Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-06-18


and 10 cents.
In spite OF these wages I found
that family Of five or six persons
can live on cents day. Their
food. of course, is rice Their houses
are OF mud and bamboo. and those
looked into were clean and comfort
able. The workman puts aside haif
OF his wages, his ambition being to
own his own house.
Now. what 1 saw in my trip, and
especially in India, impressed me with
the extravaganza in living in our coun-
try over any other. We are extrav-
agant in every respect In every phase
of our life we have gone to the very
extreme. / think it is not too much
to say that one-half of the people OF
the world are living upon rice. A man
can live upon from 1 to cents
worth Of rice a day. When on my
trip through Louisiana and Texas
saw warehouses all piled full OF rice
and no sale for it and asked why 1t
was. I was told there was no demand
for 1t. If we would use one-half or
even one-third as much rice for food
as do the people OF the east the whole
question OF the higher cost OF living
would be solved The japanese, who
live upon rice, demonstrated in their
late war their great powers Of en-
durance.
Samples of Extravasanoe.
"As for our extravaganza, why. take
the farmer A few years ago one bug
gy was considered sufficient for him
to keep on his place. Then it came to
pass that every son must have bug
gy of his own. and the farmhouse got
to be like big livery stable. Now the
farmers have all got orders in for au-
tomobiles. The village butchers used
to have trouble selling their choice
pieces Of meat. Now nobody will eat
any but the best cuts and won't touch
the meat Of a bullock over two or
three years old, and the commoner
parts are sent to the cities to make
bologna out of. Then in the country
towns everybody used to keep chick
ems and have his own eggs and raise
0 few vegetables. Today you can
drive through a dozen country towns
In succession, and, while you may find
that half a dozen houses have flowers
In their front yards. there won't be
any that has a vegetable garden or a
chicken coop. Men who are working
by the day are raising nothing. Every
body wants to be millionaire and is
doing only special kind of work. He
won't keep chickens or a pig. Why.
In Canton, China, where half million
people live on boats, you will find
family on a craft from twenty to thir-
ty feet long, while on one end of the
boat is a neat coop with chickens and
ducks In it, little pen In which is a
pig and a little box with earth in 1t,
in which they are raising lettuce or
some other vegetable. You will see
the same thing on the boats of the co.
600 Hollanders who live afioat.
81 have a farm out in Ohio. You
have to kill pigs when they are mere
shotes and weigh only 200 pounds.
Formerly you used to be able to let
them grow to 400 pounds, but now the
meat is not considered quite as good.
Then you have got to kill a beef at
two years old instead of waiting until
1t weighs 1,200 pounds.
But to get back to my trip. From
Calcutta I went to Burma. 1t is a
wonderfully interesting country. Ev-
erybody connected with the teak
wood industry seems to have made
fortune out Of it. The rice they raise
there is of so fine a quality that they
export it and import a cheaper quality
from India to live on The country is
being developed by the Americans and
the English. 1 next went to Singa-
60 nd
next went to Manila.
Lover of Fighting Cocks.
"From what 1 saw of the islands I
believe that the Philippines will prove
as valuable an acquisition as Alaska.
/ went to live in a PEASANTS mud
house, as l like to study economic
problems. I found that the assets Of
a laborer in the Philippines usually
amount to between $25 and $50. OF
this sum $1.50 to 81 represents the
value of the pots and kettles and mats
in the house. The rest is represented
by a fighting cock. There is not a
native man In the Philippines, so far
as could see, who does not own such
a fowl. He messages him, carries him
about under his arm and fairly wor-
ships him. 1 visited Hongkong and
Canton and then Japan. There can be
no question as to the character Of the
feeling Of the Japanese toward Amert-
cans when the little children are so en-
thusiastic over every American they
see. OF course stopped at Honolulu.
Fifty years from now that will be the
greatest bathing place in the world
There are said to be no fewer than
40 millionaires living in palaces there
today.
After reached San Francisco I
took my first look at southern Califor-
MIA and was amazed at the country.
rLo., nnnnn nlnnr hu tho annnfharn