The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-12-12
Eastern China Is Starving.

The Chinese whom President VIII
SON has asked Americans to save from
starvation are the people of Shantung
and the four provinces west of that
much discussed peninsula. The popu-
lation Of the imperilled region is as
great as that Of the United States
east Of the Rockies. The people who
are hungry number as many as the
people of the British Isles. The peo-
pie who are starving outnumber the
combined population of New York and
Pennsylvania.
Fifty million Chinese are hungry
and nearly twenty millions are starv-
ing, not because of any lack of indus
try In that land of incessant toll but
because, while there is food enough
In all of China to keep the Chinese
alive, the provinces now suffering have
not the transportation facilities to
bring food from the parts where 1t is
more plentiful. SO far as canals or
railroads are concerned most of China
Is as 1t was centuries ago.
Within the present generation China
has had q famine which carried off
as many persons as were killed in
the great war. The conditions which
exist now in the eastern provinces
threaten a repetition of old tragedies.
Man has never found a cure for war,
but there is always cure for famine.
Either the direct shipping Of food
from this country to China or the use
Of money to transport food from the
fat Chinese regions to the lean ones
may prevent the recurrence Of an
other horror.
China Is very old and very young.
She Is the most ancient of the great
nations and one OF the youngest Of
the republics. Her past Is at once
magnificent and appalling. She is
almost as distant from the West as
she was in the days of MARCO Polo.
1t is only in the last few years that
she has tried to open her eyes and
find the way to cleaner and happier
civilization. But the lean wolf Is not
as easy to put away as the Manchu
was. So China is hungry
OF course this Is hard time for a
distant country in distress to rap at
the American door. The Yankee has
been answering one call after another
for years He has fought and lent and
spent and given away. Recently lie
has been helping HERBERT HOOVER and
the great and necessary work which
that able citizen Is doing in the Near
East. And now comes the Far East
to ask for something. We can take
nothing out OF Mr.. HoovER's basket.
and yet China must not be turned
away. She Is hungry.
The President nptly says that we
should respond not only In the name
Of humanity but in the name of
friendliness. China. as Mr.. WILSON
remarks, has been duly grateful for
everything America has done for her.
The Chinese like to have good friends,
just as they dislike to make enemies.
If they have loved peace too well 1t
has been a good thing FOR the rest Of
the world that they have not gone to
the other extreme and liked war too
well. They are four hundred millions.
But the thing TO remember to-day is
that one-elghth OF them are hungry.
And when the American remembers
TINT the average Chinese. In the times
Of his greatest prosperity, never has
food that in quality or quantity would
satisfy any American It means a good
deal when you say that the Chinese
are hungry. And when you add that
millions Of them are starving II means
Just so much more.
In most things the West does not
understand the East and the East Is
equally puzzled over the West. But
everybody understands hunger. II
America was as hungry az these Chi
nese provinces are ana China was az