The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-08-22

and elevation. p F. Lyons. Observer.
-zse---
THE WAGES OF GREED.
We in this country, who know almost
nothing of economic conditions in far
distant India, have been wont to as
sumo that disturbances there were due
solely to religious fanaticism working
upon the natural discomfort of a sub
ject race. We have heard of the ennis
saries who go about from place to place
preaching against the foreigner and
the infidel; we are familiar with the
tale of the mutiny Of forty years ago,
and race and religious prejudices are
strong enough to account for a revolu-
ton without requiring US to seek addi-
tiondi explanation. Such explanation
there is, however; and, If we may believe
a writer in the last issue of Harper's
Weekly, it is the real cause of the In
dian uprising, and the reason why
neither peace nor prosperity can ever
return to plague-smitten and famine
ridden India until her ruler relaxes a
merciless grasp. The facts are so start
ling that we present the account Of
them in detail:
Rightly to explain the economic difficulty
of continuing to govern India on the present
eXtravagant system, with its high-salaried
and high-pensioned English officials. some de-
tails are necessary. In the first place, compe
tent statistic:ans, comparing the relaiEe aver
age incomes per head of unit OF
population in England and India, place
the first at $40 and the latter at 80
The average income of an agricultural laborer
n Lodi -
maintain himself, wife and three children
a little over Sc per head. The next poorest
country to India is Russia with an average
income of $50 per head. Official calculations
went to show that in northwest India an
income of not less than $17 per head was
absolutely indispensable to supply the neces-
the warmer parts of the country SIS
reskO9sd sufficient, without extras. Yet the
saFae Uteial calculations went to show that
the Sh'gGest average income in any one
preHlnoe vas only $15 while in a large part
of the conney it was but $3.50, and in still
a larger PfTA it was down 10 s11, with a general
average all over India of only $3.50. In both
cases the indispensable income was above the
average actual income anywhere, thus PROV
ing the truth of the official statement made
by ST Auckland Colvin in 1885. that "the
masses OF the people are men whose income at
the best is barely sufficient to afford them the
sustenance necessary to support life living
as they do on the barest necessaries Of life"
In 1883 the Bengal government admitted that
IN Behar, with 15,300,0G0 population 40 per
cent of this vast number were only able to
provide for one meal per day! All over
india the officials report that the mass of the
people go through life on insufficient food
The salt tax. imposed for revenue and mill
tary purposes. has raised that necessary
article OF consumption from 81 cents a maund
OF 81 pounds in 1900 in Madras to $1.27 in 1890
and in Bombay from "a cents maund to
Sl2I To poverty stricken vegetarian popu-
lat:on the deprivation of this vital necessary
Is the source of disease, 4eprosy among
others. The vital statistics of India give
2S12 years as the life average as against 40
years in England.
All these facts are a matter IF an
cient history among the ruling class in
India. and in England as well. Great
Britain has drawn so long and so
largely from this treasure house of the
East that she cannot understand the
possibility Of its exhaustion The ma
tives of India, whether in the city or
in the field, are a race so uncomplain-
ing and apparently submissive that, in
view Of the terrible lesson which they
received before, no apprehension has
been felt OF another armed resistance.
Yet history is full of just such stories
as this, which we had hardly expected
TO have repeated in the years of the
nineteenth century Pushed to the
wall. the meanest form of life makes
g resistance as desperate as it is de-
layed. No people has ever been ground
to the earth with impunity. Give a
man the smallest privileges Of life, and.
though you enslave him and beat him
and reduce him to the level Of the
brute kingdom, he may die and make
no sign; but when you have made ex-
fsteEce absolutely intolerable; when
you have denied to him. not as an indi-
vidual, but as a race Or class, bare
subsistence, you hav raised the most
malignant, the mightiest and most IN
sparing demon that ever showed his
glaring face to an affrighted world.
1t was the excuses of such an out.
ragged populace that filled the French
revolution with its terrors. Slave wars
and mutinies of serfs have supplied
history with its gloomiest chambers
OF horrors. England may have beer
preparing for herself an experience be-
fore which even that of the great mu-
tiny shall fail. No man fights or takes
such awful vengeance as he who has
nothing left either to hope or to fear
Let 1t be ever so small a margin of sub
sistence, and the fighting man yields OF
the peaceful man remains apathetit
when he thinks of it. If it be death
either way-death by hard labor an6
starvation, or death with the SWORD
and club in hand-then the natura
man asserts himself, and the meanes
specimen Of his race chooses to give
one blow for revenge before he lay.