
the complexity of the labor problem and thought only of its economic
aspect.