The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-11-13

l man lire seems inevitable.
 | A peculiar feature of this famine i:
 the startling rapidity with which tn,
 acute stage had been reached. Tester
 day. comparatively plenty. To-day | destroying famine! There has been nc
 famine in Gujerat for nearly century l Hence every one has confidently expect
 ed rain to fall in time to save the crops | ana precautions were not taken in time 1 Government was taken by surprise witt
 the rest, and had no relief work schemes
 fully planned in advance; although now
 they are making strenuous efforts rC
 cope with the situation.
 ] Then the density of the population in some districts is serious matter various "pickings" available in a less | densely populated tracts are wanting there. In four talukas alone it is said tnere are 100000 of the depressed clas- ses requiring immediate help. More over, when plague last year entered this territory. scores of villages and | towns were vacated. Not being permit
 ted to stay over night in their houses
 the well-to-do farmers and others in-
 stead of storirg their grain as harvested, according to custom, sold it, and are
 now obliged to buy. These facts help
 us to understand the swiftness with which the situation has reached the
 crisis upon us to-day
 The Christian community of the
 Methodist Episcopal Church in Guierat
 is well on toward 65OOO souls. Almost
 all of them are from the classes she
 first 10 suffer. Already many of them
 tn tpp { I
 of slow starvation by reason of thelr
 daily food being increasingly insufflci-
 ent to sustain life. What their suffer-
 lngs will be in another month unless
 promptly succored, have not the heart
 to contemplate.
 Alter thoroughly Investigating their
 respective charges the missionaries of
 this Church in Gujerat District met on
 the 18th and 20th inst. carefully can Vassed the situation, decided that the appeals already sent to America should
 De supplemented by a cable urging im- mediate help, and also by general ap- peal to the Christian public through the christian papers, in whrich the appeal the conditions existing and the proposed methods of relief should be stated.
 All famine relief work, save gratui-
 tous charity, falls into two general classes; CD Providing food grains at accessible centers at living prices.
 CD Furnishing employment at the min imum wage on which life may be sus- tained at the current prices for food grains.
 l-F Fortunately all parts of Gujerat are within easy reach of the railways, so there will be no actual failure of the grain supply and competition ought to keep prices down. But the village grain dealer is also money lender whose chief characteristic only too often is heartless avarice. This is their time to harvest silver, and they advance and sustain prices so as to make fabulous profits, and will not reduce them un- less forced to do so by extraordinary competition. even though their neigh bors are thereby starving before their eyes. Their callousness is inconceiva- ble. Most of them are still selling the stocks purchase at low rates last year for quite three times the price then paid. making rate beyond the ability of the poor to pay. When it will be ne- cessary to import stocks, at higher prices, their rates will be advanced still further.
 Hence we must provide grain at llv- ing prices to our people or they will starve. We propose to import grain from the cheapest market, transporta- ton considered, and sell it to our peo- pie at actual cost for cash. There is plenty of grain in other provinces, and quotations to us show that we can in- port and sell grain at rates at which our people can buy if they are furnished work at the famine wage. What we must have is the capital to carry the necessary stocks. Careful calculations indicate that we shall require for this at least Rs. 12,000 if we turn over the stock once a month.
 II.-Many of our people will doubtless find employment on government relief works. But they almost all live in dis tricts where there are no great works that government will do, and the small local works will last for but short time. Hence to secure such employ ment whole communities would have to abandon their houses and go long dis tances. Experience has shown that se- rious losses occur in this way, and that we should avoid it if in any way pos sible.
 We propose to provide work as far as possible for our own people at the fam me rates.
 a) Perhaps threefourths of our Chris -ians are hand-Ioom weavers. The usu- Il method of the business is for the vil- age Borah to furnish the yarn, the | weaver returning the cloth and receiv- ! ng a stated sum for weaving. But the demand for such cloth having tempo 'arily almost ceased owing to the fam ne, the Borahs have stopped issuing yarn and our people are out of work | md have absolutely no income. We propose to take the place of the Borah, | furnish the yarn, employ our Christian md market the cloth The difficulty will be in disposing of the cloth as it is for the reason already given. Had we the capital to hold the 'tock for year it would bring a hand ome profit. However we expect to dis ,ose of large quantities of cloth to our mission boarding schools in various ,arts of the land, and to the European in the cities, for household purposes. Besides, some of the weavers weave neat and strong bath, dish and lust towels, and table cloths and nap .ins for common use. They also weave mats, splashers and table covers hay ng odd color designs, and which are