Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-03-06
FAMINE IN INDIA.

The brief telegram which announced yes
terday that the villagers of Eastern Tirhoot
are slowly starving to death, shows that the
terrible swoop of famine has at length de-
scended upon Bengal. To realize what fam
inc means in district like Tirhoot, take the
following details about it: 1t has an area
of 6,343 square miles-or about one fifth less
than the State Of Massachusetts. 1t has a
population of 4 1897 ,000-or just about equal
to the population of this State, and these peo-
pie cover the soil in the proportion Of 700 to
the square mile. Let famine once get hold of
this dense mass of human beings, and it is in
evitable that pestilence should come in its
train. Previous to the organization made in
view of the impending famine, Tirhoot formed
one administrative district, in which the Brit
ish power was represented by seven civil
Judges. fifteen Magistrates, and $50 Police Of
all grades. The ruler of this populous prin-
cipality was young district officer of twelve
years service, at a salary Of $l4 900 year.
For famine purposes, however, Tirhoot has
been placed under two district officers, the
rest of the administrative machinery remain
ing apparently unchanged.
This presents as good an illustration as
could be given of the slender organization on
which the British Government must depend
for the execution of work of relief of quite
unprecedented magnitude. When we hear
about the Governor General being expected
to do great things, and the new Secretary of
State being looked to for efficient corpora
ton, we have to remember that it is upon the
activity and energy of already overweighted
district officers like those of Tirhoot that they
must lean at last. No analogy drawn from
the relief of starving people in great cities
will fit the case. 1t 10 strictly rural popula'
ton that has to be dealt with, for, of all the
twenty six millions whom famine must inevi-
tably visit, there are only half q million who
live in towns having over 5000 inhabitants,
and the largest city of the parched-up land
is Patna, with little over l50.O 900 inhabitants.
What are called the seriously distressed dis
tricts" cover an area just about equal to that
of the State of New York. They form, per-
haps, the most thickly -peopled agricultural
country in the world-the average density
being about 500 to the square mile. For pur-
poses of food distribution, railroads may be
said to have no existence; the long drought
mas uIleO up tle etEeAms auu IA TIC Ue&StS
of burden are to be kept alive, they must be
fed on imported fodder, and that requires dis
tribution, too. Thousands Of people might
perish in such district with plenty of food
stored within few miles of them. The Gov
eminent is expected to do, practically, every
thing, for the native rice dealers are shutting
up shop already, and the price will shortly be
too high for any class save the rich to pur-
chase. In that country where daily wages
must be measured by cents, and not by dol
lars, the difference of q few cents on the
pound of rice describes the interval between
abundance and enforced starvation. The total
failure of the crops like the present, prevents
the zemindars, or landholders, from receiving
their dues from the farmers, and of course
prevents the latter from employing or paying
for labor. Hence the sources of Government
revenue are dried up, private earnings cease,
and the whole machinery of daily business
comes to q deadlock.
The Indian Government has carte blanche
in the matter of spending money; but with all
the means of transport broken down, and with
three ftths of the population consisting of
women and helpless children, who must be
fed, if anywhere. att their homes, there are
difficulties in the case which even money can
not completely overcome. 1t is equally nee
essary for the Government to supply public
works, on which to employ those who are fit
for labor, as 1t is to feed the starving popula-
ton. 1t would be nearly as inhuman to give
several millions of able-bodied men the habit
of helpless dependence upoa Government
charity as it would be to leave them to starve.
The 'labor test" as it is called, requires
nearly as much ingenuity to carry out as the
business of distributing food among the needy
majority of a population as large as that of all
our States east Of the Mississippi. 1t is inn
possible that the work should be done thor.
oughly enough to avert any disaster. rep
etition of the terrible scenes in Orissa will
doubtless be avoided but it is impossible to
view without apprehension the struggle
which seems to have begun between the awful
power of famine, and the thinly-spread though
thoroughly disciplined army of Europeans to
whom India and the civilized world look to