Excerpt from Readings in Social Problems: Edited With an Introduction In the long run the basic social problem is that of population. Economically the most fundamental relation is that between man and natural resources. The laws governing that relation must be understood and reckoned with first of all, in theories of social progress or in plans for the lasting improvement of the condi tion of the people. If these natural laws, whatever they may be, are not taken into consideration, every plan and ideal for human betterment runs the risk of impracticability, or else of being brought to naught even after it has seemingly realized its pur pose. The nature of natural resources sets a limit, albeit an elastic one, to man's productivity - a limit which may be at a given time and place so highly elastic or so far in the future that it does not seem a reality, but at another place or time may prove to be a very present fact. No principle of economic science is better established than that sooner or later with in creasing population the law of diminishing returns will assert itself in a way that will demand changes in economic, social, and political policies, if the average material well-being of a people is not to be brought to a standstill or actually to go backward. Moreover, a certain level of material wealth is a pre requisite to even a moderate development of the cultural and spiritual content of life. Failure or unwillingness, therefore, to consider the limitation placed upon the material basis of progress by a strictly limited supply of land, and the increasing difficulty of securing the food, raw materials, and power requisite to the needs of an expanding population, can be attributed only to ingrained preconception and prejudice. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.