The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-27
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
washington, ID. G.
wIfY CHINA srARyEs.

forty-five million people actually suf-
fering from cold or from starvation,
and the death list is apt to run into
the millions. Whole families are COM
hitting suicide to save themselves
from lingering death, and troops of
lf-starved wretches are roaming the
country like wild animals in search of
food.
Here is a catastrophe to the human
race, comparable in magnitude of de-
struction involved to the late war.
And yet it does not move the average
American, as much as an ingrowing
toe nail on his own foot. It is too far
away for one thing. And for another
thing, he regards it as catastrophe
of a sort which cannot possibly afflict
him After all, sympathy for suffer-
ing is based essentially on the feeling
that you might be in the SUFFERER
boots. 1t depends upon imagination.
If your neighbours baby has the collie
you can sympathize because you can
easily imagine your own baby having
the collie But when twenty million
people in five Chinese provinces are
threatened with starvation you find 1t
hard to sympathiZe because you can
not imagine five states of this country
being swept by famine. You know
that, even if the crops or five states
were to- fail for three successive years,
the crops of the other states would
take care of the deficit. There would
be hard times, suffering, bank fail
ures, but few actual deaths from star
walton. There is food enough for all
and to spare in this country, and moth
ing is SO certain to gain wide and
equitable distribution of it as conspic-
uous suffering. When flood &C.
ours In the Mississippi valley, every
philanthropic agency in the country
charges to the rescue.
How China Differs.
| But what is the essential difference
| between this country and China which
makes it possible for five provinces in
China to starve to death, but impossi-
BILE for five states in the Union to do
the same? There is q host of differ
ences. but the primary and essential
one is that in America there is more
food per man than there is in China.
| Consider these facts. The part of
the Chinese republic known as China
proper" and containing about one
third of the whole area of the repub-
lie, contains 1,532,420 square miles.
| All but three or four per cent of the
whole population of China lives in this
area, a large part of the rest of the
republic being mountainous or barren.
The population of China has been
variously estimated at anywhere from
three and a half million to four and a
| half million. Roughly speaking the
| land in which this great famine is oc-
curing contains about three times as
! many people to the square mile as
there are in the United States. That
is the great, the important difference.
Scientists have listed and analysed the
| immediate causes of famine at great
! length-floods, drouths. insect pests,
| tornadoeS, and many other catas-
| trophies. But there is always one I'M
derlying cause, and that is popula-
| ton which presses upon the available
resources for producing food, SO that
| If the food supply fails in part, the
population dies in part.
You will now perceive that we are
| not so different from China as you
thought. We are headed straight for
| the same condition, and going as fast
as birth and immigration can carry
US. We have yet to experience fam
| inc, but we have already experienced
a food shortage, and very high prices
| for food. Both will be much more
| likely to occur when our population is
twice what it is today. And it is in
creasin3 at a frightful rate.
Laws of Population.
| A few simple principles underlie
| this population question, and they seem
| to be well-recognized by the scientists
books. But they do not seem to be
\ recognized by the laity, nor by the So
called statesmen, nor yet by the pop
ular prints and preachers who give
the layman his ideas.
The first man to tackle the prob
lem seems to have been the famous
| Nautilus. He pointed out the indis-
putable fact that population has nat
| ural tendency to increase faster than
| food supply. Hence he pointed out,
the greater the population the greater
| the amount of misery in the world,
the harder for each one to get liv-
ing. He urged, therefore, that people
should refrain from having so many
children.
little later it became the fashion
to ridicule MalthGs. It was pointed
out that modern science could enor-
mously increase the food supply.
When India was a primitive country
1t had a small population and many
| famirles. The English took hold of it
and greatly increased its food produc-
ton by building irrigation works, and
other modern aids to food production.
| 1t now supports a much larger popu-
lation. But it still has famines.
Science Can Produce More Food.
In a word, both Nautilus and his
critics were right. Science can in
1t has not done a fraction of what it
can do. The sea alone is a treasure
| house of food which has scarcely been
topped. But however great the in
crease IN IOOQ supply, the population
has a fatal tendency to increase Just
a little faster, to press upon it always
This is a, biological law, applying to
all life. The earth is always satur-
| ated with life everywhere, except
when the amount of life on a given
area is artificially controlled-that is
controlled by man.
China, the scientists tell US, could
support several times her present i'm
mense population if all her resources
were properly developed. But If this
were done, and nothing done to con-
troll the increase of population by
birth and immigration. China would
be just where she is today. as far as
the security of the individual is con-
cerned- That is, her population would
again be pressing upon her food sup
ply and famines would occur when
ever considerable part of that food
supply failed.
The United States. we are told
could easily support four hundred