Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-01-10
CHINA SUFFERS
FROM FAMINE:
MILLIONS DIE
Half-Staryed Wretches Roam
COuntry--Families Driven
to Suicide.

to Suicide.
WASHINGTON, y. C.-Impressive os
the details are, Il is hard TO move the
( American people by accounts Of famine
In China. Owing to a series Of droucbts
there are about forty five million peovle
actually suffering from cold or from
! starvation, ana the death list IS apt TO
run into the millions. Whole families
are committing suicide 10 save them
selves from lingering death and troops
OF halt-staryed wrctches are roaming the
country like wild animals in search OF
food.
Here Is catastrophe 10 the human
race, comparable in magnitude Of de-
struction involved, to the late war And
yet II does not move the average Amert~
can as much as an ingTOwing toe nail
on his own foot 1t IS too far away for
one thing. And for another thing. he
/ regards It as a catastrophe Of a sort
which carnot possibly affict him. After
all. sympathy for suffering is based es-
sentially on the feeling that you might
be In the sufferers boots. It depends
upon Imagination. II your neighbours
baby has the collie you can svmpathize
because You can easily imagine your
fown baby having the collie. But when
twenty million people in five Chinese
provinces are threatened with starvation
you ind II hard 20 sympathtze because
you cannot imagine five States Of this
country being swent by famine. You
know that even II the crops of five States
were TO fail for three successive years,
the crops Of the other States would take
care Of the deficit. There would be hard
times, suffering, bank failures. but few
actual deaths from starvation. There is
food enough for all and to spare in this
country, and nothing Is so certain to
gain wide and equitable distribution of
II as conspicuous suffering. When a food
occurs in the Mississippi Valley every
philanthropic agency in the country
charges to the rescue.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
CHINA AND AMERICA.
But what is the essential difference be-
tween this country and China which
makes II possible for five provinces I'm
China to starve to death. but impossible
for five States in the Union To do the
same? There IS a host Of differences.
but the primary and essential one is that
In America there is more food per man
than there is in China.
Consider these facts. The part of the
Chinese Republic known as "China prop
er," and containing about one-third Of
the whole area Of the republic contains
/ .532, 400 square miles. All but three or
four per cent of the whole population Of
China lives in this area. n large part of
the rest of the republic being mountain
Gus or barren. The population of China
has been variously estimated at four
hundred million. Roughly speaking, the
land in which this great famine is oc.
curing contains about four times as
many people to the square mile as there
are in the United States This is the
great, the important difference. Scien.
lists have listed and analysed the i'm
mediate causes Of famines al great length
floods, droughts. insect pests, tornadoes
and many other catastrophes. But there
is always one underlying cause, and that
is a population which presses upon the
available resources for producing food,
so that If the food supply falls in part,
the population dies in part
You win now perceive that we are not
so different from China as you thought
We are headed straight for the same con-
diton, and going as fast as birth and
immigration can carry us. We have yet
to experience a famine, but we have al
ready experienced a food shortage. and
very high prices for food Both will be
much more likely to occur when our
population IS twice what 1t Is today. And
it is increasing at a frightful rate
ATTEMPT TO SOLVE
POPULATION PROBLEM.
A few simple principles underlie this
population question and they seem to be
well recognized by the scientists of all
sorts as we understand the books. But
they do not seem to be recognized by the
laity. nor by the so-called statesmen nor
yet by the popular prints and preachers
who give the layman his Ideas.
The first man to tackle the problem
seems to have been the famous Nautilus
He pointed out the indisputable fact that
population has natural tendency to in
crease faster than food supply. Hence
he pointed out the greater the population
the greater the amount Of misery in the
world, the harder for each one to get
living. He urged, therefore, that people
should refrain from having many chill
dren.
A little later 1t become the fashion to
ridicule Nautilus. 1t was pointed OUT
that modern science could enormously in
crease the food supply When India was
primitive country 1t had a small pop
ulatlon and many famines. The Eng
lish took hold of 1t and greatly increased
it's food production by building irriga-
ton works and other modern aids to food
production. 1t now supports much
larger population. But it still has
famines.
SCIENCE TO BE INVOKED
TO INCREASE FOOD SUPPLY.
In a word, both Nautilus and his crit
les were right. Science can increase thu
food supply enormously. 1t has not done
fraction Of what it can do. The sea
alone is treasure house Of food which
has scarcely been tapped. But however
great the increase in food supply, the
population has fatal tendency to in
crease just little faster, to press upon
it always This is biological law, APP
plying to all life The earth is always
saturated with life everywhere, except