The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-03-03
|lWO HUNDRED
DIE EACH DAY
Famine and Plague Sweeping Over
/ china with 10000 People Already
Dead From
TOTAL OF A MILLION
Ignorance Of Proper Way to stop the
Ravaaes Of Disease VIII Like
" Lead TO Appalling
Loss.

and the plague are sweeping over
China. The known deaths number 30 |
600, and, according to official statis-
tics, the death rate averages 200
daily. But the officials have little
knowledge of the conditions in the in
terror. or. if they have, they are not
permitting the facts to be known. 1t
is impossible even to state the num-
ber OF deaths that have resulted from
lack of food. DR.. Samuel Cochran, an
American, who is engaged in the work
Of relief. writes:
"One million people will die before
the first crop is harvested. This will
be scanty, because the people have
not the strength to till the soil, and
no animals remain for plowing'
The Chinese are directing their eff
forts to control the plague chiefly
along the railways and frontiers for
political reasons. Since the recent
Russian request for permission to
cross the border and quarantine Chin
ese towns along the Amur, China has
been attempting to check the plague
along that frontier, but the Russian
legation says this has been done inef-
fectively. because there are no doc
tors there who are familiar with mod
ern methods of sanitation.
Local authorities, including the po-
lice and soldiers in former epidemics,
feft the people to die. now they do
not care or do not know how to main
tain adequate sanitary measures AL
though the central government has Is
sued explicit orders and many OF
them, both supplies and funds are
lacking.
Japanese and Russians have offer
ed assistance, but in only a few
places have these offers been accept
ed, the Chinese not liking to receive
fayors from foreigners whose politi
cal motives they distrust.
Physicians engaged in combating
the disease are Of the opinion that
warm weather will kill the germs, al
though this may bring only temper
ary respite. If the plague were of the
bubonic type the summer heat woula
serve to augment it.
The pneumonia type is transmitted
through the respiratory apparatus
and as consequence, when the Chin
csc emerge from their winter quarters
into the open air they will escap,
much contamination 1t is said by th,
medical authorities that such an epi
demic as the present one which is Ell
tfely pneumonia, has not visited th
world since the Middle Ages.
owing to the political question in
VOWED and the presence OF foreigner
aiong the railways, the plague in Mar
churia is receiving greater attention
tnan the famine, but the death rat
from the famine is many times grea,
er than that from the plague.
Ihe famine is the result of the de
struction of crops by fall of 16 il
cnes OF rain in two days last Angus
~ district where the people ordinal
ny nave a hand-to-mouth existence
as soon as the first pangs of hunge
We're felt the people left their home!
put many of them were unable to &c
ssouu tne borders of the devastation
ihey returned and took up the deaf
struggle beside their homesteads.
4 relief committee composed {
foreigners at Shanghai is collectin
money. So far Japan and America ar
'ne only foreign countries that hav
contributed to the aid OF the sufferer
put even the extensive assistance the
mas come from the United States is Il
adequate.
II is estimated that 100000 pc
PIE are without food and are existin
On roots, grasses or anything that a
ioros the slightest possibility of nou
lshment. Those possessing graz
guard it night and day. The deaf
ra.e from famine is several thousar
daily.