The Wichita daily eagle., 1891-11-21
Especial CORRESPONDENTS

of the Dread Disease.
Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, Nov. Europe is on the eve
of the most terrible visitation of cholera
known to modern history. 1t is the in
} evitable and natural consequence of the
! appalling famine now raging in Russia,
and is destroying both man and beast by
the thousand. My 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 a
| simultaneous famine of beast, which are
invariably followed first by an epidemic of
bovine typhus, and secondly by an epi-
demic of Asiatic cholera Inasmuch 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 100000 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-
sequently, 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
ly administrative origin and due altogether
to the shortsighted, intolerant and reac-
tionary policy of the cars government.
/ 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 investigation 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. az
well as their horses, cattle, sheep, pigs and
poultry-in one village alone, according to
the st. Petersburg Novoe Vremya, the tax
gatherers seized every chicken in the place,
some 400 in all
Moreover, they have no further means of I
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-
ton and expulsion of both Germans and !
Hebrews, who were the only persons in |
Russia possessing the means of loaning
money tothe agricultural population, the |
practice of mortgaging and discounting |
the harvests in advance has necessarily |
ceased. Vixen use the term agricultural |
population l refer exclusively to the peas |
antry, who enjoy a 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 1
the car BY driving his Jewish and Ger |
man subjects 20 seek refuge in foreign |
-. L
culture Of the working capital indispensa-
bic to its existence, and cut off the peas 4
antry from their only means of obtaining |
seed for sowing. While his obstiuacy in /
TO maintain a 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 1
peasants-the implements of the latter's 1
trade in fact-in order to secure at least a |
portion Of the impOsts, and thereby to 1
remedy in a measure the enormous annual 1
deficit in the national revenue.
Having thus briefly indicated the causes
OF the famine, As well as the inevitable con-
sequences thereof, il may be of interest to |
mention few facts calculated TO convey 1
70 the American peSI.le an idea of the mag
nitude of the seourEe. The great famine 4
In Ireland, which aroused the sympathy /
of the entire civilized world, affected only /
a portion of a people whose total number 4
does not exceed 5000. 900. whereas the pres
ent famine iu Russia affects over 50. .ooo. .oO0,
which is equivalent TO half the population 1
OF the United States. These figures are
rather below than above the truth; for 4
they have been published by the imperial 4
government as the result of the most care
ful official investigation, and just SIS the 1
present moment, when Russia is with 1
much difficulty securing subscriptions at 1
Paris for her recently issued loan, it is un- |
likely that any attempt would be made by 4
the authorities co paint the situation /
blacker than it really is.
Moreover. we are on the eve Of winter