Note and Comment by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 7, 1907

Note and Comment

By Editor

Two terrible famines are in progress at the present time, one in China and the other in Russia. In China an area comprising forty thousand square miles is affected, while that in Russia is gripping nine provinces. Concerning the Chinese famine J. S. Tait, manager of the International Banking Corporation, says:—

The condition of the people has grown steadily more desperate, with no improvement. China is a poor country, and she is quite unable to cope with the disaster.

The famine area is a region corresponding in latitude to our North Carolina and Virginia. For some reason, appeals made for public help to relieve this horrible situation appear to be regarded with comparative apathy by the people of the United States and Europe. Whether it is that Americans have heard so much of horrors that such things no longer move us, or that our unequalled prosperity has hardened our hearts, it is impossible to say, but it is a fact that a population of from ten to fifteen millions is now in the throes of starvation, while it is believed that tens of thousands of persons have already died.

Parents are throwing their children in the water, and then committing suicide themselves. Can we measure the depths of suffering and despair before people come to that pass? When we reflect what hardships such a touch of winter as we now have entails upon the poorer classes of this city, we may perhaps understand how desperate the necessity must be in a climate similar to our own, where homes and land have been ruined, and where for months past acute starvation has existed.

Russia also is appealing to the people of America for her starving people. The Russian government has organized a relief-work system, but it is reported to be proving wholly inadequate to cope with the great hunger plague. Mr. Tait's statement that Americans are hearing “so much of horrors that such things no longer move us,” is worthy of note. In previous Russian, Chinese, and Indian famines a well-directed movement throughout the country was carried on energetically to collect and distribute relief. We do not see it now. We shall see less of it as famines increase in frequency and violence. It brings to mind these scriptures, whose fulfilment must precede the second coming of Christ: “And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences.” “Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters.”