KW
1
The Commoner.
a sort of courage, when a convulsive burst of pop
ular rag and despair warns tyrants not to pre
sume too far on the patience of mankind. But
against mlsgovernment such as then afflicted Ben
gal, it is impossible to struggle. .The superior in
telligence and energy of the dominent class made
their power irresistible. A war of Bengalees
against Englishmen was like a war of sheep
against wolves, of men against demons
"The strength of civilization . without its
mercy!" '
The American people are capable of govern
ing themselves, but what reason have we to believe
that they can wisely administer the affairs of dis
tant races? It is difficult enough to curb corpor
ate power in this country, where the people who
suffer have in their own hands the means of red
ress; how much more difficult it would be to pro
tect the interests of the people where the people
who do the governing do not feel the suffering
and .where the people who do 'the suffering must
rely up6n the mercy of alien rulers!
True, Macaulay argues that English morality,
tardily but -finally, followed English authority into
.theOrient,-butas a.matter of fact, the bleeding of
India has continued systematically during the
present century. Polite and refined methods have
been substituted for the rude and harsh ones
formerly employed, and the money received is dis
tributed among a larger number, but the total sum
.annually drawn from India is greater now than it
was when England's foremost orators and states
men were demanding the impeachment of notor
ious malefactors.
Sir J. Strachoy, an Englishman, in a history re
cently published, is quoted as saying that "the
confiscation of the rights of the ryots (in Bengal)
has reached vast proportions." He then shows that
through the action of the "English government the
'Zemindars, or middle men, have been able to
enormously increase their income at the expense
of the tillers of the soil, the increase being from
four hundred thousand pounds in the last century
to' thirteen million pounds at the present time.
On the "28th of December," 1897 only a year
ago a meeting of the London Indian society was
held at Montague Mansions and strong resolutions
.adopted. JBelow will be found an extract irom the
resolutions:
"That this conference of Indians, resident in
the United Kingdom, is of opinion
"That of all the evils and 'terrible misery' that
India has been suffering for a century and a half,
and of which the latest developments are the most
deplorable, famine and plague, arising from ever
increasing poverty, the stupid and suicidal frontier
war and its savagery, of the wholesale destruction
of villages, unworthy of any people, but far more
so of English civilization; the unwise and suicidal
prosecutions for sedition; the absurd and ignorant
cry of the disloyalty of the educated Indians, and
for the curtailment of the liberty of the Indian
press; the despotism like that of the imprison
melt of the Natus, and the general insufficiency
and inefficiency of the administration of all these
and many other minor evils the main cause is the
unrighteous and un-British system of government
which produces an unceasing and ever-increasing
bleeding of the country, and which is maintained
by a political hypocrisy and continuous subter
- fuges unworthy of the British honpr and name,
and entirely in opposition to the wishes of the
British people, and utterly in violation of acts
and resolutions of parliament, and of the most
solemn and Tepeated pledges of the British nation
and sovereign.
"That unless the present unrighteous and un
Eritish system of government is thoroughly re
formed into a righteous and truly British system
destruction to India and disaster to the British
empire must be the Inevitable result"
Mr. Naoroji, an Indian residing in England, in
Supporting the" resolution, pointed out the con
tinuous drain of money from India and argued
that the people were compelled "to make brick, not
only without straw, but even without clay." Ho
insisted that England's trade with India would be
greater if she would allow the people of India a
larger participation in the affairs of their own
government and protested against the policy of
sending Englishmen to India to hold the offices
and draw their support from taxes levied upon
the inhabitants. Ho complained that British Jus
tice Is one thing in England and quite another
thing in India, and said: "There (in India) it is
only the business of the people to pay taxes and to
slave; and the' business of the government to spend
those taxes to their own benefit. Whenever any
question arises between Great Britain and India
there is a demoralized mind. The principles of
politics, of commerce, of equality which are ap
plied to Great Britain are not applied to India.
As if it were not inhabited by human beings!"
Does any one doubt that, if we annex the Phil
ippines and govern them by agents sent from
here, questions between them and the people of
the United States will be settled by the pepple of
the United States and for the benefit of the people
" of the "United States? If we make subjects of
them against their will and for our own benefit
are we likely to govern them with any more ben
evolence? The resolutions quoted mention efforts for the
curtailment of the liberty of the press. Is that
.not a necessary result of governmental injustice?
Are we likely to allow the Filipinos freedom of the
pres',, if we enter upon a system that Is indefensi
ble according to our theory of government?
Mr. Hyndman, an English writer, in a pamph
let issued in 1897, calls attention to English indif
ference to India's wrongs, and, as an illustration
of this indifference, cites the fact that during the
preceding year the India budget affecting the wel
fare of nearly three hundred millions of .people
was brought before parliament on the last day of
the session when only a few members were pres
ent. He asserts that "matters are far worse than
they were in the das of the old East India com
pany," and that "nothing short of a great famine,
a terrible pestilence, or a revolt on a large scale,
will induce the mass of Englishmen to devote any
attention whatever to the affairs of India."
To show how, in the government of India, the
interests of English officerholders outweigh the In
terests of the natives, I give an extract from the
pamphlet already referred to:
"First, under the East India company, and.
then, and far more completely, under the direct
rule of the crown of the English people, the na
.tives have been shut out from all the principal
positions of trust over five-sixths of Hindostan,
and have been prevented from gaining any exper
ience in the higher administration, or in military
affairs.
"Wherever it was possible to put in an Eng
lishman to oust a native an Englishman has been
put in, and has been paid from four times to twen
ty times as much for his services as would have
sufficed for the salary of an equally capable Hindoo
or Mohammedan official. jxi the pitsent
time, out of 39,000 officials who draw a salary of
more tuan 1,000 rupees a year, 28,000 are English
ment and only 11,000 natives. Moreover, the 11,
000 natives receive as salaries only three million
pounds a year; the 28,000 Englishmen receive fif
teen million pounds a year. Out of the 960 impor
tant civil offices which really control the civil ad
ministration of India 900 are filled with English
ment and only sixty with natives. Still worse if
possible, the natives of India have no control what
soever in any shape or way over their own taxa
tion, or any voice at all in the expenditure of their
own revenues. Their entire government I speak,
of course, of the 250,000,000 under our direct con
trolis carried on and administered by foreigners,
who not only do not settle in the country, but who
live lives quite remote from those of the peopl
and return home at about forty-five or fifty years
of ago with largo pensions.
"As I have often said in public, India is, in
fact, now governed by successive relays of English
carpet-baggers, who have as little sympathy with
the natives as they have any real knowledge of
their habits and customs."
The Statesman's Year Book or 1897, published
by Macmillan & Co., London, contains some in
teresting statistics in regard to India.
It seemp that there are but two and a quarter
millions of Christians in India less than one per
cent after so many years of English control.
It appears, also, that in 1891 only a little more
than throo millions out of three hundred millions
were under instruction; a little more than twelve
millions wtre not under instruction, but able to
read and writo, while two hundred and forty-six
millions were neither under Instruction nor able
to read or write. Twenty-five millions appear un
der tho head 'not roturned."
The European army in India amounts to seventy-four
thousand and the native array to one
hundred and forty-five tnousand. In the army the
European officers number five thousand and the
native officers twenty-seven hundred. One-fourtt
of the national expenditure in India goes to the
support of the army. Nearly one-third of India's
annual revenue is expended in Great Britain. Tho
salary of tho governor general is 250,000 rupees
per annaum.
The Year Book above mentioned is also re
sponsible for the statement that tne act of 1893,
closing tho Indian mints to tho free coinage of
silver, was enacted by the governor general and
council upon tho same day that it was introduced.
Mr. Leech, former director of the United States
mint, in an article in tho Forum, declared that
the closing of the mints of India on that occasion
was the most momentous event in themonetary
history of the present century. It will be remem
bered that this act was made the excuse for an ex
tra session of our congress and for the uncondi- ,
tional repeal of the Sherman law;
One can obtain sbmo idea of the evils of Irre
sponsible alien government when he reflects that
ai English governor general and an English coun
cil changed the financial system of nearly three
hundred millions of people by an act introduced
and passed in the course of a single day.
No matter what views one may hold upon the
money question, he cannot defend such a system of
government without abandoning every principle
revered by the founders of the republic. Senator
Wolcott, of Colorado, one of the president's com
missioners, upon his return from Europe, made a
speech in the senate in which he declared that the
last Indian famine was a money famine rather
than a food famine. In that speech Mr. Wolcott
a;so asserted that the closing of the India mints
reduced, by five hundred millions of dollars, tho
value of the silver accumulated in the hands of the
people. If Mr. Wolcott's statement contains the
smallest fraction of truth the injury done by the
East India company during its entire existence
va- less than the Injury done by that one act of
the governor and his council. If the famine was, in
fact, a money famine, created by an act of the gov
ernor and his council, then indeed Is English rule
as cruel and merciless in India today as was the
rule of the East India company's agents a century
ago.
English rule in India is not bad because it is
I'.ngllsh, but because no race has yet appeared suf
ficiently strong in character to resist tho tempta
tions which come with irresponsible power.
ve may well turn from the contemplation of
an imperial policy and its necessary vices to tho
words of Jefferson in his first Inaugural message:
"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted
with tho government of himself. Can he, then,
be trusted with the government of others? Or
have we found angels in the form of kings to
govern them? Let history answer this question."
W. J. BRYAN
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