Iron County register., 1900-05-03
0ppresslon's Beneficence.
Says the Poplar Bluff Republican

ne C63ELTuL DUpLlSL Is rlgnL WQ6u IL
says that the famine in India, while
terrible in degree and wide in extent,
would be much worse were that coun-
try not an English possession.
It is said that there is no dogma so
absurd, no religious preteuder so devil
ish, that there will not be followers OF
the one and believers in the other.
And since this holds good in sacred
things, perhaps it is not singular that
it is equally true in politics. The
REGISTER is not astonished at what the
Baptist says; there has been SO much
pulpit defence of the red-handed mur-
ders now going on in the Philippines
and South Africa that no position taken
by some exponents of Christian doc
trine and Christian justice need cause
surprise. Yet the foregoing para
graph is so palpably and logically un-
true that it strains ones phlegm to the
utmost; and were it not by intended
though silent analogy in defense of the
imperialistic idea of the Republican
party, one would find it hard to ac-
count for the propagation of so inde-
fensible falsehood.
What Famine made less hurtful
and less frequent to q people by over
riding them sword in hand, looting
them, and grinding them into the earth
through excessive taxation! A most
remarkable conclusion and to be
evolved only from the brain of the par
tisan who settles every question of
Right by the broad principle of Might.
India has been for one hundred years
the helpless prey of the Englishman.
Hundreds of immense fortunes have
been extorted by the sword and the
law (.'made to fit the CASEY from her
people, and taken to the tight little
isle' for princely distribution. Year
by year has the heavy hand of the op-
pressor made the East Indians lot less
endurable, and now, when they are
starving by the thousands, mainly be-
cause of the abject conditions forced
upon them at the point of the Chris
tian bayonet, we are coolly informed
that their plight "would be much
worse" if their country were mot an
English possession"
In one year, under the Lions benign
rule, over twelve millions of these un-
happy people died from starvation, and
it is computed that the deaths from
this cause since EngIand's occupancy
more than equal the combined popula-
ton of Great Britain and Ireland.
They were plundered and killed and
overburdened to the uttermost under
the iron heels of Tamerlane and the
despots who succeeded him; and It's
pity that the Christian is little if any
more merciiul in his administration.
But so long as his efforts are for power
and pelf, under the lying guise of hu-
man betterment, cruelty. hypocrisy
and oppression are the certain results.
The thief who profits by his plunder-
ing may be expected to defend himself
as best he can when brought to trial;
but how can an American plead that
there is amenity in the military rule of
the foreign usurper, and that mitiga-
ton of evil follows the tread of the
oppressor!
Apropos. the REGISTER quotes from
a daily paper, and commends the quo
tation to the consideration of the Re-
publican:
1t is pointed out by Mr.. Digby, a 10y
al Englishman, who for many years
was secretary of the Indian famine
fund, that famines in India have been
alarmingly on the increase in the past
100 years. Forty-fiVe of them have
occurred ln shat time. OF this number
thirteen took place in the first fifty-four
years of the century, and in the last
twenty-four years sixteen have taken
place, including the present one, which
appears to be more disastrous and ap-
palling in the loss of human life which
it threatens than any of its predecess-
ors.
This shows that the s'beueficence of
British rule" so called has proved a
curse to the people of India. 1t shows
that the innumerable methods OF blood
sucking taxation applied to the natives
have hHen DrOlific in sowing harvest
after harvest of death among the rack
rented aud burdeued population, each
starvation period being more dreadful
than its predecessor.
For Whooping Cough. Asthma, Bron-