The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-11-12
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
Cause of the Russian Famine.

The common saying, IF it had been
a snake it would have bitten him.
could hardly be better applied than to
the failure of w. Z. Edgar, in his arti-
Gle on ''Russia's Land System; The
Cause of the Famine" published in the
July Forum, to discover the real cause
of suffering among the Russian peas
antry. Doubtless shiftlessness has had
something to do with the famine; igno-
rance of improved methods of produc-
ton has had something to do with it;
the money lenders, the petty officials,
and the small traders, all have had
something to do with it. But these are
effects of an anterior cause, and SO far
as they themselves are causes at all,
they are secondary and quite superb
cial. 1t is not remarkable, perhaps,
that man who, in these days of tele-
graphs, cables, railroads, steamer lines,
commerce, and banking, thought it
necessary to load a special ship with a
special consignment of food for t.ans-
portation from America to Russia, in
order to relieve the Russian peasantry,
should look no deeper than the outward
appearance of things for an explanation
of the famine, and wholly ignore its
great fundamental cause, though in
Russia the cause lies nearer to the sur
face than in any other country, Ireland,
perhaps, excepted Mr. Edgar really
touches upon and describes this cause,
but with no more consciousness of its
significance than a plow-horse has of
the relation of the implement he draws
through the soil in spring to the corn
he eats in winter.
Mr.. Edwards notices the existence in
Russia of ''lords of the land" possess
ing individually thousands upon thou
sands of acres; but from that pregnant
fact he draws no other inference re-
garding the famine than that it is
largely due to the habit of these 'lords
of the land" since the abolition of serf-
dom, of living in cities and towns far
away from their estates, and forgetful
of the interests of their child-like peas
antry. And now that 1.-THE lord of the
land has returned to his former serfs
and interested himself in their welfare"
Mr.. Edgar supposes that, admonished
by the long black winter of starvation
now about to end, each class will in fu-
ture appreciate leach others value"
But he fears that if 'the peasants well
fare should be again neglected by his
traditional protector, his prospects for
the future are dark indeed"
How an intelligent man could thus
come face to face with the relations of
the landowning to the peasant classes
of Russia without asking himself in
what way the lord of the land is valua-
bic to the peasantry. and by what token
he is able to be their protector. passes
all comprehension. Granted that the
peasant is shiftless; so is the lord of the
land. Granted that the peasant is ig-
norant of improved methods of produc-
ton; SD is the lord of the land. Grant
ed that the peasant is extravagant and
wasteful; the lord of the land is more
so. But the peasant, though he works,
famishes for want of what work pro-
duces; while the lord of the land, with
out working, lives in luxury upon the
fruits of work. If the peasant were not
plundered by the lord of the land, what
power would the lord of the land have
to relieve him? Sixteen-string Jack
stole guineas before he distributed shil-
lings.
How can idleness relieve industry I'M
less it first robs industry? That is a
question which Mr.. Edgar has never put
to himself, or he would have seen in
this 'lord of the land" whose pity for
furnishing serfs has so deeply touched
him, the real underlying cause of the
Russian famine-The Standard.