The Portland daily press., 1897-01-15
FAMINE RELIEF WORK IN INDIA.
Its Enormous Difficultias-some Records
of Famines in Days Past.
(From the New York Observer. J

With an overorowded population OF
200, oo0, 600 of peasants whose annual
supply of food depends upon a rainfall
subject 10 decided irregularities, 1T IL
inevitable that India should suffer from
frequent and destructive famines. Me-
neurological observations have disclosed
no rule of periodioity In these failures OF
rainfall by which seasons of drouth can
be forecast with certainty. They have,
on the other hand esta blished the TACT
that the fall is never cit h or deficient or
excessive in any single year throughout
theswhole ofaTndia. There is thus always
a reserve of food supply in some part OF
its area, which may be drawn upon for
use in the needy districts. 1t has been
discovered, too, that winters marked by
an excessive snowfall in the Himalayas
are always followed by diminished sum
msr rainfall, generally in Northern In
dia, but sometimes in other portions OF
the greatsspeninsula. Apart from these
few facts gathered within the past
quarter of century, there is little datr
from which seasons of drouth may be
forecast, though 1t is known that
drouth, once begun, generally extends
over two or more years. The approach
of scarcity can be determined only in the
year in which 1t actually OCCURS and by
n system of 0bser vations beginning with
the June rainfall and continuing until
the autumn has made certain an in
sufficient supply for the winter crops.
Of the extent of the suffering from
drouth and crop failure in the Asiatie
world western peoples have but faint
conception. In the great drouth in
northern China in 1s77-1s7s no Less than
8, 500, 900 persons persisted; and although
during the present century at least no
single famine in India has attained that
magnitude, it Is estimated that in the
score or more disasters of the kind which
have occurred, between 100000 and
20, 900, 600 lives have besn lost. That
which began in 1873 and culminated in
1877 was the most prolonged and destruc-
tive, resulting i'll the death of 8, 800. GOO
persons. In 1866 a third of the popula-
tion of 5000, GOO starved to death in
Orissa, and in 186S-1870 about !, 300. coo
died from want in Rajputnna. The
| C15
was huge calamity and the Bherar
drouth of 1874 was only prevented
from becoming SO by lavish expen iiture
on the part of the Indian government.
Prior to the white conquess famines of
immense dimensions devastated the
peninsula, resulting occasionally in an
appalling defamation of the feeble.r classes
of tins population. These classes, num-
berine approximately 10000, 600, are al
ways SO near starvation that season OF
drouth reduces them at once to eXtremi-
ties Of hunger.
In the old days the devices for famine
relief in linda were of the usual Asiatic
sort. First, the shops of the grain deal
ers were sacked and their owners muir
dered. When that failed, the Offices of
the native governments were besieged,
and when the royal gTanariss were emp
tied, the gods we're propitiated with sac
rifices, ending with the slaughter of
human victims, and the distri button of
their flesh over the barren fields. But
during the past 80 years these devices
have given way to remedial measures of
q more practical and effective kind.
Taught by long experience, the govern
ment of India has elaborated system Of
relief, machine-like in its operation, Ca
pa BILE of being put into effect at any time
and of adjustment to the needs OF any
particular scarcity. The old notion that
a governments cannot be made responsible
for deaths from starvation any more
than for deaths by fever has disappeared.
Every rural official ia made to feel his
responsibility. and is infinitely instruct
ed beforehand as to his particular duty
in each stage of scarcity. First, sys-
tenn of crop forecasts gives notice OF the
possible approach of famine. When the
possibility becomes from further reports
probability, the government begins active
nreparations to meet it. Its forecast may
not prove correct, but it acts Mt once and
energettcally. knowing that if 1t waits
to verify it's estimates, action will be too
late to be effectual.
rhe fact that only one full crop in the
year has been reaped, that the late fall
crop is deficient, and the crop due in the
spring in jeopardy, is sufficient to set
the great machine in motion. The
character of that machine and the meth
cd of It's operation la well known to
every district officer in India. 1t en-
braces what ara known as "relief works, ,
that is, such public works as the con-
struotion of railways, the digging of
cannls and wells, turning the course of
rivers, ETC., on which thousands upon
thousands of the distressed ara employed.
The wages paid are small, but as the
government seeks to prevent the creation
Of q pauper class on @ huge scale, the
needy are, go far as possible required to
work for their support. All the suffer-
ing cannot, however, be drawn to the
relief works. Could they be, the task of
relief would be a comparatively simple
one; for while the mortality from crowd
ing women, children and the aged into
tine extemporized villages of mat huts
near the earthworks would be cousidera-
BILE starvation could and would be pre-
vented. But there is large percentage
of the suffering who will not or cannot
bring themselves to food. and who must
have ii brought near enough to their
homes for purchase, if they are not to
starve. The government must therefore
do a great work in the distribution OF
food, and for this purpose must not only
accumulate supplies of grain at great
centers, hut arrange to transport grain to
hundreds of thousands of people scattered
through thousands Of villages remote
from these centers.
AS the difficulty Of such distribution |:
enormous, owing to the scale on which
| it must be conducted, the aim of the
government is to leave 1t to the ordinary
| channels OF trade. 1t inteIferes only
when the grain dealers raise prices be-
yond theiability of 1.-THE people to pay. oil
when that ability has ceased altogether
| In the djetricts w here tha 1uass of tht