The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-12-31
CHOLERA SWEEPS
STARVING CHINA
Disease Adds to Distress Of
Famine Stricken District.
PEOPLE ARE EATING WEEDS
Terrible Destitution and Suffering 40
$4,000, 900 Chinese Face Extinction
Correspondent Finds Conditions
In District Even Worse Than Had
Been Painted-stoical People See In
Future Nothing but Death.

Cholera Is adding to the general dis
tress in the famine-stricken district OF
China, where from 25,O00,OO0 to 3d.
100000 people are facing death by
starvation.
The Associated Press correspondent,
who recently travelled through the
heart Of the territory most seriously
denuded OF food, found conditions
even more desperate than had been In
dicated by information previously re-
ceived. sifaam
In the town Of Hwai-an, where there
were 100 families, 80 persons had died
Of cholera, and similar reports are
common from various other districts.
People Eating Weeds.
The picture presented to the eye OF
tho correspondent was a dismal one.
The soil barren as in midwinter, prices
soaring, migration Of those having
more money or enterprise, the people
living on diet of weeds, chaff, this
ties and leaves; children, especially
little girls, offered for sale at the av-
erage price Of the small Chinese mule |;
cholera from underfeeding, suicides OF
individuals in extreme despair, old
women and children cleaning patches
Of weeds, men with no work to do and
clusters of refugees living in the shell
ter Of temples in market towns.
Information obtained by the CORE
spondent indicated that the present
suffering is only forecast Of that to
come in the course Of eight or ten
weeks, when the real crisis will arrive.
Conditions in the belt he traversed In
q journey by cart between two rail-
way lines near Techow are believed
to be typical of those generally exist
ing throughout large areas in the prov
inces of Chilli, Shantung, Honan and
Shansi.
Calls Misery lndescribable.
He found indescribable misery and
stoical facing Of starvation by millions
Of people who already had disposed of
everything salable and saw in the fu-
ture nothing but death.
In the town Of Chi Chow, which Is
typical, the magistrate Informed the
correspondent that out Of every three
families two are quite sure to starve
before the end Of the year, barring ef-
fective relief from outside. There are
$4,000 people in the administrative
district in question.
In Ming Ching two bankers who
were engaged in raising relief funds
said that the crop had been an abso-
lutte failure following two or three
previous and serious shortages. OF TO-.
coo families, they estimated that eight
out of ten were practically without
means. One Of the informants said
that he was the owner Of the largest
pawnshop in the vicinity.
"There are constant streams Of
farmers coming with clothing, furni.
ture, Implements, anything upon which
to realize a few coppers. They are
selling their children where possible
or leaving them where there 10 hope
that they may be fed" he said.
Chaff and the residue from cotton
seed after the oil has been extracted
have become valuable beyond the
reach Of the average person. who
exists on watery concoction chiefly
Of leaves and weeds, with perhaps 9
few kernels Of grain and a sort Of
cake, If he is affiuent enough, made
out Of the cottonseed waste.