The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-09-28
FAMINES.
why They are Confined to Food Producing

Countries.
1t has passed into proverb, says the
Chicago Times, that the wives of shoe
makers go barefoot, and that the chill
dren OF schoolmasters are not taught to
read. Still people marvel that terrible
famine should exist, as one does now in
India, in a portion of country almost en-
tirely devoted to producing articles of
human food. Strange as it may appear,
it is true that all the memorable famines
of modern times have occurred in coun-
tries or districts where producing food is
the leading occupation of the people.
The converse of this is also true, that no
widespread famine has existed in a
country where the majority of the people
are employed in manufacturing and COM
merce. There has been no distressing
scarcity of food in England for centuries,
though there have been numerous fam
ines in the countries from which that
nation imports her bread. There was
never a famine in Rhode Island, though
the State produces but three tenths OF a
bushel of wheat for each hundred people.
There have been two famines in Kansas,
however, though the State in 1869 pro-
duced 656 bushels Of wheat for every
hundred inhabitants.
Persia, where vast majority of the
people are engaged in farming and stock
raising, is Just recovering from famine
which destroyed millions. Some dis
tricts were almost entirely depopulated.
At the capital there were $4,000 deaths
from starvation and disease caused by
want. The population of one town in a
fruitful region fell from 10, 900 to 1000.
The number of deaths from starvation
was the smallest in the towns where
there was considerable manufacturing
and commerce. Ireland is almost en-
tirely devoted to agriculture. The soil
and climate are among the finest in the
world. Still a famine ragged there from
1916 to 1913, continuing even till 1851.
1t resulted in reducing the population
by death or exile nearly three millions.
India has been known as the granary of
the world for a thousand years. Still
famines are of very frequent occurrence
there. In the province of Bengal in 1885
over half a million of people died of hun
ger. The famines in India have beer
restricted to the regions from which food
is ordinarily exported.
1t is somewhat easy, after all, to ex
plain why famines are limited to food
producing regions The people, hope
full of regular crops, neglect to keep {
larger supply than will tide them over
till the time of the next harvest. If they
have surplus money to invest, they lay
it out in land, stock, or farming utensils
A season come when crops do not mature
They have nothing to eat and no way o
turning their labor to any account. Few
individuals, and no communities, ar,
able to live year on accumulated wealth
that can be converted into money o.
food. In community largely made VI
of persons engaged in manufacturing
and commerce there is comparatively
little danger of being thrown entirely
out of employment. If there is no marke
for goods in one place there is in an
other. There is never time when Their,
is not a surplus of products in one place
and scarcity in another, so as to rem
der transportation necessary and profit
able. Hence it is that famines arr
scarcely possible in districts and coun
tries where there is variety of indus
tries, as in England, France, and Swift
zerland.