Los Angeles herald., 1891-12-05
RESULT OF THE FAMINE.
AN Ex-pIPLoMATlsT PREDICTS cHoL-
ERA IN RUSSIA.
II May Extend, He Says, Over the Greater
Portion of the Continent Of Europe.
Something About Previous yisitations
of the Dread Disease.
Especial Correspondence.l

MEM 1Ohk, lNOf. e.--G1ukORC - Oh ohOCfC
Of the most terrible visitation Of cholera
known to modern history. 1t is the In
eyitable and natural consequence of the
appalling famine now raging in Russia,
and is destroying both man and beast by
the thousand. Ny own personal expe-
rience in India, China and Egypt, as well
as that of other persons far more compe-
tent than myself, has demonstrated that
every great famine of man is attended by
simultaneous famine of beast, which are
invariably followed first by an epidemic Of
bovine typhus, and secondly by an cpl
demic of Asiatic cholera. 1nasmuch as the
ravages of the latter are many hundred
and even thousand fold more extensive
than those of the famine, and proportion
ate thereto, the official announcement by
the Russian Senator Baranoff to the effect
that 81, ,OOO, 900 of moujiks are face to face
with starvation and perishing for lack of
food, may convey some faint notion of the
magnitude of the pestilence which threat
ems not only Russia, but also the whole of
Europe.
The responsibility of the famine and con-
seouently, also, of the outbreak Of cholera
that is regarded as absolutely certain to
follow in its train, lies at the doors of the
Russian government, which stands answer
able in the eyes of the civilized world for
every life that is lost either by starvation
or by the epidemic resulting therefrom.
Unlike other famines-such as those that
have witnessed in India and China, and
which are due to natural causes beyond
the reach of human control-the present
famine in Russia is attributable to pure
administrative origin and due altogether
to the shortsighted, intolerant and reac-
tionary policy of the czar's government.
l am perfectly aware that feeble attempt
has been made at st. Petersburg to saddle
the blame for the failure Of the crops on to
the back of worm. But utinvestigation has
proved that the worm in question has con-
fined its operations to the Jaroslav prov
ince, whereas the famine extends to no less
than twenty of the provinces.
The complete failure Of the crops in al
most every latitude and longitude of Euro
pean Russia is due neither to worms, nor
TO frosts, nor to lack of rain, but to the
fact that the fields have neither been titled
nor sown by the peasantry. The latter,
although drunken. british and incredibly
improvident, are not accountable for their
neglect in the matter. The government
has confiscated and sold for nonpayment
of taxes their agricultural implements, as
poultry-in one village alone, according to
the st. Petersburg Novoe Vremya, the tax
patherers seized every chicken in the place,
some 400 in all.
Moreover, they have no further means of
obtaining the seed necessary for the SOW
ing of their fields. Formerly they were
able to raise the cash requisite for its pur-
chase by pledging portion of the crop to
be grown therefrom. But since the cZar
inaugurated the present policy of persecu-
tion and expulsion of both Germans and
Hebrews, who were the only persons in
Russia possessing the means of loaning
money to the agricultural population, the
practice of mortgaginc ana discounting
the harvests in advance has necessarily
ceased When use the term agricultural
population l refer exclusively to the peas
antry, who enjoy practical monopoly of
husbandry. For since the emancipation
of the serfs nearly all the BARNES" and
landed proprietors have abandoned agri-
culture as an Improbable occupation, and
have either left their arabic property un-
cultivated or else have leased it to the
peasant 'mirs' or cummunes.
The present famine, therefore, with all
the appalling horror in its train is attrib-
utable not to causes of nature, but alto
gether to human agency in the person of
the czar By driving his Jewish and Ger
man subjects to seek refuge in foreign
countries, he has deprived Russian agri-
culture of the working capital indispensa-
Bile to it's existence, and cut off the peas
antry from their only means of obtaining
seed for sowing. While his obstinacy in
continuing to maintain standing army,
the peace footing of which exceeds a mil
lion men, has created such havoc with the
government finances, that his tax gather
ers have been forced to proceed to the fatal
extremity of seizing and selling the live
stock and agricultural implements of the
peasants-the implements OF the latter's
trade in fact-in order to secure at least a
portion of the imposts. and thereby to
remedy in measure the enormous annual
deficit in the national revenue.
Having thus briefly indicated the causes
of the famine, as we'll as the inevitable con-
sequences thereof, it may be Of interest to
mention few facts calculated to convey
TO the American people an idea of the mag
nitude of the scourge The great famine
in Ireland, which aroused the sympathy
of the entire civilized world, affected only
portion of people whose total number
does not exceed 5,000,0 200, whereas the pres
ent famine in Russia affects over 30, 100000,
which Is equivalent to half the population
of the United States. These figures are
rather below than above the truth; for
they have been published by the imperial
government as the result of the most care
full official investigation, and just at the
present moment, when Russia is with
much difficulty securing subscriptions at
Paris for her recently issued loan, it is un-
likely that any attempt would be made by
the authorities to paint the situation
blacker than it really is
Moreover, we are on the eve of winter
and OF Russian winter at that-which
means a terrible aggravation of the present
horrible state of affairs. Nor is there any
prospect Of any improvement, even next
year. For if the peasantry have nothing
with which to satisfy the cravings of their
hunger, they necessarily possess still less
the wherewithal to sow for next years
crops. The condition of Russia next year
is logically bound therefore to be infinitely
worse than at present. The harvest of 1892
will be still more complete failure than
that of 1891, since the area of land sowD
and put under cultivation will be i'm
measurably smaller, and what with yet
further augmented and aggravated famine,
together with cold and pestilence Russia
next year bids fair to become not merely a
blot upon modern civilization, for that dis
tinction she has already achieved, but the
charnel house Of the Old World
1t Is asserted that Prince Donduroff-
Korsakoff and many other members of the
nobility at st. Petersburg have, with the