Speech #670011896

President. I now come to answer the question of the Senator from Georgia . who is a student. and whose studies are not circumscribed merely by the boundaries of our own country. It is very true that there has been a very large increase of the native population of Japan without any substantial immigration. It is very true that there has been a very large increase in population in Germany. and I think in Holland. in Great Britain. and other European countries during the last century. without substantial acquisition from the outside. and I apprehend that what the Senator. is seeking by his question is to draw the conclusion that if that has been true there. we would have increased with very great rapidity here. even if no foreigners had come. from the days of Patrick Henry on. * There is some logic in that. but it by no means. in my opinion. justifies the conclusion which I think the Senator means to draw. The reason Japan did not many. many centuries ago overrun her borders was an economic reason. She had as many people as could be supported. and whenever a nation reaches that point they stop reproducing. or at least there is a great limitation placed upon it. and whenever a nation of that kind gets in a more prosperous condition the answer is always found in an increase of population. The ability of Great Britain. through .her manufactures and her industrial development. to support a larger population. undoubtedly vastly increased the population of Great Britain in the last century of time. particularly if we exclude Ireland. where the converse is shown. where. because of bad government. starvation. and emigration. the population was cut in half. So in Germany it is true that the population has largely increased in the last century. but going along with it was an industrial development which made it possible for large families to exist and for the population to rapidly increase. In addition to that. of course. there has been another contributing cause in all of these countries and in our own.