The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-08-21
Government CLERK. Are Poorly paid.

81. ~
Government Clerks Are Poorly Paid.
in the walls. Whole families live IN !,
one room, and even out in the country
the huts are so small that the beds are
set outside in the daytime.
The Farmers.
| I have travelled extensively among
!, the farmers OF many countries, but ].
know Of no place where they work
so hard for so little. This is an agri-
cultural nation. Two thirds Of the
people rely upon farming as their
principal business. and this means
| about 20o .000,000. There are more than
100,000,000 here who work In the SOIL |
and there are 90,000,00O men. women
and children who actually farm. II
every man, woman and child in the
United States should go out in the
fields every day to dig up the land or
harvest the crops. you would have
the farming situationsin India. In adj
| dition, there are some millions en-
gagged In stock grazing and 100000 OF
100000 who take care Of domestic
animals OF various kinds.
The wages OF these farmers are low
beyond American conception. The en-
pAOSeS s1Io O1teH pa1d IN klnu, get
ting. in some cases, their food and
small percentage OF the crop Where
money Is paid. the wages do not aver
age S2.25 per month. and nowhere. ex-
| cept in Assam do they rise to SO. In
the valley Of the Ganges. where the
soil Is as fat as that OF the nile, the
| average wage Is $L5O monthly. and
in the province OF Dude It is $1.28. In
addition to this. some OF the laborers
| INr-r, 1$evGf 4 IT,
| living. and q cent now and then for
a feast.
The farmers who have their own
lands arc mortgaged up to their eyes.
aud the money lenders and the tax coll
lector give them no peace. The gov-
ernment levtes on real estate have been
advancing. Tho agitators claim they
are exorbitantly high in comparison
and current book on India states that
one-eighth of the entire farming pop
ulation Of Madras has been sold out OF
] house and home within less than q
decade. Not only their farms. but their
furniture and personal belongings.
have been taken for taxes. On the
!, other hand it Is claimed that the
!, taxation to-day less than it has
) ever been, and that It is lighter per
!, head than the taxes OF any other
; country OF the world. We pay thirteen
5 Hindus. The Russians pay eight times
as much and the English twenty tines
as much.
Oppressed by the Money Sharks.
Indeed. we shall have to look out
i side the government for the causes
! OF midas poverty. We can find one
In the nature Of the people. which
Heads them to borrow whenever they can,
and in the money sharks. who lend at
I,1QY raf I'M ha3
J lands. In many such cases the interest
is taken In kind. the shark having
his agents on the ground and grab
bling share OF the grain as 1t comes
4 from the threshlng. The usual rate
of interest Is "a per cent. per annun1,
and many foreigners are paying per
! cent. a month and upward. In the in
\ terror of India the banks charge as
! much as 10 per cent. per annum,
although the government itself has
s recently been lending the farmers
something like s10.O00.oOo at S or
/ per cent.
4 There is no country where banking
: Is so much of business. There are
i castles here who thoroughly understand
4 the breeding value of interest, and
there are altogether in India 100000
bankers and money lenders. of whom
more than 10000 are women. Much
money is loaned upon real estate mort
cages. and from this the bankers are
getting hold of the land. In some
provinces as much as 6S per cent. OF
the country belongs to them, and in
others 40 aud SO per cent.
Live In Mud IIuts.
The average home of the Hindu
peasant is not as good MS the average
American stable. It's often a mud hut
from ten to fifteen feet square, with
out doors or windows. The floor Is
plastered with COW dung. and the fur
niture is a rope bed and a few pots
and pans. The house Is usually
matched with straw. and its interior
] lis as bare as a barn. It seldom has
II moro than one ROOM and in this the
2 whole family accommodates itself as
lit can. The stove is q fireplace made
4 OF three or four bricks set on end,
Y and the cooking Is done in pots and
Ipans, There are no chimneys. and tho
! smoke finds Its way out of the door
and from under the caves.
The most of the farmers live in
villages Of such huts. In riding across
India you see these everywhere dot
ting the landscape. They are built
along mud roads and have none of the
surroundings or conveniences of Amer
& lean towns. There are no big school
houses or churches, no street lamps
" no cutters and no sidewalks There
. is an absence of painting and white
=. wash. the only outside decoration
lie being Jumps of brown COW dung OF
m the size and shape of a fat buckwheat
. cake. These are the fuel Of the people
le plastered upon the walls OF the hut
~ TO dry. This stuff is picked up by the
Il women and girls, who follow the
4 cattle They carry the droppings t.
their houses and mix them with dirt
&c patting them Into shape with theil
of bare hands. Such fuel is used all ovel
India, and the women invariably collec
1t.
a Starvation Diet.
The Hindu ccpeasants have made
e feeding a science. They know jus
how much will suffice to keep then
alive. and they eat little more. The,
y save everything and cook just enough
~ Their diet Is chiefly beans. millet ant
II coarse grains, with chill peppers ant
z other condiments, They seldom have
- meat, and the castles of many of then