Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-08-20
in TODAY'S SPOTLIGHT
BY PAUL y. COLLINS

Another flood in China! Another
famine in China! Within the last
few days $4,000 people have been
drowned. and millions of victims of
the same floods are homeless and
starving. A farm area as large as
Massachusetts is under water. which
will stand there for many weeks, and
rich farm lands are rendered I'M
available for the sowing of crops this
fall. Millions of people will starve
unless Civilization comes to their re-
lief. They face Winter homeless, as
well as hunger-stricken. and COM
ing year without a harvest. Droughts
in some regions and excessive rains
in others have varied the causes but
produced similar Calamities.
The fact that the suffering is far,
far from here. is likely to blunt the
keen edge of interest, unless we re-
member that humanity is the same
everywhere. The World War killed
100000 men in four years, but in
1921 flood and famine in China killed
100000 in few months, and tor
tured millions more. The desperate
sufferers stripped the leaves off the
forests and snatched every blade of
grass and every weed and flower, that
they might live. Terrible tales of
cannibalism, too, were whispered. IL
is estimated that the flood destroyed
property valued at more than $780,
600, 900.
In former centuries, even greater
flood disasters in China were enron
icled-one in 1912 taking 300, 200
lives. 1t was the same Yellow River,
then, as now, which suddenly shifted
it's course to the sea, and converted
smiling valleys into stormy lakes,
covering thousands of villages. Be-
tween 1851 and 1866, floods In emma
swallowed up more people than the
then total population of the United
States-from 100000 to 5O,OOo,00o.
!: X X X
There are economists" who argue
that by famine flood and world wars
Providence regulates overpopulatlon.
We have also read the theology or
our own forbears who taught that
sickness and loss of property were
punishments sent by an angry God to
rebuke our sins. Such would now
profess that Providence, discovering
an overstocked China, was correct
ing the mistake" by tragic destruc-
ton of people of all ages and con-
ditions.
Is it true that China is so over
populated that only by wholesale
massacreS of millions can she con-
tinue to feed her survivors? The
total population is 331,1SS,000; that
is an average of 175 per square mile.
Belgium has 652 people per square
mile; Holland has 4S3 and France
even now bewailing her loss of popu-
lation by the World War and her
race suicide"-has 1S3 per square
mile.
The most densely peopled provinces
of China are ShantunG, with 52S per
square mile, and Chehkiang with 463.
Since the total area of China has
an average of only 115 per square
mile, and certain provinces have
more than 500. there must be other
regions with far fewer than the gen
eral average
Are not the Chinese intelligent and
Industrious enough to produce ade-
quate food and forestall famines?
More than two-thirds are farming.
The average production of wheat
per acre in the United States is II
bushels; in China, wheat and rice
average % bushels per acre and other
crops in proportion.
1t will be noted that the basis of
this comparison is the acre-not the
laborer. No country equals Ameri-
can production per farmer. thanks to
our labor-saving machinery.
Far from overpeopling the land
China is capable of feeding the ratio
OF Belgium and Holland if she adopts
modern farm methods, and could as
well sustain a billion population as
the present third of that number. She
has demonstrated how well she can
utilize the knowledge which has come
down through her centuries Amer
leans farm soil that was virgin less
than three generations ago. and its
fertility is curtailed by soil robbery
in spite of our farm colleges and
farmers institutes. The most amaz-
ing story of maintenance of soil fer