The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1903-01-07
Why is China Poor!

very rarely get meal sufficient either
in quantity or in nutritive power.
Hundreds Of benevolent foreigners,
both Of the mercantile and missionary
orders, are constantly seeking in scat
tered spots throughout the vast realm
to mitigate the chronic distress OF the
poorest sections. Especially has
philanthropy been effective in reliev-
ing the abnormal pressure consequent
on drought and floods. Obviously,
however, external help can do next to
nothing to meet normal condition Of
insufficient ailment extending over
very extensive land and involving
an enormous population.
One Of the causes of chronic and
massive Indulgence in China through
out most Of the interior is the utter
stagnation for ages % civilization.
The development of this mighty race
was long since arrested, and though
the nation is not decadcnt, i.s oondi-
tions are stereotyped, and China is in
etate OF permanent childhood. Every
linguist well understands that this ac-
counts for that colossal pathological
curiosity, the Chinese language. 1t
has never got beyond the monosylla-
BIC stage, and is mere language Of
overgrown babies. This condition Of
arrested development lies at the root
of the appalling poverty Of the masses
in country which nature designed to
be incalculably wealthy. China is not,
like Central Asia, land of savage,
bowling wastes, but is one of the most
fertile and fowery parts Of the earth 8
surface almost throughout the entire
area. And, moreover, it's people are
tbe most industrious agriculturists in
the world, aud have been 80 for many
centuries. Fruit and vegetables are
much more abundant and exist in
much greater variety than We are
favored with in our country.
Notwithstanding these magnificent
natural endowments, what is the state
of things in the "Flowery Kingdom?"
From lack of anything like scientific
cultivation the quality of nearly all
fruits is exceedingly poor, and only the
splendid sunshine and the atmospheric
conditions compensate for the lack Of
skill. Apples, pears, apricots, peach
es, neotarines, plums, cherries, gr.pes
and persimmons are almost every
where grown in immense abundance,
but no native ever studies improve
ment in their culture. Wheat, millet,
maize, sorghum, sweet potatoes, pea
nuts, indigo, and great variety of pea
and bean crops are produced with
ease, while rice is, of course, almost
universally found in cultivation. But
in nearly every province the output,
notwithstanding the indefatigable toll
of the people, is far short of what
might be attained under better man
agement, while the quality. of the
soodstuffs is deficient in nutritive
power. Vast tracts of soil have been
impoverished through centuries of
uninterrupted production without any
adequate compensation. Enriohing
material is poor in quality and in
sufficient in quantity. Grazing is un-
known, and in most of the provinces
the land never lies fallow, the natives
never having learned the secret of the
rotation Of the crops. Yet the land
is still forced to produce three crops
in two years without intermission.
The Chinese poverty problem is
complicated. It's secondary causes
are manifold, but after all they are
only exaggerations and aggravations
of the agrarian stagnation. One of
my friends residing for time in the
interior asked an official how mauy
beggars he was feeding. He replied
$4,000. These" he explained, "are
all tenant farmers from the north.
Few people who entirely own their
land are so miserably poor" Thus at
every point the agricultural question
recurs. In the province Of Wuhu las.
year large relief work was initiated
by foreigners. Here also the starving
sufferers were chiefly of that same
large class in China, the tenant far
mers. Many Of them were from the
immense estates of the late Ii Hung
Chang. Where man gives half he
raises TO landlord be can, even in q
good year, save little or nothing and
poor year means famine.
Whether the great likin system Of
interior taxation can speedily be ex.