The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-10-19


A family, c. D., consisting Of eight
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
10. He grows about seventy bushels of
rice and thirty-five of wheat and some
vegetables and cotton besides, worth
altogether in money about fifty dollars.
He has two nephews 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 end
fifty cents year. He and all his
neighbors 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 well-worn affair." had been
made two years previously, and it would
last two years more, 1t served him at
night as a coverlet as well as 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 a 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
neighbors, 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-
stors is rs sevAn to three; others put it
IS three to tvs; but, whether tenant or
proprietor, tn. condition of the cult
vator is much the same-that is, it rare
" rises above What is just enough for
the bare necessaries of life. My own
observations have been mostly confined
to this and adjoining provinces, and /
exclude the cultivators of tea, silk and
opium, who, growing q commodity
more and more in demand and easily
transportable, are in q far better posi-
ton than the ordinary peasant; but
speaking for the greater part of China,
[ believe / am not overstating the case
in saying that for the working agricult-
ural masses it is a daily hand-to-hand
struggle with want. In a 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 conduced to
this state of things-causeS which are
generally to be found among Asiatic
races. The rule prohibiting the devolu-
ion of property by will, and making
division compulsory among all male
children, tends readily to reduce all
holdings to a minimum-that is, to the
very lowest quantity out of which it is
possible to make 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
maria res. Parents deem it religious
luty to provide matches for their chill
1ren as soon as they are of manageable
years, and the young people go to the
altar in much the same way as they go
TO school in Europe. 1t never occurs to
them to ask first whether they have the
means to marry or whether there will
be enough to fill the mouths that may
come afterward. The evil is further
aggravated by the joint family system,
which takes the responsibility off ones
own shoulders and puts it jointly on
that of half-a-dozen others. When a
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 better position than the Indian
ryot; he is not in debt to money-lenders.
Dub uo Iot hho" tIidt 10 q VII tue
for which he is entitled to much credit,
for there is no class of money-lenders
to whom he could get in debt. Indeed,
I am not sure that he is not thereby in
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 postppnes the inev-
table, 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
Car London Times