RANSVESTIA

clear out of a nightmare, isn't it? You've all experienced shortages of various things. Those of you who lived during the war years with rationing and all of its problems remember what it was like not to be able to pick and choose at your own discretion what you wanted to eat. It wasn't fun, but we all got along because the war-caused shortages were expected, planned for and in a good cause that we all supported, namely winning the war. So we all made do with what we could get when we could get it and many of us supplemented that with Victory Gardens. But let's look at the possibilities of the near future.

The world is different today from what it EVER was before. We are not just in the middle of one of those periodic slumps, recessions or whatever term you prefer to use, that have come and gone over the years of your lifetime. They caused some minor inconveniences, the stock market went down, there was a rise in unemployment and things weren't as good as they used to be but we all felt underneath it all that it was just a matter of outliving it and the natural forces would gradually straighten things out and we all of us and the country at large could go on to making things, bigger, faster, more efficient, more fun, better than anyone else could make, and in greater quantity. Well usually that happened and it tends to make us think that it always will. But will it? As I said the world today is unlike any other period in man's history and the factors at work and the developments likely to occur will not be just a repeat of the fall of Rome or the Middle Ages or the Depression-Reconstruction period after the Civil War or even the Great Depression of 1929-35. Consider a moment!

The world's biggest problem is over-population, not oil, not fall- ing stock markets, not unemployment but just too damn many people. Not too many because there isn't room to stand but because there isn't food enough to eat. Too many of the poorer countries don't know how to control births and what's more don't want to do so. Those under Catholic influence are influenced by the Church not to practice it. Other countries like India, Bangladesh and elsewhere have other philosophical-religious reasons not to do so. Thus they are growing at a fabulous rate. Faster than other aspects of the economy can keep up. For example, Egypt had Russia build the high dam at Aswan. I've seen it, it is impressive, it backs up a big lake with lots of water and it has put a lot more acreage under cultivation than before it was built. But what was predicted at the time has come to pass. The increased productive land has not improved the total situation one bit. All it has done has been to put off a catastrophe a little longer. The population

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