The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-06
CHINA WORKING ID
 PROHIBIT OPIUM Realizes That Future Vel
 fare Is at Stake ENORMOUS PROBLEM Habits of Centuries Must Be Over come and Entire Change in Agri-
 cultural Methods Is
 Necessary
By SIDNEY EsPEY

|
 strenuous efforts to stamp out the trace
 in opium. China has been waging this
 war for years in the face of discourage
 ment and temporary financial loss It is
 estimated that the aggregate annual loss | in opium revenue to the government will
 be about $5o,0Oo0Oo. Many government off, l icials, it is said, accustomed to the use l of opium for many years, gave up their
 lives in order to assist the government
 to further its campaign for the suppress l sion of the traffic.
 But China has begun to realize that her
 future rests largely upon her ability to
 rescue her teeming millions from the
 blight of the opium habit. She is trying
 to shake off the habit which has bound
 her to her past, which has kept the peo- pie lowering on the brink of starvation, has diminished their energy, banished na-
 tional ambition, and put her far behind 1 Japan in the march of modern progress.
 Owing to the vast tracts of Chinese soil which were given up exclusively to opium, the Chinese have gone without bread
 stuffs and have suffered depopulatins
 famines when the available food supply
 was lessened for any reason. The vital 1 ity of her people has been diminished, not | alone by the opium habit but also by inn l perfect nourishment, even in normal years. It is this condition which the Chinese government is strug ggling to over
 come. Against the immediate loss in rev
 enue from the destruction of the poppy
 fields, the government is balancing, says l Minister Calhoun, the ultimate gain to the nation which must come from planting the soil in foodstuffs and restoring it's population to a normal degree of eff | ciency.
 One of the state department files the subject says: China has estimated tns
 result of her abandoning the trade some
 what as follows: Gain to the people or
 a total annual expenditure in cash for | opium of $151 525,000. The yield from land given up to the poppy. when planted In lwheat, cotton and other crops will be at | least $91 525. GOO, which, added to the ex- penditure for opium, means annua. | saving of $242, 400 900. The average earn | ing capacity of non-opium using Chinese l is about 2S cents day. The lowest estl-
 mate for loss of earning capacity from
 the use of opium is cents a day. As there are something like 25,0o0,00o mae | opium smokers this will mean an annual saving of $550, ,750,000
 | Added to this financial summing up is
 the desire on the part of leading Chinese
 to develop according to the vast possib- | ties of this remarkable country. With opium no longer sapping the lives of her
 people and claiming their paltry earnings,
 China feels that she might have a chance | to develop Japan has deveoped | China MT. Calhoun says, has done Remarkably well, during her three years
 probationarw period, which ended Decem-
 Der 31, 1910. The agents of reform were
 met in the remoter districts with actual violence, with hoes and pitchforks and l the law had to be enforced with blood
 But into a thousand walled to-1ns ana hamlets, into the fields of remote prov | inces and through the dehles of moun- | tains the agents of progress have made | their way, with results that speak well | for China's future"
 | Many of the 21 provinces have ceased poppy cultivation entirely and in all the percentage of decrease is large. In many places other crops have taken the place of | the poppy, and this will be the case over l the entire area, merciful substitution, | for the scarcity of food crops in China l has made the price of food almost be- yond 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 officials claim
 
 reached so per cent, and enthusiastic in- dividuas claim 9o The British consuls acknowledge from p to 40 per cent anl the American consuls will this year prob ably name 50 per cent a fair estimate It is unfortunate, the correspondence says, that China, owing to her previous loose system of accounts, has not been able to determine accurately the exact amount of reduction, but a disagreement regard finit ;. from broad viewpoint
 Any reduction" continues Minister lCaihoun, deserves the highest praise ana decrease of 9 per cent is a marvel But disinterested party fixes 50 per cent and that means that in the poppy fields of China whose purple and crimson glory
 has been the symbol of a peoples run
 q miracle has been wrought This is nro. hibition. not written in as edict. hut em bodied in a fact"
 Tn quoting Viceroy Tuan Fang, Mir Cal houn writes 'The time for writing is mast
 Let the world see our deeds, and iudg, If we are in earnest in the abolition of opium"
 Continuing the American diplomatic ren- resentative says. Pronounced activity
 has been exercised in closing the opium dens. In one city 1000 have been closed in other cities 5000, 2000 and 1000. whi,s in 100000 market towns the dens have
 been effectually put out of business
 About 100000 places in all have been closed. Shops negecting to comply with conditions of prohibition have been sealed. One wholesale place is said to have suffered the loss of $1350 a day. The shrinkage in revenue is serious, but th, attitude of the government is that it will not seek to satisfy its hunger or quench it's thirst through the baneful poison of a great curse. So the imperial decree is in- exorable." Il
 Within year great worldwide opium conference will be held abroad, at which representatives from the various export ing and importing countries will be pres. ent Measures will be passed at the con- ference limiting the amount of opium inn ported into any country, and devising means for the lessening of the trade This. taken together with the strenuous steps of the Chinese government, seems to insure a lessening of the traffic and an elimination of many of the opium joints, in this country and other for eign countries where Chinese have mi- grated to any considerable extent. LOW RATES TO WASHINGTON ONLY SIS ROUND TRIP i of +, n +, a