New-York tribune., 1920-08-15
BY Nathaniel PETER

PEKlNG, China, juno 25-The Cy-
cles of Cathay are growing shorter,
Life in China is becoming swifter and
more familiar. Especially more IA
miliar; the worlds woes of the last
few years have drawn it closer High
prices, strikes, profiteering, boarding,
food riots--all the elements that make
up newspaper first page in New York
or Congressional investigation in
ashington-are to be found here in
China.
If you were to stop a banker sing
ing his wares in the musical cry of
his particular guild through any
hutung in Peking or any narrow lane
thoughts agitated him most, he would
say in a few we'll chosen Chinese words
that you do not know and never can
understand, THE cost of living" 1t
is the one touch of nature that makes
modern men kin, yellow or white.
Starvation Always Stalks
Now, the cost of living in this coun-
try IS no matter of margins. 1t is no
question of economies, of denial of
luxuries. OF the 100000 900 inhabi-
be 300,000,000, it may be 100000, 900,
nobody knows-probably 100000, 900
live throughout their lives on the thin
edge between starvation and mere
subsistence. A rise of price in two
or three foodstuffs sends them over the
edge Literal starvation Is no product
OF abnormality here; it phenome-
non of daily existence.
The two principal oodstuffs-practi-
cally the only foodstuffs-of the over
whe lining majority Of Chinese are rice
and grains--rice in the south grains in
the north. And both have scared un-
precedently in price in the last few
months. The cost of rice in Shanghai
IN the last week has gone to SIG
Mexican q picul, picul being about
1873 pounds avoirdupois. 1t should be
half that. Six years ago it was $6.
Rice at $16 means no rice for millions
NO rice means starvation. In grains
there has been less serious rise, but
there has been drought in the north
ern provinces this year, a famin is in
prospect again and prices are up ac-
cordingly.
The most serious situation is in the
rice eating south. In the last week
there have been rice riots in Shanghai,
old women with baskets raiding shops,
police rushing to the rescue, philan-
thropic exchanges being opened to sell
at cost, workers associations boycot-
ting dealers suspected Of profiteering.
Profiteering, of Course
Proiteering there has been, of
course. The world is the same in all
its parts. Official DEGREES have been
issued, forbidding boarding of stocks
and lllegitimatc aising of prices, with
the results you know we'll in New
York, namely, nothing. Flying prohtecr-
ing squads there have even been and
threats of prosecution in the best
Mitchell Palmerian manner, also with
the results you know we'll in New
York, namely, nothing. The price goes
up notwithstanding, and regularly
Other factors enter besides prohteer-
ing. 1t has been said that if YOU
scratched beneath the surface in any
aspct of life in China, whether food
prices, railways or diplomacy, you
found Japan.
Certainly Japan enters into the high
cost Of rice. In the wisdom Of the
paternal emperors Of centuries ago, it
was decreed that the export of rice
from China was illegal, with the heavi-
est penalties for infraction. The de-
cree has been in force ever since. But
Japan has it's own rice troubles The
rice riots that shocked Japan and first
awoke the Japanese labor world two
years ago will be remembered. Prices