The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1900-07-21
INDIA'S GOLD FAMINE.
SIXTY MILLIONS OF PEOPLE
CRYING FOR BREAD,
while Britain Spends Millions Subjuea:-
Ing Free and Independent People
The Infamy That This Republican Ad-
minfstration Is In League With.

The ministers of my state have beer
asked to preach a sermon and take III
a collection on behalf Of the people o
India who are threatened with starva
J ton. | have my own ideas about wha
kind Of sermon should be preached
and where the collection ought to come
from; if they are wrong they are no,
so because Of the following facts:
The present famine is but a continu-
alton of preceding ones, and my re-
ligious papers tell me that It is the
worst Of them all. Nearly GO 600 ,O0C
persons are affected, and no one seems
10 be able to tell how many Of them
will die. The government is able to
care for but 100000 In addition, the
buffalo, cows and goats on which the
people depend are dying The great
est suffering Is in the agricultural dis
trlcts, where so per cent of the popu-
lation lives. The horrors that exist
are beyond description. Missionaries
say that after everything else Is gone
the fathers and mothers sell their
| children to get a little grain for food
Boys don't sell we'll. and the traffic IS
mostly in girls, bought by Moham-
medans fer 80 to co cents apiece.
1t does not cost very much to sustain
| life in India. Fifteen dollars will sup
| port a Hindu for year. Five dollars
| used at the first of the year until the
| floods come in July count for the saw
ing OF one human life. One dollar
| will feed twenty persons for a day
One dollar will rescue child from
starvation and support 1t for month.
A hundred dollars Will dig a we'll that
will bring bountiful crops on several
acres and secure many families from
future famines. 1t would not take
more than sl30, 900 at the very
restore agricultural activity and pre-
vent recurrence Of the famine in the
future.
l believe that England can do moth
ing less than to give double this
amount. l have the official statement
of the British treasury which esti-
mates that if the war In the Transvaal
ends by the time the rains come in
India in July when the famine pres
sure will be relieved, the war will have
cost Great Britain $3.50 900 OO0 This IS
the skeleton cost and does not take
into account any Of the trimmings
which will at any rate mount up to
several millions more. Neither does
it consider the private expenditures.
and It is "a feature Of present condi
tions in India that while the British |
have previously raised large sums for |
the relief of famine sufferers, this year
the war in South Africa has so di |
verted attention and money that the |
relief offered practically amounts to |
at all. 1t is fact that the re-
lief of India is thrown upon the rest
Of the world, although England is the
governing power"
My collection will be a disappoint-
ment-not the first-because England
can't and won't save starving India.
Why? The answer Is not hard. To
tame luc SOlO III |
South Africa and subjugate the Beers
that is competition; to feed the In
dian people and help them to get their
farms in working order and enable
hem to live happy, contented, pros
porous life-that is cooperation, So
,ialism. We live under a competitive
system and we abhor socialism. The
'eturns from the conquest of Africa
will be gold and commercial success;
he returns from the rescue of India
would be larger love Of humanity
md all that comes from the right ad-
Of the stewardship that
iod has given us. England will get
Ter money back from the war in South
Africa. There would be no money
'rofit in preventing starvation in In
ia. This IS commercialism. it is the
ystem We are uphOlding, it is why
England IS spending five times as
much in destructiveness and murder
n Africa as she should spend in con-
and life-saying in India.
Rev. Cyrus Clone Of Kansas.