New-York tribune., 1922-02-12
Romance, Science and Tragedy
In the Agriculture Of China
4 Fascinating Review of Forty-six Centuries
Showing the Antiquity of Many Issues
of Our Own Dav

later, in the twentv-fourtb s,d .
'"''u centuries p. c.. came scientific
s'uo'es Of alienation of crops chem,.
cal studies of soils and a tax svster,
"''n 'he rates varied according to tho
'er'''ity Of the soil Gas anv twent;.
e'h century tax reformer -, orrh4
marking back to that ingenious PLAN?
4" '"e fAn dynasty there was sevor
sea'S period of drought, coincidinq ;,,
GATE with the seven "lean vears" j.,
Egypt when Joseph ben Israel v.s ~
'"e mead OF Pharaoh's government
Mencius tells of an an anc,en+
'e'" OF '''h'ng, under which every farm
"as taxed the yield of one-tcnth of Il.
acreage system which obviously had
we great advantage of impellng farm
ers TO cultivate all their land. Tho lot
Ter was. indeed. one of tho great .;
OF agrarian legislation. Thus drr;,r
'he 'how dynasty, from the Twelfth TO
'ne third century 3. c., lsud was
srsnted to the people on the 90, dit;or
mat 1t should all be cultivated and
upon all that was left uncu,+;va.,a
doupie or even treble taxes vera lev;.a
announcer possible suggestion for
'"e"''e'h century tax reformers Tho
same issue was vital many centuries
iS'er' about 1850 A. D. a decree be,na
issued that fields which had boo, do
serted for more than ten years would
oe Tree for any one to cultivate.
respite all efforts for the promotion
OF agriculture. however. the CLOSING
century Of the Chow era was r,arked
with disastrous depression. Apricnl-
'ure was still nominally the one funda-
mental and principal occupation of tho
empire, all others being called branch
industries. Yet it was bitterly com
planned that while in the branch in
dustrles man was able to earn in ono
day enough to support him for five
days, in agriculture a mans constant
work the year round was barely suf
hclent for his maintenance. The situa
ton was aggravated by alternate
droughts and foods. the Hoansho be-
ing in al ages the woe of China" and
the people clamored desperately for
government aid; lacking which. mil
lions abandoned their farms and be-
came tramps
Coming down to the eighth century
Of our era, we find the application of
the "single tax on land values" which
has been SO much exploited in these
times 1t was, ! believe, while he was
still living III San Francisco that the
late Henry George developed his single
tax theories and proposals. 1t might
seem fantastic to imagine that he re-
ceived his inspiration from the Chinese
who were then numerously settled in
California; but it seems to be fact
that the ancestors OF those Chinese
had been familiar with that scheme of
taxation eleven centuries before. Here
in New York. New Jersey and else
where we have only lately adopted
1t was war measure-the economical
plan Of dividing yearly taxes into two
equal parts, payable half-yearly But
that identical system was adopted and
successfully practised in China eleven
centuries and more ago.
At that time, too, China was much
concerned over the evil of the mortgage
system and of landlordism. The En-
peror Hsuan Chung, about TAO A. D.,
learned that some of the princes, dukes,
officials and rich people had been
acquiring vast estates, foreclosing
mortgages or buying the holdings of
poor people, with the result that the
poor people were dispossessed and be
came homeless wanderers. This was all
Illegal, and was q grave menace to the
. welfare of the empire; wherefore he
| decreed that "all the perpetual prop
erty and mouth shares, no matter when
and where they we're transferred, must
be returned to the original owners, il
such owners still came to receive them;
and the government would pay the
price of such property for the poor
people" And thereafter nobody would
be permitted to sell or to buy the per-
petual property shares of land. (1s
there any danger, ] wonder, that our
Agricultural Bloc will take up this
idea. and demand that the government
shall redeem for the former owners
all lands on which mortgages have
been foreclosed, or which have been
old through distress p
Despite such radical measures, now
ever conditions grew worse, the rich
landlords fourishing and the poor
peasant farmers falling more and more
behind. Wrote Su SEE, near the end
Of the eleventh century: "Did you ever
see the crops Of the rich? Their fields
are beautiful and abundant, and their
food s sufficient and even excessive.
r the fields are beautiful and abun-