THE SUFFERING IN INDIA, AND AN ALLEGED CAUSE.
THE discussion in Congress of a resolution to charter a vessel to carry relief to the famine sufferers of India, brought out some startling facts as to the extent of the calamity, and some pertinent statements as to a fundamental cause. In course of remarks, Mr. Grout, of Vermont, said:— “The viceroy of India, in his report for the second week in March, states that there are upon the official relief lists 3,421,000 people. . . . The extent and severity of that famine is but poorly understood. Lord George Hamilton, the secretary of state for India, says it covers an area of 160,000 square miles, including 36,000,000 people; and that in addition to this there is a region where scarcity prevails of 121,000 square miles, with a population of 44,000,000. In the nature of things there can be no complete relief until the crop is harvested next autumn, and Sir Edwin Arnold says that the deaths in consequence of the famine before that time, will be likely to be counted by the hundred thousand, and perhaps by ten million. He states the fact that in the last famine in India, which is a hot and dry country, nearly 6,000,000 people died of starvation. When the drought comes there, as in the past year, it destroys vegetation over large tracts of the country, and the population is left unprovided for; and, being dense, millions of deaths follow. The area now afflicted is much larger than then, the population much greater, and the situation in every way much worse.” Mr. Grout further stated that, while this condition exists in India, corn in our own country costs but eight or ten cents a bushel, and in some parts of the west is being burned for fuel. Mr. Barrows, of Massachusetts, then said:— “There is one aspect of this question that has not been presented, and that is the fact that a large number of the people who are now in a starving condition stand in a very close relation to the people of the United States. They are, so to speak, the wards of the American missionaries, and the appeal which comes to this country, comes through the representatives of nearly all the American missionary boards of the different denominations, so that those who are in this starving condition, turn naturally to the American people with the expectation of relief.” The manner in which large numbers of people become the victims of starvation in case of a single year’s drought, was pointedly expressed by Mr. Simpson, of Kansas, as follows:— “Mr. Speaker, I shall vote for this joint resolution; I am in favor of it. I do not think we ought to cavil about the amount. I am satisfied that the officials of the government in whose charge this will be left, will see to it that the people are not wronged in any way. And yet, sir, I agree with the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. McMillan], that, while we are charitable in donating to the suffering poor of other countries, we ought to point out in some way the reasons why they came to be poor. The gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Cannon] alluded, a while ago, to the donation that we made to Ireland in years gone by. He stated truly that at that time there were thousands of the Irish people starving on the public highways; and yet it is a historical fact that every ship that left an Irish port at that time for England, went over there loaded with the products of the Irish people, paid as a tribute to absentee landlords. Now, how comes it that the great mass of the people of India, who are industrious and frugal, and who produce from year to year an abundance to keep them all, find themselves, in a year of drought or scarcity, on the very verge of starvation? Must it not be that somehow, or in some way, the powers that govern India, through a system of taxation or otherwise, manage to absorb the wealth that those people create? So I say, sir, it is right and proper that, while we are generous in our contributions for the relief of suffering, we should point out the evils that make those people poor and suffering. . . . Ireland was a rich and prosperous country until the system of landlordism absorbed the wealth of the Irish people, and the same system is now eating out the vitals of India, and it is doing the same thing in this country. We are to-day traveling the same road, and it will be but a very short time until we in this country will be appealing to other countries to save our starving people, under the same laws and the same conditions.”