The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-09-14
THE FLOOD DISASTER IN CHINA

have been only two good harvests, two normal
years in the Northwest and northern districts;
in other years there has been an uninterrupted
chain of drought and floods. This is due to the
fact that China has been denuded of forests
Even bourgeois experts for decades pointed out
that the unexampled deforestation would be
bound to lead to ever fresh disasters. And in
spite of this deforeStation still proceeded.
Nothing was done in order to safeguard the
country against these disasters Individual peas
ants and villages are quite unable to carry out
such reforeStation. This is a task which must be
carried out by the state The state, the govern
ment, the ruling class, however, have not done
anything in this respect but have ruthlessly cut
down the few remaining forests. This has led
to a disastrous irregularity of climate, so that
from one year to another China is visited by
floods and droughts In Shantung, in Ciautchou
the Germans in their time commenced affor-
estation result of which the climate of these
districts was greatly improved and normalized.
Now the last trees are being felled in Shantung
This is one of the causes of the gigantic disaster
which we are now witnessing.
The history of China is record of unnter-
rupted heroic fight of the toilers against the
danger of inundation. In the history of the ex-
ploitation of the Chinese workers the erection
of dams against floods has played tremendous
role. The oriental deSpotism of the Chinese rul-
ing classes modified millions and millions of
peasants in order to erect and keep in repair
the gigantic dams against inundation from the
Yellow river and the Yangtsekiang. For decades
however, these gigantic works have been allowed
to fall out of repair; nothing has been done to
maintain them The Marking government is GER
tainly not a central government. The militarists,
about maintaining the dams; all their thoughts
are directed to squeezing taxes out of the people,
to taxation. usury, land robbery and wars The
policy of the imperialists has still further an
creased the feudal dismemberment of the coun-
try and the constant wars of the militarists. In
dividual peasant undertakings, individual vii
lagos are not in position to control the whole
river system. Thus it came that the old irriga-
ton system decayed and Herewith there dis
appeared more and more the preconditions for
agricultural production in the big districts of
China Thus it came about that the dams of the
Yellow river and of the Yangtsekiang began to
crack For years the most prominent experts
of China predicted that disaster would occur
if the dams were not repaired Nothing done.
Thus the catastrophe came, which is not an ele-
mentary catastrophe but catastrophe resulting
from the exploitation of the country by the i'm
perialists and the Chinese exploiters.
Immediately before the terrible catastrophe in
the valley of the Yellow river and of the Yang
tsekiang number of generals wars took place
in China well as various campaigns by Chang
Kai-shek against the Chinese Soviet districts. If
these huge sums expended on these campaigns
and wars and the huge armies had been en-
ployed in repairing the defective dams, such
gigantic inundation would not have taken place,
or at any rate not on such a scale. In order to
prevent any further wars of intervention it is
necessary to annihilate the rule of the Kuomin-
tang and their militarist agents, it is necessary
to destroy the rule of the imperialists in china.
The victorious Soviet revolution in China will see
to it that by proper afforestation, by the cree
ton of strong dams; by the restoration of the
irrigation system the country is preserved from
my further famine disasters.
Once again hundreds of thousands OF human
lives have been destroyed owing to the robber
rule of the imperialsts and Chinese counter rev.
dictionaries Sixty to eighty millions are faced
with death from starvation. The Chinese workers
and poor and middle peasants will, under the
hegemony of the proletariat and under the lead
ership of the courageous Chinese Communist
Party put an end to the barbarous order of So
ciety which renders such tragedies possible At
present, however, immediate help is necessary.
Millions are waiting for help. The inlperalists
and the Chinese ruling classes are not likely to
help. The toilers of the whole world alone must
seek to alleviate the misery of their Chinese
class brothers by means of an immediate and
aasxsstis aalAsstks2 campaign,