Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-09-22
India and American Wheat Interests.

The Washington Post publishes London
cablegram of the 18th instant, which refers
to the bearing the wheat of India will have
upon our interests, and the wheat export
trade of the United States. We produce
it not only for the information furnished Of
the financial affairs of India in connection
with its wheat-production, but because il
confirms the views and representations made
in several recent issues of the SPECTATOR
in relation to the prospective value of oul
present crop and the future of wheat. culture
in this country
"The existing tension in the relations Of
Russia with England, arising from the
Bulgarian question, gives great acuteness to
the financial difficulties of the Indian Gov.
eminent 1t is to these difficulties we eve
the appointment of a royal commission on
the currency. The fall in silver has brought
the Indian Government within measure
BILE distance of catastrophe described by
competent observers in England and India
as the severest in the history of the Anglo
Indian empire. The warnings given by
Sir James Card, the eminent Scotch Liberal
and famous agriculturist, who was sent out
eight years ago to inquire into the financial
prospects of India and the causes of the In
dian famine, are now commanding alarming
attention even from Indian officials. Card
at that time summed up the Indian situa.
ton in these ominous words: "There are
more people every year to feed from the
land which in many parts of India is under.
going gradual deterioration" He then
pointed out that while wages rose at the
centres of Indian industries, they did not
rise in agricultural India, the result being
"the Indian agriculturalist gets the same
dole out of the land that ne did in the last
generation. Numbers of such people are
increasing and their condition is becoming
every day more desperate"
Eight years of dread have passed since
these words were written, and now, thanks
in part to the fall in silver and the drain
from India to England-which in 1874 was
500, 600, 900 annually, and has now risen
to, or nearly to quite $500, 000. 000-her con,
dition is deplorable.
An important work by Hyndman, which
will appear tomorrow, entitled "The Bank.
ruptcy of India" clearly sets forth that at
the present time 224, 10000 of people are
| living in India on the produce of 148, 900,
600 Of acres of land; statement which
shows that India, so far from being able
with advantage to herself to throw hel
grain into competition in England with the
grain of the Western States of America, il
actually unable to feed her own people ade
quately; her great and growing grain ex.
port being drawn from her to meet her vast
and ever increasing liabilities to England,
and giving no commercial returns to the
| Indian people Of any class. In this situa-
ic1 ubotn for,
| taxation in India, and it is officially an.
nounced that the burdens imposed on the
Indian Government by the Burmese war and
by the threatening attitude of Russia at the
present moment cannot be met by taxation.
The relief expected from the remonetiza-
ton of silver by England, or by an interna
tional agreement, cannot, therefore, in the
Judgment of men we'll informed on Indian
affairs, come day too soon to mitigate the
pressure which is beginning to exasperate
the Indian population, and which threatens
the fabric of British dominion more serious
ly than anything since. the outbreak of the
mutiny of 1857.
Navronji, the ablest living Parsee finan-
ciers Of India, is now in London, brought
hither by the stringency of the existing
situation, to urge upon the imperial Gov
eminent the Importance of action. By his
elaborate calculations he shows that the
value of the productions of the Punjaub,
one of the most fertile provinces in India, is
at the outside twenty rupees, or ten dollars
American money, per head per annum.-
These figures tell their own tale, which is
further illustrated by the statement that,
while the common price of grain in the
southern States of America on which the
free negro laborer is fed is the same as that
of the Indian laborer, the average wage OF
the negro laborer in the South is eight times
that of the Indian laborer.
Lord Rosebery, who is going to India in
October, Informed me yesterday of his in
tention to make personal investigation
into these conditions of the Indian problem
which, in the language of Robert Griffin,
head statistician of the Board of Trade,
make the solution increasingly dangerous.
The facts which have cited show the i'm.
portance of this problem to our own wheat
growers of the West the enforced export Of
Indian wheat to England having been the
leading factor during the last four years on
the face of prices which has so injuriously
affected the great West.