The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1900-12-12
ARTHUR ROPES. General Editor.
The Indian Famine Legacy.

Bombay, India, printed slip, bearing
the above title, with the request to pub
lish. The communication is signed by
Justin Il. Abbott. The famine legacy
is $4,000 children orphaned by the
death of their parents from starvation.
themselves rescued from "a cruel death
by starvation, and whose support falls
upon those who saved them"
These children are gathered in FAM
inc orphanages and the spectacle they
present is said to be heart.rendering in
the extreme. Speaking generally, the
famine is declared to be over, but
wrecks of humanity are still common
enough in villages and towns, doomed
to die from the after consequences of
famine. But it is the children in whose
behalf sympathy and help are now
asked. In the worst famine districts
the number of those who are still
starving and dying because they find
none to care for them is very large.
On these the brunt of the suffering
will finally come. A ghastly account
is given of the condition Of these chill
dren, con the border land between life
and death, with sunken eyes, heshless
arms and legs, shrunken abdomen,
moaning for food without power to eat
it," Then follows a heart.rending
statement of the loathsome condition
of children afflicted by sores and dis
eases bred of famine.
There is no question but that India
presents an illimitable opportunity for
the labors and contributions of the
charitable and philanthropic, and there
is pertinency in the inquiry, "Where is
the money to come from to feed so
manyP" 1t is easy enough to answer
that the money ought to come from
England. The English are the richest
people on the globe. London is the
financial center of the world. A pub
lished statement of the financial insti-
tutions of the United Kingdom. or of
England alone, would be an astounding
revelation to the unimformed 1t is the
empire of Ci@sus, the paradise of Dives
The money of England seeks invest
ment in all quarters of the globe. An
"English syndicate" aas bought, or is
proposing to buy, this property or that,
in America or elsewhere, the amount
of the. investment ueually being fabu-
lous millions, is frequent item of
news.
While the charities of the world have
been rescuing the perishing in India,
possession of Great Britain, the un-
natural mother has been multiplying Or
phans and widows at home and in
South Africa, and converting large
areas of the latter region into war
wasted desert. To add to her wealth
and power, tens of thousands of lives
have been sacrificed. While her sub
jects in India have been dying like
sheep, and by thousands, by reason of
her own selfshness and improvidence,
and in the name of sweet charity the
resources of the civilized world have |
been levied on to feed the starving
and ameliorate widespread suffering,
this Moloch of the nations has been
lavishing hundreds of millions of treas
ure for men and munitions of war, and
drawing on the food resources OF all
nations to sustain the armies she was
raising and employing to subjugate two
petty republics, to deprive them of
their liberties and their territories and
to take possession of their mines of
gold and of diamonds, the richest in
the world.
1t is easy enough to answer Mr.. Abb
bott's question, "Where shall the money
come from?" to feed these $4,000 ten
der victims of English sel6shness and
misgovernment. Ask England to put
up thel money. Why trouble the rest
of mankind, most of whom have trou-
bles of their own? Why appeal 10
"America's millionaires to assume the
support of whole orphanages of hun
dred or five hundred children, and the
man or woman of humber means, the
churches, Sunday schools, Christian
Endeavor societies, to take the burden
of a child or two2" Is it to leave Eng
lands hands free and release the"wealth
of Indus" and the Rand to complete in
South Africa the policy of desolation
and life-extinetion Spain employed in
Cuban
American millionaires, churches, and
the charitable in all classes and organ
izations, may properly make this reas-
enable answer to this last of long
seriesTof distressing appeals for help
from India: Go to England with your
appeals Go to her government-re
sponsible for the miseries for which
relief is asked-to her millionaires, her