THE LION'S MOUTH

might go on for years behaving allwrong on ferries, calling absent friendsby names in tones easily overheard bybystanders, gesticulating noticeably, anddoing other terrible things. Now I shallknow enough to look carefully about theferry before calling my friends by nameand if they are absent I shall lower myvoice to a whisper, and people will knowthat I belong. Isn't that a valuablething to have learned from the very firstparagraph of a twenty-five-eent hook?And it continues just as usefully. Let

me give you the second paragraph: "Ina crowd, never hail a friend by callinghis name, if he is some distance away,for it is not necessary that you shouldthus inform those who block the wayof your friend's identity. Either youmust contrive to pass and join him, orelse catch his eye and bow."There now! isn't that sensible? Natu-

rally you would think offhand that itwould be necessary to inform the crowdof your friend's identity, but when youstop to think the matter over, you cansee that it isn't necessary at all. Ifyour friend is anxious to have the crowdknow his name, he can announce ithimself in loud tones. There isn't theslightest obligation on you to assist him.In fact, in case he is wanted by thepolice, he may thank you not to.On the next page are some helpful

hints about lifting the hat. This shouldbe done, we learn, when a lady on thestreet drops some object-handkerchief,package, or the like-s-from her hands,and the gentleman restores it to her,and she says "Thank you." It shouldalso be done when offering a seat to alady on a crowded street car, whenspeaking to strangers, and when eithera lady or a gentleman with whom youare walking bows to a friend. "Otheroccasions for removing the hat," con-cludes the paragraph, "are for thenational flag, the national anthem; inan apartment- or hotel-elevator whenladies are present; and when waitingfor a funeral to pass."The value of this book, you will

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notice, is not merely in what is saidright out but also in what is suggested.That last phrase about the funeral isrich in suggestion. For suppose youfail to memorize accurately the list ofoccasions for hat-lifting, and find your-self removing your headgear withoutproper cause, and somebody says, "Whyraise the hat now? No lady has droppedan object from her hands; you are noton a street car or in an elevator; and Ifail to hear the national anthem. Haveyou no knowledge of etiquette at all?I fear you do not belong." Instantlyyou can reply, "I am waiting for afuneral to pass. It may not come byfor hours, or even for days, but that's aperfectly good reason, isn't it, and who'sa smarty?"A little later, however, there comes a

passage which perplexes me. Speakingof the formal call, the author says, "Agentleman leaves his hat and gloves, hisstick and rubbers, in the hall, but onlyafter having been told his hostess is athome." That is a bit of advice whichI shall take to heart; when I go callingthis winter, after handing over my card(a gentleman's card, ~:Vsto 3~ incheslong by 1~ to 1%high) I shall rememberto say to myself, "Keep your rubbers ontill you're told she's at home." Butwhat if I am wearing rubber boots? Orwhat if, as occasionally happens, therehas been a prolonged stretch of fineweather and I have ventured outwithout any rubbers at all? Should Ipurchase a pair hefore calling, for' thesake of form, so that any member ofmy hostess's family who chances topass through the hall while I am in thehouse may see them with my hat,gloves, and stick, and know that I amof the rubbered elect? I wish the bookwould be more explicit on this point.But after all, we cannot expect

everything in the world for twenty-fivecents. Perhaps the more expensivebooks of etiquette go more fully intothe rubber problem, and some day youand I may be able to save up enoughmoney to complete our social educaticn.

EDITOR'S EASY CHiUR

"

There are China and India swarmingalready with surplus people and patientunder it, and leaning on starvation forrelief. Truth is we do not know what isgoing to happen to us more than a fewweeks or months ahead. This prospectof vast increase. in population is basedon present facts. The facts seem to betrue, but how soon they will give way toother facts we cannot tell. The figures ofMalthus were good enough figures butthey did not work out because living con-ditions changed. New lands wereopened;transportation was improved enor-mously; new methods of agriculture pro-duced more food and vast tracts of far-away land began to feed Europe.A philosopher of Jamaica, describing

herself as an old woman, writes to theEasy Chair that the reproduction of thespecies is the great iniquity of all, andthat it is going out of fashion. Maybeso, but who is going to believe it? Wecannot count on anything like that. TheAmerican standard of living nowadaysis so complicated and so very high thatalready it makes among prudent or timidpeople for very small families; but it isnot the prudent or timid people that arelooked to for the prospective rises inpopulation, but the bold, the reckless,and the improvident, who easily shifttheir family responsibilities upon thechurches, the charitable institutions, andthe taxpayers. Family life seems to findthe road rather more rocky than it usedto be, but it has not disappeared yet.What is being done outside of it in ourtime for children and the young is mar-velous. How far it is good for parents tobe relieved from responsibility is debat-able, but it is thought to be good formany of the children or it would not bedone. One thing, however, seems plainenough: that the harder it becomesto raise families, the smaller the fam-ilies of responsible parents incline tobe and the larger the proportion ofthe population born to assisted families.The people of the old American stockwere expected to take care of themselvesand their children, and in the main they

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did so, but our imported brothers nowa-days, especially in the cities, get a lot ofhelp with their offspring and avail them-selves of it abundantly, and very muchto their children's profit. The upshot ofall that effort and expenditure has beento encourage the multiplication of newlyimported stocks and to discourage theincrease of the older stocks in competi-tion with them. That is so obvious thatno doubt it has been one of the strongmotives for the restriction ofimmigration.The country and its schools and its

hospitals and its colleges can doubtlesshandle the population it now has and itsincrease, and a moderate addition byimmigration, for a long time to come.Now again as to the increase which con-fronts us in the course of time. On thepresent basis it is likely enough that weshall run up to 200,000,000 in the courseof the present century, but what is therebesides amendments to the Constitutionto keep us from overrunning the coun-try's capacity? There is, of course, apossible increase of capacity from hetteragriculture and increased power overnature which nobody can measure; butsuch things would only defer the evilday, for heretofore population alwayshas kept up with the means of subsist-ence. If it is desirable to keep it withindefinite bounds, it will have to be done asthe result of the exercise of the personalintelligence of parents. It does seem tohappen that as the standard of livingrises and the complexity of life increases,families grow smaller. Is it desirable initself that a vast number of peopleshould be born? Is there any great prob-lem the solution of which is aided byimmense increase in population? It isimportant that there should be peopleenough in any country to develop it.How many is enough we do not know.How much mere gross population doesfor civilization we cannot estimate withaccuracy. It provides competition forone thing, and that is necessary to prog-ress. It used to be that great numbers ofhands were necessary to the accomplish-ment of great public works such as the

804 HARPER'S MONTHLY :MAGAZINE

pyramids in Egypt and many other greatworks of construction and building donein the world before modern times. Yeteven that assertion has to he qualified,for some of the most beautiful things inthe world were made in countries wherepopulations were small. The pyramids,to be sure, doubtless employed crowds,but it did not take great hordes of peopleto adorn the Acropolis in Athens nor yetto build the Gothic cathedrals. Theimportant thing about building is notthe great mass of construction but thedirecting intelligence that shapes itsforms. In our time we see powerful andingenious machines doing more and morethe physical work which used to be doneby the hands of man. That means thatthe work of the world is going to be doneat less and less cost of physical labor byanimate beings, and more and more bymachines. That argues rather for dimin-ishing populations than the contrary-acompetition of brains with brawn inwhich brains will win. Forecasters likeH. G. Wells, who see wonderful exploitsof civilization ahead, see them alsoachieved and managed by fewer people.Among human beings as in everythingelse the important thing is quality. Thegreat office of quantity is to provideagainst waste so that enough quality willsurvive to do what is intended. Thegreat remedy against over-population isintelligence, the raising and training ofsuperior people, superior especially inmorality, spirituality, and self-control.People of that grade will not crowdthemselves off the planet by over-breeding.Just over the edge of what we know

now lies the vast region of what we donot yet know. Human knowledge hasgone some distance. Man is already apowerful creature, but the mass ofknowl-edge has been only scratched and manhas hardly begun his career. He willknow presently a great deal more thanhe knows now. His powers and abilityare being definitely increased so that hecan handle matters which now seem toodifficult for him. The population ques-

tion is one of those matters. Its finalsolution, if it ever has one, will come notby violence and possibly not as abovesuggested by legislation, but naturallyas the fruit of the spiritual and mentaldevelopment of man. 'Weflounder alongthrough this life doing what we can aswe can, but conscious all the time that ifwe knew more, and especially if we knewourselves and our neighbors better andhad a clearer understanding of what thegoal of life really was, we could do vastlybetter than we do now. Consider themost urgent problems of the world to-day-the international problems of Europe.Are they insoluble? Of course not! Whathas made them so difficult? The passionsof men; confusion in the human mind ofwhat is important with what is not soimportant; the grip of tradition andprejudice on the human heart. Theproblems are difficult because man iswhat he is. Make him better and theyfade away. The very weight of them,the difficulties of international life, thecomplexities of Europe, the great prob-lems of that vast district between thewestern boundary of Russia and thePacific Ocean, teeming with populations,agitated nowadays with new emotionsand aspirations, all crowd on the atten-tion of rulers and thinkers the compellingnecessity of increasing the intelligenceand improving the morality of the humanrace. We have got to do better and to bebetter in order to get along, and as wevery much prefer to get along and not tobe wiped off the earth, we shall probablygive increased attention to the necessi-ties of our condition.There is a story about the time when

the Millerite excitement was raging andan agitated Millerite met Emerson in thestreets of Boston and said to him, "Mr.Emerson, do you know that the world iscoming to an end next month?" ButEmerson only smiled and said, "Is it,really? Well, I have no doubt we shallget along just as well without it." Thatis a spirit of hopefulness proper to thesetimes. When we get down to brass tackswith General Dawes we face the conclu-

EDITOR'S EASY CHAIR

sion that if we cannot make this worldwork so that it is comfortable and inter-esting to live in, at least we can get alongwithout it. Everybody now on it willhave to get along without it presently,and whether sooner or later may makeless difference than we are used to think.An appreciation of that may relieve us ofsome anxieties and give us an attitude ofmind more suitable to world-improve-ment. But undoubtedly we do not wantto get along without this world until ourterm here has fairly run out, and we dobelieve, most of us, that our job here isto make it as comfortable and as inter-esting as we can.Let us not be frightened then by the

bugaboo of over-population or by anyother bugaboo whatever. The outlook isnot really bad. It has extraordinaryproblems in it, but the increase of knowl-edge is also extraordinary, marvelouslyrapid, and of unprecedented importance.We can be good if we know how. We cando a great deal to make others good andthe problems of the world are not toodifficult for us if we tackle them in theproper spirit. We have no excess-of-population problem in these States now.We shall not need to settle it until itcomes. When it does come, if ever, weshall meet it, not with what we knowto-day, but with such increased under-standing and control of human affairs aswe shall have acquired by that time. Itis a stream we do not have to cross tillwe get to it. China is much nearer to itthan we are, and wemay learn somethingfrom her, though for many centuries herremedy for all evils has been overmuchto go on living. India is overcrowded.So much of the Western industrial sys-temas has reached her has vastly in-creased her numbers, but she sees nofinal cure in it for her embarrassments,and seems bent nowadays on workingout a salvation for herself on Easternlines. Japan too is crowded and thinkinghard about it, and as for Europe-Italy,-Germany, and England all have millionsof people to spare, and they wonder howlong they can feed them. The great ex-

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ample of a nation whose population'sincrease is not crowding it is France, andcurious to remark, France is the mostanxious country of all Europe. Withtwo million men lost in the War, herpopulation for the moment is not evenholding its own; and fearing that herman-power will be insufficient for de-fense, she reaches out everywhere forallies and defenders.But putting France aside, it may be

we shall learn by observation of the over-crowded countries how the excess-of-population problem is to be handled. Ifwe can so learn before the pinch comeshome to ourselves, so much the bettcrfor us. But meanwhile we may learnfrom France that excess of mouths to befed is not the only thing which may givea nation anxious thoughts. For aughtwe know, a troubled world may be drift-ing toward an Armageddon in whichnumbers may count for something indefense. That is a possibility that shouldmake uspatient with the pains ofincrease.Surely the purpose of this curious life

on earth is the development of intelli-gence, and especially spiritual intelli-gence, since that is what helps folks mostof all to harmonious living. Doubtlesswe are being trained for something ourearthly vision does not reach to, butwhile we are here our problems are thoseof our own day. The power of our suc-cessors to deal with affairs a generationor two hence will depend on how we dealnow with the matters of our own genera-tion. Nobody can tell us what life in theUnited States willbe like in the year 2000.That belongs to the incalculable. Imagi-native persons find pleasure in guessingat it. Pessimists see terrors ahead, opti-mists gain confidence from the Scrip-tured assurance-"Dwell in the land,and verily thou shalt be fed," but noneof us knows, and the only way to findout is to live on and see. Meanwhileit may be worth remarking that we areliving under the ministrations of a Presi-dent who comes from one of the threeStat~s in the Union whose populationhas been falling off.