[Footnote 1:  See above ch. 2, sec. 14; ch. 10, sec. 7; ch. 20, sec. 1; ch. 22, secs. 11-18.]

[Footnote 2:  The American Association for Labor Legislation has issued a pamphlet describing these features more in detail.]

[Footnote 3:  Thirteen states had, in 1916, state insurance funds, and, in five states (Oregon, Nevada, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming), they are the only insurance agencies allowed.]

[Footnote 4:  Ch. 22, secs. 14-18.]

[Footnote 5:  See examples in the lists of laws above cited, sec. 11.]

[Footnote 6:  See above, ch. 16, sec. 14.]

CHAPTER 24

POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION

Sec. 1.  Nature of the population problem.  Sec. 2.  Complexity of race problems.  Sec. 3.  Economic aspects of the negro problem.  Sec. 4.  Favorable economic aspects of early immigration.  Sec. 5.  Employers’ gains from immigration.  Sec. 6.  Pressure of immigration upon native wage-workers.  Sec. 7.  Abnormal labor conditions resulting from immigration.  Sec. 8.  Popular theory of immigrant competition.  Sec. 9.  Divergent views of effects on population.  Sec. 10.  The displacement theory; its fundamental assumption.  Sec. 11.  Magnitude of the inflow of immigrants.  Sec. 12.  Earlier and recent effects of immigration upon wages.  Sec. 13. Laissez-faire policy of immigration.  Sec. 14.  Social-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.