Los Angeles herald., 1909-07-13
THE EMPIRE OF INDIA
X-FAMINE's DREADED SPECTER
By Frederic j. HaSkin

! The next famine. in 1S99-1o00, showed
the system TO be In still better work.
ing order. Altogether 1,l4O,OOO'OOO ra-
tions for an individual for a day were
issued. Notwithstanding TINS, apout
! / 000, 600 persons died OF starvation OF
cholera due to the pollution of water
and of malarial fever resulting from
the unusual number of mosquitoes Dred
upon the stagnant water holes' sur
ViVors whose money was sunk IN cattle
before the famine found themselves
| impoverished. Recently the rellet
scheme has been enlarged to deal with
the fodder famine as well as the scar
city of food for human beings.
While great strides have been made,
and field work has been given sineWs
of war from many sources aside from
| the United Kingdom and the indian
government, the famine problem has
not been eliminated. Gradually, but
very gradually, the caste prejudices
that prevent relief work from reaching
many Hindus, are being broken down.
! The hill country WeaVerS who formerly
starved rather than eat at a relief
camp lest partaking of "unelean" food
should destroy their craftsmanship.
have been won over, shy wild tribes
men are learning that 1t is better to
live upon unorthodoX food than to be
| dead Hindus.
Native states are conducting valuable
relief measures as a result of the ex-
| ample of Europeans but not until irri-
cation extends its benefits to a greater
! portion Of a sun baked, deforested ana
| densely populated agricultural coun-
| try or the growth of other native
| industries draws a fair proportion of
| the people from the land will famine,
and Incidental pestilence of a dozen va
rieties, cease to make large periodical
reductions of population. With more
| I.,lsvr -to,Y, ai.,a tI, Ind
| quickly succumb to hunger or disease,
| but the race cannot acquire greater
stamina without sufficient nourish-
ment.
The frequency of famine in India is
due to the immensity of a population
| subsisting almost entirely by agricul-
| ture in q country where the tillers of
| the soil are too poor to save against
a rainy day, If paradoXical express
sion may be used, where saving against
| q rainless day is the imperative need.
| The question is, how may the Indian
masses become better off financially?
1t is a large question, readily enough
answered by the politician, who says
reduce the land revenue collected by
the British government to maintain
| her armies for policing not only
India, but the Asian outposts of the
British empire 1t Is difficult for the
dispassonate student of Indian affairs
to answer finally
The Indian politicians say that for
merly war, rapine and the misrule of
| unbridled despots caused famine, and
that in these piping times of peace
there should be no hunger in the land.
| The reply of the gentlemen RESPONSE
| BILE for the government of India Is that
peace has multiplied the people. India
| is the foremost anti-race suicide coun-
try in the world. Religious custom not
/ oft hfIf nnfnTnRG
marriage. The poorest agricultural la
borers rear the largest families. There
| is practically no immigration to
| foreign countries, when the vastness of
| the country is considered, and caste.
language and local attachment deter
inhabitants of congested districts from
removing to sections where there is
untenanted land. Holdings of land con-
| tinue to be subdivided. Agricultural
laborers without land are as numerous
| as the locusts, and unlike the locusts
cannot take wing when they have con-
sumed the visible supply of food.
The great need of India-the ono
hope of the elimination of the ever
present specter of famine that stalks
grimly behind the naked peasant in
| the field-is a diversification of indus
tries How is 1t to be brought about?
The 10000 miles of railway in the coun-
try, the irrigation works, in up-keep
| and construction, commercial under
takings and manufactures backed by
| European capital, the demand for la
borers to handle freight at seaports,
makes a considerable draught upon
labor. but how little this is, propor-
tionately, is plain from the fact that
Sc per cent of the 300,000,0O0 people OF
India still live in the country.
Manufacturers employing native Ia
Dor are making what seems fair
record of steady growth, but the In
dian, birth rate is from forty-five to
fifty for each 1000 persons, or 1S,5O0,0OO
a year That the diversified industries
are not keeping pace with the CROWN
of the population Is undeniable. II
must further be borne in mind that
most OrlentaIs are conservatives. that
| indians are especially so and that
Hindus are taught by their religion
that the violation of precedent is an
indignity and a sacrilege put upon dead
ancestors. For this reason the masses
of laborers are not by nature seekers
and seizers of opportunity like Eu-
ropeans who readily cross oceans TO
find better wages in a new country.
II is easy for the Babu who has been
to an English university to arraign
the British for responsibility for
famine, pestilence and poverty In
| India. hut his arguments, aside from
that in which he charges Great
Britain with supporting Indian armies
not used to police India, are not en-
tirely convincing. Not all of the In
dustrial ills of the country can rightly
be charged to 'loaded' land tax.
committee of the Municipal league that