The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-04-16
China Famine Situation ARGUS
ing the People.
May Result in Topeka Organized
Relief Movement.
STORY OF CONDITIONS.
People Have Eaten Bark From
the Trees.
Parents Are Selling Their
Children Into Slavery.

The charitable people of Topeka are
becoming interested in the frightful
famine conditions in China. 1t may
be that it will result in an organized
movement.
George E. Lerrigo, secretary of the
Topeka Y. M c. A, is taking an in
terest in the movement and has COM
piled the following facts for the State
Journal:
The latest advices from Shanghai,
which is the headquarters of the fam
inc relief committee. show that the
conditions of the great Chinese famine
are daily growing. worse. 1t is esti-
mated that five thousand persons daily
are dying of starvation and the pro-
visions for relief are woefully made
quate. The Chinese government con-
trtbuted about $4,000,000s and about
half million is the total of the COM
bined foreign contributions. The fam
inc is the result of a great flood which
occurred last year in the norther dis
trict of Kiang-su and An-huei prov
inces. The flooded district covered an
area of 10000 square miles, which sup
ports population of fifteen millions.
The crops in the district were total
loss and Viceroy Tuan-fang estimates
that over four millions of these people
are absolutely destitute. The provision
which the Chinese government has
made, even were it honestly admins
tered, is woefully inadequate, only al
lowing about 25 cents silver for each
individual in need. The purchasing
power of this relief fund is greatly
limited because famine prices prevail
and the cost of all food StuffS have
risen 200 per cent or more. The act
ual conditions existing amongst the
people are narrowing beyond descrip-
ton. The people after having eaten all
available grass, leaves and the bark or
trees
gathered in great camps near the city:
Photographs have reached Shanghai
from these districts which show all the
trees in sight stripped to the bark.
The only food which millions of these
people have had since December is the
bark of trees. dried potatoes. leaves
and any weeds that can be picked out
of the frozen ground. The people are
driven to absolute desperation. Many
parents are selling or giving away
their children. Little daughters are
being sold into life slavery which will
prove to them to be worse than death.
Famine deaths are so common that
they have become a roadside matter
with the curious spectators, uncaring
and unhelping, looking on unmoved
at the last CONFUSION with which the
spirit leaves the body and hearing al
most as an amusement the death rattle
in the throat
William T. Ellis, the correspondent of
Golfers Weekly, tells of missionary
at Su-Chien who thought to alleviate
a modicum of distress by distributing
one hundred work tickets to able bodied
men, using relief funds for payment.
When the hour of distribution arrived
Git was very early in the morning)
mob of a thousand men, each determin-
ed to seize this chance of work, surged
around the missionary. They crushed
him and finally bore him down-all with
no evil intention-and trampled him I'M
der foot until he was rescued uncon-
scious only with the greatest difficulty
and his life barely saved. 1t is the re-