Population Problems. by Warren S. ThompsonReview by: Louis I. DublinJournal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 26, No. 174 (Jun., 1931), pp. 220-221Published by: American Statistical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2277777 .

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220 American Statistical Association [10o

REVIEWS

Population Problems, by Warren S. Thompson. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. 1930. 462 pp. Professor Warren S. Thompson is probably the best informed of the students

of population problems in the United States. For a number of years, he has been the Director of the Scripps Foundation for Research in Population Problems and with his associate, Dr. Whelpton, has made significant contributions to our knowledge in this field. He has enjoyed unrivalled opportunities to observe conditions at first hand in various parts of the world and to collect information in many of the danger spots of the world's population. An excellent background of training, observation and years of thoughtful study are all reflected in the volume before us. It will prove indispensable to those who work in the field of demography and it will be many a year before it is superseded. It does credit to American scholarship.

This book is a large one. There are twenty-five chapters and a fairly complete bibliography. The first four chapters are general and historical in character and give the background for the later discussion of current population problems. Emphasis is placed on the contribution of Malthus and the influence of his thinking on the writers of the last century. Chapter five is an excellent dis- cussion of the structure of population. Chapters six to eight discuss the birth rate and the factors in its current tendency to decline. Chapter nine is on the death rate. Chapters eleven and twelve discuss the factors in population growth. Chapter thirteen is concerned with the future growth of population in the United States. Chapters fourteen and fifteen consider agriculture, industry and commerce in relation to population growth. Chapters sixteen, seventeen, eighteen and nineteen consider the city as a population center and its influence on the life of the people. Chapters twenty and twenty-one consider the eugenic aspects of the population. Chapters twenty-two and twenty-three consider the relation of population to international politics. Chapters twenty-four and twenty-five close the book with a consideration of the factors in the control of population growth and discuss the idea of an optimum population.

The subject-headings of these chapters clearly indicate the inclusive scope of the volume. Professor Thompson has combed the literature and has assiduously organized his information on population problems the world over. The book will, therefore, be extremely useful to the general reader who may wish to find a thoughtful discussion of the main topics in this field. To the special student who will take the necessary time to work his way through the volume, it will give a comprehensive grasp of an important field of knowledge which at this time is particularly alive with human interest. The volume does more than present the basic facts of population. It ties them up closely to the everyday life of people, to the- current economic forces and in particular to the political relations of na- tions. It should help to develop sound international thinking and to simplify

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107] Reviews 221

the solution of many problems which worry Geneva and the chancelleries of the world. Dr. Thompson is a realist. He knows how troublesome relations be- tween countries often arise because of population pressure, through the lack of natural resources and because of the arrogance of so-called superior races to those less fortunate. In all of these matters, he shows a generosity of feeling and a broad point of view. The book should have a marked influence in spread- ing a liberal internationalism.

It may seem ungracious to call attention, in a book as useful as this one, to some features which one might wish to see changed in a future edition. There is some discontinuity of treatment in various places in the text. For example, one wonders why Professor Thompson introduced the discussion of the Negro in the United States, as chapter ten. It stands in the way of the following chapters on population growth. This and a few similarly misplaced chapters suggest that the book would have been better if it had been somewhat less discursive. But this is a defect of a virtue rather than of a vice. There is also some difficulty resulting from the author's desire to play up the United States and at the same time maintain a broad international viewpoint. It would have been better, perhaps, to have maintained the international point of view throughout and to have discussed the United States briefly as illustrative of general principles. One also gets the impression, in a few chapters, of rather hasty writing although nowhere is the sense obscure or the reading difficult. It is, however, just as well to have the volume at this time and to look for more polish and careful rewriting in a later edition.

Louis I. DUBLIN

Religious Bodies: 1926. Bureau of the Census. Washington, D. C.: United States Government Printing Office. 1930. 2 vols. This decennial report follows those of 1906 and 1916 with respect to the source

of information, namely the local churches. These are also the basic units of the enumeration. They are defined as local groups with a religious purpose and a distinctive membership, whether they call themselves churches, chapels, congregations, meetings, societies, stations, or by some other name.

The statistics here given relate to the year 1926 or to the church record year most nearly conforming to the end of that year. They were obtained from per- sons connected with the local church organizations, and include, besides the number of live churches with their membership, statistics of church edifices and parsonages, value of property and debt on same, expenditures classified under two heads-local expenses, and benevolences missions, denominational support, etc.-and Sunday schools conducted by the focal churches.

For the first time churches were separated in the tabulation into two groups; urban (in cities or other incorporated places of 2,500 or over), and rural (outside such incorporated places).

In 1916 two schedules were used, one for churches and one for ministers. In 1926 these were combined in one, and the clergy enumerated were counted only if they were pastors (or assistant pastors) of churches. The facts called for on each schedule were: number of members, distributed by sex and age (below and

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