The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-03-13

in the streets at such time Famine fever and typhus soon break out in every town and city.
 AIMLESSLY WANDER
 "outside the walls of these towns and on the highways are emaciated. half demented men, women and children going anywhere sometimes with few belongings which they cannot sell. Some nay. carry bowls or baskets containing leaves, twigs, straw or bark from the trees. Nearly every tree is stripped of it's bark and dying. The people walk until they can walk no more and then sit down andh die.
 Not a day goes by but one passes bodies in the highways or at the road sides and the fields-men, women, chil dren and babies. over the fields and along the roads prowl starving dogs that once more are fierce wolves-gaunt, hungry, savage-devouring what lies ir their way. In some instances men and women, insane. fight with the dogs for food. And once one of these dogs is killed, he is at once eaten by man or dog"
 The natural causes of famine in China are droughts and floods, Mir. Jameson says. South of the Yang-tze river fam ines arc rare, as the rainfall is fairly regular, but north of the river the coun- try is chased as semi-arid and the rain fall is subject to great variations. Some times the rain is so heavy that the grain is beaten flat on the ground, and large areas left under water. The har- vest is lost, land becomes sodden and nc crops are possible until the next year. What is not actually under water be- comes one vast swamp.
 LACK IN PROGRESS
 More the four fifths of the trans portation of China is accomplished by hundreds of thousands of two wheeled carts, pack camels, mules. horses. donkeys men, wheel barrows and boats alonS the great rivers and canals.
 MT. Jameson asserts that the calami- of Chinese is due to no lack of in- dustry for they are the most re- markable farmers in the world" al- though their methods and tools are much the same as those used in Egypt in the time of Moses. The peo- pie live a hand o-mouth existence, and failure of crops one year means underfeeding. Two years of bad crops brings starvation and worse.
 Combinations of men, women and draft animals pull the blows used in
 
 reaped by hand and threshed on the earth floor in the open. The straw is stacked for use as fuel or food and the grain is ground between r. illstones moved by men, women or donkey pow CT. Old men and women spin tfes scot- ton with distaff and spindle. Their houses are of one-story with two or three rooms built of sun-d. jed bricks with clay floor and matched roof and windows covered with paper
 It is essential that relief work should get under way as soon as pos sible, owing to the extreme slowness of transportation, MT. Jameson points cut. Rice and grain are shipped up the rivers and overland and then dis tributed by Chinese relief committees formed in the towns and villages to forward food and clothing. In this work the missionaries lend efficient aid, he says. M
 NO FOOD OR MONEY
 The famine areas of Chihli and Shantung are relatively easy to ac- cess, but in the less accessible pro- vinces of Shansi, where the famine area is widespread, he predicts that the suffering and deaths will be ap- ralling and the number of fatalities may run into the millions. In Chfh!i and Shantung the conditions are said to "beggar description." Describing the present situation, Mr. Jameson says:
 This is the second year and the people have no food or money. They have sold their belongings for a few cents. There is no credit and the land is being sold at a quarter of it's value. Families are bartering their children because they have no food for them. Many small children and babies are being killed. Ht
 There is nothing to eat but leaves, twigs, the bark of trees and grass roots. The Chinese government is giv. ing what aid it can but no business can be done and everything is at a standstfll. The only real hope Of tho starving is in foreign money, ad-. ministered under foreign supervisio,. But to save the people, this aid must come quickly"