The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1883-10-18
The Rural Masses In China.


persons, owns an acre and half of
land. The land was bought by the
grandfather of the present head and has
never been subdivided since nor added
to. He grows about seventy bushels of
rice and thirty-iivc of wheat and some
vegetables and cotton besides, worth
altogether i'll money about fifty dollars.
He has two nephcws who work outside
and bring home something to help, and
in that way they get along, but they
are very poor. He pays Government
land tax to the extent of one dollar and
fifty cents year. He and all his
ncighbOrs wear native blue cloth, spun
and wove in the family by the women
from cotton grown by themselves. He
never wore foreign cotton. The coat
he had on Ga wcll-worn affair." had been
made two years previously, and it would
last two years more. 1t served him at
night as coverlet as well as IL coat by
day.
Another family owned four acres odd,
only part Of which was suitable for rice
culture. Their income was about eighty
bushels of wheat and one hundred and
fifty of rice, about fourth of which
they could usually sell. They paid
something over three dollars year as
Government land tax. They also grew
more cotton than they could use, and
sold every year about ten dollars worth.
They were better off than some of their
ncighbors, but never saved any money.
They had fifteen mouths TO feed.
The foregoing cases are given because
they represent fairly the average con-
dition to be found in rural China. The
greater number of cultivatOrs belong to
the class of tenants. Some say the
proportion of tenants to peasant prOpri-
etorS is as seven to three; others put it
as three to two; but, whether tenant or
proprietor the condition of the culti-
vator is much the samc-that is, it rare
" rises above what is just enough for
the bare ncceSsarieS of life. Ny own
observations have been mostly confined
to this and adjoining provinces, and !
exclude the cultivators of tea, silk and
opium, who, growing II commodity
more and more in demand and easily
tranSportable, are in Il far better posi-
ton than the ordinary peasant but
speaking for the greater part of China,
] believe | am not Oycrstating the case
in saying that for the working agricult-
ural masses it is a daily hand-to-hand
struggle with want. In succession of
good years they are very comfortable,
they have enough to eat and to wear,
and they have few other wants; but
population is ever increasing up to the
food limit, and when bad year or two
comes they die off by hundreds of thou
sands.
Two or three causes may readily be
named as having mainly conduccd to
this state of things which are
generally to be found among Asiatic
races. The rule prohibiting the devolu-
ton of property by WILL and making
division compulsory among all male
children, tends readily to reduce all
holdings to minimum-that is, to the
very lowest quantity out of which it is
possible to make u living. Here, as
everywhere else, energy and good luck
raise individuals to position of wealth,
who may. if they choose, become large
landowners; but in the course of few
generations this universal equalizer,
aided by the apathy of the ordinary
Chinese when in comfortable circum-
stances, will have reduced things to the
former dead level. Another equally
potent factor is the habit of too early
marriages. Parents deem it Il religious
duty TO provide matches for their chill
dren as soon rs they are of marriagcablc
years, and the young people go TO the
altar in much the same way as they 60
to school in Europe. 1t never occurs to
them to ask first whether they have the
means to marry or whether there will
H., 30, hn h. ,nt
come afterward The evil is further
aggravated by the joint family system,
which takes the responsibility Oft ones
own shoulders and puts it Jointly on
that of half-a-dozen others. When 4
man knows that he will get an equal
share of what is going, whether he earns
it or no, and that the benefit of his deny
ing himself any particular indulgence
will accrue to others as well as himself.
great motive for thrift is withdrawn.
In one respect the Chinese peasant is
in Il better position than the Indian
rvot; he is not in debt to money-lenderS.
But do not know that that is virtue
for which he is entitled to much credit,
for there is no class of money-lenders
to whom he could get in debt. Indeed,
am not sure that he is not thereby in
Il less advantageous position, for when
hard years come he has no means of
pledging his property. which, if he
could, might save him from sheer
starvation.
1t is a melancholy thought, but it
seems inevitable, both in the case of the
Chinese and Indian peasant, that the
great bulk should necessarily be in a
state of constant poverty. The food
production is limited. A good, stable
Government may remove many natural
checks on the latter, with the object of
improving the condition of the people;
but it is doubtful if that is any real
kindness. 1t only postpones the incv-
liable, and drives them on to another
check all the more terrible because de-
layed. Emigration and self-restraint,
the only true remedies, are hopeless in
dealing with an ignorant population
counted by hundreds of millions
Cor. London Times.