The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1877-09-20
The .Anti-MonopoliSt.

@-@0 Z - -
are entirely dependent upon the crops
for subsistence, while One-third at
least, live from hand to mouth, never
a month before the world, and usually
in a condition which in this country
would be described as one Of extreme
and dangerous restitution. Even
among them there is a ''residum,
still more deplorably situated. There
are at least 100000 of persons in the |
Madras Presidency whose whole |
property, including their clothes. |
would not in a good year sell for ten
shillings, who are absolutely depend |
ent for subsistence upon minute pay
ments in kind or an almost impercept- |
icle share in a small crop, and who in
year Of drought. when the crop is
dead and the grain wages unprocura-
BILE, have literally nothing but their
WaistclOths, could Motive use the
words in their most literal and dread
full meaning--keep themselves alive
forty-eight hours without assistance
from the state. Owing partly to his
tOrlc circumstances, partly to race
peculiarities, but principally to the
long prevalence OF the worst land
tenure ever devised by the wit Of man
"a tenure that seems to economists
to have been invented by some social
ist in a fit of delirium--they have
lived for generations in such poverty,
under SO near an approach to actual
hunger, that they have no stamina.
and perish under any new burden like
insects in rain or fish in an accident
ally poisoned river. They ''tend to
death, the pitying but worn-out sur
geons say. These are the people al
ready applying for relief, and if the
illustrated London News could but
publish photographs of any ten Of the
thousands of groups collected at the
relief centres, or, the worst place OF
all, the neighborhood of Madras City,
all England will flush with anger
rather than vince with pain, from in
ability to conceive that the govern
ment could be guiltless and Provi-
dence alone responsible for such
despairing misery.
Upon this population; these 10000,
900, already SO tried that they sell
their poor jewels, their sole surplus,
at the rate Of $50 900 a month, by the
Mint accounts alOne--upOn the 3,OOO,-
600 more who have passed this stage.
have sold all, and are giving up the
struggle--upon this l 900, 200, who have
given it up already, and are waiting
death by disease in the vast encamp
ments fed by the state, there is about
to descend the unspeakable horror fol
a second year of want-six more
months at least during which nothing
will be attainable, not even grass, eX
: cept from the State aims. There il
no wealth in the Madras Presidency
as Englishmen understand wealth
| and there never has been any. Por
J tugal. the Canton of nterWalden. The
t Circle Of Archangel, the Scottish
Orkneys are we'll off beside Bellary
) The State is rich, and the State mus
: do all, under conditions which ma,
! we'll make Secretary of State feel q
if he could no longer understand Wha
S hope was. The new famine distric
S is not a province, it is a continent
t The villages are scattered, the popula
sion thin, the people. as Professo
f Monier Williams recently painte,
them, though Industrious, energetic
t There is not one great and navlgabl
/ river. There is throughout but Oh
: railway, and in districts like king
5 doms no railways at all. There az
1 few roads worthy of the name. A
I Lord Salisbury expressly mentions
food, if sent to the villages, must b
:, sent in carts drawn by oxen, whic
t eat nearly all they carry. and cal
V not under any urgency go Steadll
d twenty miles a day, and even that e,
G hausting and wasteful device is prol
+ ably beyond the power of the govern
D ment to adopt.
e In the famine-stricken district
Y there are no cattle left. Their fodde
persisted first, and the few beasts sti
q left alive are, as Mr.. Williams d.
l. scribed them months ago, far TIC
J. weak for draught. The government
G no doubt. could send down Thousand
l. of the beautiful cattle of the nortl
l. beasts that would excite the pride
S Lombard landlord but they cannt
e live on air. they can barely carry the
e own food-recollect their pace an
e that they have to return-and the
5. cannot. even to save human life, |
Z uScu do 1DOt. LttI IIlp uN lllp WOul
rise in insurrection at the thought {
such unholy diet. There is nothin
for it but ''relief centres and reli,
IS centres under such circumstance
st imply bursts Of depopulating diseas
is let any soldier acquainted with camI
G think of encampments with 5000
r souls in each-men, women. and chi
a dren-all arriving half-fed. and Twin
a on half rations. stationed by stream
FL and tanks for the sake of waite
o scarcely housed, and living amid tro
e ical odors and miasnas, and he.
le least. will recognize all the elemen
S of the new disease which first struc
Lord Hastings camps in the Pinda
lie rec war. and has ever since terrific
v the world as Asiatic cholera. II
). prospect is appalling, but if the secor
y year of famine falls-and Lord Sail
/, bury believes it to be falling thel
II is no remedy that man can apply. "
FL