The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-08-07
CHINA MAKING WAR
ON OPIUM TRAFFIC
W. S. Minister Calhoun Tells
of the Efforts Made by
Chinese Government.
eY SIDNEY ESPEY.


Gently filed with the Department of
State by Minister Calhoun at p'skin
/ along with a great mass of diplomatic
correspondence, indicate that China
is making strenuous efforts to wipe out
! the trade In opium. China has been wa
ging war for years in the face OF dis
couragement and temporary finsNcial
. loss. II Is estimated that the aegre-
gate annual loss in opium revenue to
the government will be about $50, o00,-
1000. Many government officials, It is
! said, accustomed to the use Of oIium
| for many years, gave up their lives in
order to assist the government 10 fur
Their its campaign for the suppre ssion
Of the traffic.
But China has begun to realize that
her future rests largely upon her abil-
ity to rescue her teeming million from
the blight of the opium habit. She is
trying to shake of the habit which has
bound her to her past, which has kept
the people lowering on the brink OF
starvation. has diminished their ener-
gy. banished national ambition, and
put her far behind Japan in the march
OF modern progress. Owing to the vast
tracts of Chinese soil which We're CIV
en- up exclusively to opium, the Chi
J nese have gone without bread stuffs
and have suffered depopulating fam
ines when the available food supply
was lessened for any reason The vi
tally OF her people has been timin-
ished. not alone by the opium habit,
but also by imperfect pourishment, ev-
en- In normal years.
Struggle to Overcome.
II Is this condition which the Chi
nese government Is struggling to over
come. Against the immediate loss in
revenue from the destruction of the
poppy fields, the government is bal
ancing, says Minister Calhoun, the ul-
innate gain to the nation which must
come from planting the soil in food
stuffs and restoring its population to a
normal degree OF efficiency.
One OF the State Department files on
the subject says: "China has estimat-
ed the result Of her abandoning the
trade somewhat as follows: Gain to
the people Of total annual expendi-
ture in cash for opium of $751;, 525, 900
The yield from land given up to the
poppy when planted in wheat, cotton,
and other crops will be at least $91,-
$4,000, which added to the expendi-
ture for opium, means an annual saw
ing Of $242, 100000. The average earn
ing capacity of Hon-opium using Chi
nese Is about twenty eight cents a day.
The lowest estimate for loss of earn.
ing capacity from the use of opium ia
seven cents day. AS there are some
thing like 25,OOO.O00 male opium smok.
ers this will mean an annual saving
Of $547.75O.OOO.
Added to this financial summing up
IL the desire on the part Of leading
Chinese to develop according to the
vast possibilities of this remarkable
country. With opium no longer sap
ping the lives OF her people and claim
ing their paltry earnings. China feels
that she might have q chance to de-
delop as Japan has developed.
China. Mr.. Calhoun says, has done
remarkably well. during her three
years probationary period, which end
ed December 81, 1910. The agents Of
reform were met in the remoter dis
tricts with actual violence. with hoes
and pitchforks, and the law had to be
enforced with blood. But into a thous.
and walled towns and hamlets. into the
fields OF remote provinces. and through
the defles Of mountains, the agents of
progress have made their way, with
results that speak we'll for China's
future.
Give Up Poppy Crop.
Many of the twenty-one provinces
have ceased poppy cultivation entire
~ and in all the percentage Of de-
crease Is large. In many places other
crops have taken the place Of the pop
py, and this will be the case over the
entire area, a merciful substitution for
the scarcity Of food crops in China has
made the price of food almost beyond
the reach Of the miserably poor, while
the adjustment OF industrial condi-
tions. including rents. leases. credits
and mortgages, has been. regulated
solely by opium production. Chinese
ofhcials claim that the reduction in
cultivation has reached so per cent,
and enthusiastic individuals claim 30.
The British consuls acknowledge from