The San Juan County index. (Aztec, N.M.) 1890-19??, 1900-07-27

The ministers Of my state have been
asked to preach a sermon and AXE up
a collection on behalf Of the people Of
india who are threatened with starva-
ton. I have my own ideas about what
kind Of a sermon should be preached
and where the collection ought to come
from; II they are wrong they are not
80 because Of the following facts:
The present famine is but a continu-
alton Of preceding ones, and my re-
ligious papers tell me that Il is the
worst Of them all. Nearly go, 900 900
persons are affected, and no one seems
TO be able to tell how many OF them
Will die. The government is able to
cars for but 5000. 900. In addition, the
buffalo, COWS and goats on which the
people depend are dying. The great
est suffering Is in the agricultural dis
tricts, 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 well. and the traffic Is
mostly in girls, bought by Moham-
medans for 30 to 60 cents apiece.
II does not cost very much to sustain
life In India. Fifteen dollars will sup
port a Hindu for a 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 a child from
starvation and support 1t for a month.
A hundred dollars will dig a well that
Will bring bountiful crops on several
acres and secure many families from
future famines. It would not take
more than $3.50, goo. 900 at the very
most to rescue India from starvation,
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. 1 have the official statement
Of the British treasury which esti-
mates that II 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, OOO, 900. 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
1t consider the private expenditures,
and 1t is a feature Of present condi-
lions 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-
vorted attention and money that the
relief offered practically amounts to
nothing at all. 1t is a 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 ~irst-because England
can't and won't save starving India.
Why? The answer Is not hard. To
take the gold and diamond mines in
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
them to live a happy, contented, pros
porous life-that is cooperation, So
cialism. We live under a competitive
system and we abhor socialism. The
returns from the conquest of Africa
will be gold and commercial success;
the returns from the rescue of India
would be a larger love Of humanity
and all that comes from the right ad-
ministration Of the stewardship that
God has given US. England will get
her money back from the war in South
Africa. There would be no money
profit in preventing starvation in In
iia. This is commercialism, 1t Is the
system we are upholding, it is why
England is spending FIVE times as
much in destructiveness and murder
In Africa as she should spend in con-
structiveness and ~llfe-saving in India.
Rev. Cyrus Clone Of Kansas.