New-York tribune., 1920-10-17

wives and children with arsenic to
save them from death by starvation.
It was possible last week to buy any
number OF Chinese girls near Tientsin
FOR 81 each. Many families are Civ
+ ing away their children in order to
save them from starvation.
In the north of the Province of Shan
tung, where there are no railways and
where when they do not have famine
they usually have food, a ghastly he
s'ra is taking place. Hordcs of people
Erc walking to Manchuria. a distance
Of more than 500 miles. 1t is just as
IT all the people of the east coast
OF America left their homes and started
for Chicago, but TO the Chinese to
! for Confucius said to them that they
must worship their ancestors. How
can they worship the bones of their
ancestors If they are 900 miles away?
These pilgrims walk twenty-five miles
day until they reach Manchuria,
where the Japanese are glad to re-
celve them. Manchura is undeveloped
and the Japanese always have offered
Inducements to Chinese coolies ard
farmers to migrate to that territory,
where they build ~ the country. The
japanese always have found it impos-
/ sible 20 compete with the Chinese in
the cost of living, and even in Corea it
is necessary for japanese farmers to
return to Japan or starve. In Man
churla the Japanese welcome Chinese
farmers because their own people
cannot live so cheaply as the Chinese.
Heat Burns Crops
Newspaper correspondents in the in
terror of China report great prosperity
and bumper crops in some provinces,
mainly in the south, while in the north
erly provinces conditions cannot be de-
scribed with too much pessimism At
Hsianfu, in the Province Of Shensi,
part Of which is in the famle belt
the summer heat was more severe than
any summer for thirty years The tenn
perature was 116 degrees in the shade
Inc maize and mllet near the city
OF Hslanfu were burned by heat
which was so intense that men who
were daring enough to venture into the
streets to do business died Of sun
stroke within few minutes. Men,
women and children are fleeing to ad-
lacent provinces, only to discover that
conditions are as bad or worse than
those from which they have fed
The people cannot eat their horses
and mules, because there is no fuel
Tor fires with which TO cook the meat
Apricot, acacia and elm leaves are
eaten first, because they are most
edible, but now any available leaves
and bran also are articles of diet.
The conditioS Of the people in the
four starving provinces is arousing the
sympathy of their countrymen in
places of plenty. Tsao Jul, the civil
governor Of the Province of Chilli, in
which PeHing and Tienstin are located
and where famine is also present, has
given $2.000,000 for relief The lack
Of roads and railroads makes it i'm
possible to transport food to places
wherc it is needed. The lack OF for
irrigation causes droughts. and. the
lack Of agricultural knowledge among
the people makes all crops moro or
| less unsuccessful.
Failure of Students.
This famine is an indication Of the
failure of the Western returned stu
dent. The students who study in our
universities when they return to the
country of their birth have Western
ideas Of dress and are doctors of phil
osophy in political theory, but they
possess none Of the energy which
prompts Americans to build up their
country.
theoretically the Chinese have per-
.ect realization of what is wrong with
China, but practically they congregate in
Shanghai and other treaty ports, where
foreigners live and have brought their
comforts. They do not 60 into the
interior of the country in large num-
(
provinces which their education should
make them, because life is more pleas
ant in Shanghai
Life is more pleasant in Shanghai for
the foreigner but that the Chinese re
turned student should find it more pleas
ant than life among hits owne people
and accomplishment for their benefit is a
terrible indictment OF the spirit of
the returned student. That he should
prefer to hold position in a foreign
t'rm in Shanghai to teaching his own
PEOPLE how to make crops yield double
and triple their present yield indi-
learned nothing of value to China, al
though his education in most cases
has been paid for by public organiza-
! tlons in China. If more Chinese stu
dents will devote themselves to agri-
culture rather than dancing. Cnlna
may some day become a country OF
prosperity rather than ruin.
Soldiers Partly Responsible
The recent civil war is esponsible
to a certain extent for the famine.
Thousands OF soldiers have been let
loose upon the countryside, and the
Chinese soldier respects no property
Of any kind. Crops have been de-
stroyed by these representatives OF
these exalted bandits, and in every
village through which they have passed
the people are poorer in possessions
as we'll as in produce.
Peking is, beginning to take relief
measures, but It is too late, and the
winter of 1920 will be a memorial to
Chinese political corruption. After every
famine or food bubonic plague and
pneumonia plague sweep the afflicted
areas. The Chinese lungs are not
strong normally, and under conditions
of starvation and general weakness
pneumonia plague will take a huge toll
The famine comes at time when
business is bad both in Japan and
China. For several months business
has been at a standstill in Shanghai
owing to the fighting that has been
going on in several provinces and the
resulting impossibility of moving goods
to the interior. The business dcpres-
sion also is due to the condition OF
business in the United States and Eu-
rope, which makes it impossible for