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THE UTILITY OF COMMON STATISTICS 19
published writings. Others of our Jeading public men
and economists are also deeply impressed by the fact,
though it is considered almost too delicate for public
discussion. There can be no doubt, however, of the
formidable nature of the problem. India has now on
its 1,400,000 square miles of territory a population of
240 mi1lions-I am dealing in round figures-or about
170 to the square mile: not an excessive proportion
according to formal comparisons with other countries,
but if! reality leaving the people no margin. I t appears,
from the most careful studies, that whatever the number
of people to the square mile, there is very little new and
fertile soil to appropriate j that much soil has been so
appropriated dur.ing the last century of our rule j and
that the population continues to grow fast without any
. increase of the land revenue, or any other sign that
land is being rapidly taken into cultivation-with signs,
on the contrary, of exhaustion in the agriculture, and of
an approach to the limits of production according to
the means at the disposal of the population. So much.
is more or less accurately known by statisti~s; and of
the cardinal fact-the magnitude and increase of the
population-it is statistics from which we learn every-
thing. The broad figures are here not so clear as they
might be, because improved methods in taking the
censuses have from time to time revealed larger popula-
tions than could be accounted for by taking the totals
of one previous census and adding the probable or
possible increase of population meanwhile; but of the
actual fact of increase between two census periods there
is no doubt, while the rate of increase, if we are suc-
cessful in coping with famines, proves to be nearly
I per cent. per annum. In ten years, therefore, there
will be 20 millions more people in India to fe~dj in
twenty years upwards of 40 millions more; and the
problem thus brought before the Indian Government is
an what way and by what means so to develop the char-
acter of the people that their industry may become more
efficient upon practically the same soil. Failing any