Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1884-10-30
impending Famine In Bengal.
Philadelphia American.

TdenS6ly pcoPiCO uAoellCt ID dDOul W
cause a famine. 1t is difficult, If not
IMPOSSIBLE, for an American to realize
aIl the horrors implied ia this bit of
news. Bengal, the afHicte. province,
* the most densely settled portion of
the r eninsula. 1t is exactly ten years
since it was thus desolated before. In
1874. it with the adjacent province of
Rebar) suffered more than it would
Il have endured in five years of desolat-
mo warfares. Its people died by mil
lions. as $4,000, 600 at least have died
in India since 1887. The ties of natural
affection were sundered; parents sold
their children for a few shilings, to
secure them a refuge and to prelong
their own lives for a few weeks of
hunper Others died in the last agonies
of slow starvation, while saving every
morsel of food for the little mouths
dependent on them. Children were
collected by relief agencies who had
been reduced to living skeletons for
want of food. In a word, more than
all the horrors our brave sailors had
to endure on the Greedy expedition
were inflicted on an entire population
greater than that of any European
Kingdom, except Russia. These
horrors were renewed in 1877-S in
The western parts of the peninsula,
nader the eyes of Miss Florence
Nightingale, who declares the official
figures as to loss of life fall far below
the facts
The English rulers Of India are re-
sponsible for all this They say they
are not to blame. They have given
the country peace, freedom of trade,
lust government and equal taxation.
Under these conditions, we are
told. population has increased, be-
cause two of the Malthusian checks
of growth war and pestilence--have
been held in obeyance Therefore the
third -famine-takes larger sweep.
The country is over populated, and
any failure of the periodical rains
plunges whole provinces into ruin"
In India, as in ireland, over-popula-
ton is held TO explain the failures OF
English economy. But India, like
Ireland, is food-exporting country,
and. therefore, cannot be oyer-popu-
lated. Just as in the the worst years
of Irish famine, great quantities OF
food were sent out of the country, so
in 1874 the export of grain and other
food went out from Calcutta, the chief
seaport OF the afflicted province. 1t
will be so this year also. The HindOo
produces hardly anything but food.
He has to deal with a government
which collects of him 20 per cent OF
his crop in taxes. This must be paid
in money, not, as the old government
were paid, in kind. He must export
enough or be evicted from his hold
ing, as no native government ever
evicted him. He also must export
food to pay for nearly all the manu-
featured goods he uses. India once
was the chief manufacturing country
in the world. Her delicate cotton
fabrics drew the European traders to
her shores as much as did her spices
and her precious stones, In some
parts of the country every man,
woman and child was engaged In this
industry, and great manufacturing
cities like Decca, with its so, 600 looms,
bestudded the land. Free trade has
DESTROYED all this English cottons
have supplanted the native goods,
and the country has been driven to
the land alone for employment ana
sustenance.
Under English free trade India,
like Ireland mas sunk to the bad level
of uniformity in industry. Her peo-
pie nearly al are engaged in raising
food. BY one of the strange paradox
es of political economy, it is people
so employed that invites the visit OF
famine. They have all their eggs IN
one basket, and when that falls they
are undone. A manufacturing coun-
try may have a failure OF ITS crops
without scarcity reaching the famine
point. 1t has other resources by whose
means it may invoke the assistance OF
other countries or of districts which
have a surplus of food. The Bengalese
have silver ornaments to fall back
upon, and when they are sold death
is at the door. They can not buy
food of Madras or the Mahratta prov
inces because they have nothing to
buy with. Those provinces must
sell to those who have the means to
buy.
1t is true, there is a special income
tax levied since 1871 for the creation
Of a famine relief fund. But this tax
has been as regularly diverted from
its proper object to pay the ordinary
expenses of the Indian government.
Lord I4ytton used it to pay the costs OF
the Afghan war. AS matters stand,
the East Indian government has no
surplus to expend on famine relief.
1t will be embarrassed by the impos.
sfbility of collecting the usual land
rent from the people Of the famine
stricken districts. 1t most probably
will be obliged to add the costs of fam
inc relief to the debt of India. As
this debt already amounts to $40
600, 600. and is a serious burden on the
resources of an impoverished country,
Indian fnanciers wish to avoid adding
penny to its weight. Whichever
way they may turn, the outlook IS
wretched one. Either they will let
the poor RIOTS die of hunger, as in past