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About The North Platte semi-weekly tribune. (North Platte, Neb.) 1895-1922 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 1909)
EW YORK A national vice that docs not pay is In n bad way. it's like a brainless mar who has become penniless It has no friends. Therefore, when tho statesmen of the earth reached tho tardy conclusion that the encouragement, of opium smoking really did not pay. tho gaunt giant of the poppy Holds was ready 10 bo bowled over, writes Allan U Hen son. At this propitious moment tho United Slates government, which had never sought to fatten on the opium traffic, lnl(,lated a world-wide tight against it. That was two years ago. China, which for 700 years had alternately fought against and wrung revenuo from its greatest national weakness, rallied for another attack. First an edict went forth that every Chinese oillcial who smoked opium must forthwith cease to do so. Then tho common people of China wuro notified that they, too, must soon atop. Tho common people, however, woro glvon ton years In which to taper off tho habit to tho vanishing point. China also entered into an agree ment with Great Hrltaln to decrease, year by year, tho area devoted to poppy culture in China and in India. Of course one does not neod to go far to find (lie reason for America's opposition to the oplum-smoklng habit. As a peoplo, we do not burn the poppy's blood, and are not greedy enough to care to continue to collect tho $0 a pound tax that wo have levied on tho opium that the Chinese and the white dogoneratos want to smoke. Hut how comes It that England, which once fought for opium with her armies and hor Hoots Is now openly against It? And how comes It that China, whose public officials have so long fattened on the taxes wrung from the trafllc, is sitting beside Englund? Hack of these circumstances is a profound economic fact. This fact Is that opium smoking does not pay. It never paid but shorter sighted governmental ofllrlala long thought It did. Yet the changed view has not Its origin In tho failure of tariffs and imposts of various sorts to wring enormous sums from those who smoke the Oriental pipe. Here Is the real story In threo sentences: Mon, to pay taxes, must first bo born. After birth they must have strength and Industry. And thoy must not dlo until they are too old to work. Now sec what opium does: In those families where the' father smokes opium the average number of children is 1.00. The few children who are born nnd who reach maturity are poor workers, and they die young. Hero is the world crying for ef ficiency and prodigious production. Hero are the great nations scanning their budgets and their Industries In desperate desire to raise the enormous Bums with which to maintain their arnilos, increase their navies and carry cn their other great governmental ac tivities. And here is opium palsying tho hands that could turn many a wheel. Is It any wonder that the poppy Ileitis aro giving way to rice, and that tho Amorican congress has passed a bill excluding smoklng-oplum? The statesmen of an older school. It Is true, would have done otherwise. Thoy would have clutched tho penny-tax and loBt tho ultimate dollar. Hut even England Is no longer so unwise. Eng land knows that her Dreadnoughts woro not launched from poppy fields; that thoy were made possible only by tho well-worked mlnos and mills and farms of England. And while she is aware that she could continue to reap n pittance from the popples, sho Is now seeking bigger things. Sho wants to tax tho groater products of vigor ous mon. Yet what u light it lias boon for China to sco this happy day when tho world's, IntoroBt in this mattor has be como like her own! It's a fight that began 700 years ago, and It Illustrates, as nothing olse can, tho peculiar Btrongth and tho peculiar weakness that aro inheront in tho Chlnoso char actor. It also affords ono of the few Illustrations of the superiority of nu tocrntlc government over ponular rule. For whllo the people of tho opium lmblt, always vigorously fought for it. oven as they are now rioting against the curtailment of the poppy fields, the govorninont has always opposed It, proelsoly as It opposes It to day. Some tlinoa It has ylolded to oxteiior force, nnd thon It has Bhown Its weakness by impoverishing with taxes those whose bodies opium was Impoverish ing. Opium was unknown in China until the latter part of tho twelfth century. Who brought It there perhnpa does not muk so much difference ?lnc it is Ihero, but tho Hrltlsh say the Arabs did. At any rate, the dried Juice of the poppy oame from somo of tho eastern Europeans or western AhUiIc countries, where It had been known for a hundred years prior to the Chris tian era. And at Ilrst It was used only for medicinal purposes. Then, ns now. many Chinese were nfllloted with fevers, nnd opium helped them. Meantime the Turks had Introduced opium Into India, whoro the natives soon engaged In its cultivation on a largo scale. The Chinese, after form Ing the opium habit, then bought their suppllos In India. At that time there was a considerable export trado from China to India, and tho junks that car ried other merchandise from tho Celes tial empire brought back the raw mn torlnl from which opium Is made. In 1308 the habit had become so widespread that the emperor, noting Its ill effects, issued an imperial de cree against the use of and tho trafllc In opium. In the original decree ho proscribed only moderate penalties for its violation, but as his subjects did not obey him, he increased the sever ity of tho penalties until death or trans portation became tho lot of every one who persisted In tho use of the baneful pipe. And, as the Chinese hud then been smoking opium less than GO years, they broke off the habit just as an American youth who has smoked tobacco only a year or two can give up tho uso of tobacco. Hut. like the American boy who "swears off" and then In two months goes back to his tobacco, the Chinese in a few years resumed the uso of opium and again a stern emperor stopped It. Nor was opium again smoked In China until tho iatter part of the eighteenth century. Hrltlsh rule having been imposed upon India, the government In 1757 granted to the East India Company a monopoly of tho trade In opium. Tho East India Company at once cast Its eyes Chinuward. There It saw an em peror who had forbidden tho Importa tion or uso of opium; there It also saw laws fixing tho opium smoker's penally at death. Hul there It also saw Chi nese gold, and plans were at once laid to provide the Chlneso with opium whether their emperor would have It or not. The scheme devised was for Hrlt lsh ships to lie off Chlneso ports and deliver opium to such Chinese mer chants as might come out to buy. And tho plan worked so well that in 1700 G00.000 pounds of the forbidden pro duct were sold in China. Of course the Chinese government did not sit Idly by. It cut off a few heads and sent many persons out of tho country for tho country's good; but the smoking of opium went on. What's the threat of death to a man who wants to do something9 Around tho world in England at that very mo ment men were stealing five-shilling purses and being hanged for It. And the Chinese continued to smoke their opium. In 18!!0 tho East India Com pany sold to them and they smoked 2,500,000 pounds. The East India Company was becoming rich and tho Hrltlsh government took toll from Its trade. History records the fact flint In the year 18."7 the Chinese omporor scrowed up Ills courago and talked fight. Tho sale of opium to his subjects must stop. The supply ships that were lying outside his harbors must clear out. If thoy didn't there would be trouble. So ho said in his proclamation. Tho Hrltlsh East India Company treated him as if ho were a chattering child. Not a ship moved. Not a Chinaman came after opium who did not get It. Everything wont on as be fore. Hut tho emperor was no chattering child. Ho was a raging, roaring old man. Ho folt precisely as the Hoston ers did when tho tea-laden Hrltlsh ships enmo In aftor their tax. And he did precisely what tho citizens of Hoston did boarded tho ships, by proxy of course, and dumped the opium into tho oconn 11,000,000 pounds of it! Of courso tills act was construed by the Hrltlsh to constltuto a cause for war, and hostilities were opened as soon as tho aggrieved poiFons could got their guns Into action. This was in 1810. Tho Chinese, even in that day, were as poor llghtors as they are now. In a little while a Hrltlsh lleet had captured Chusan. The next year the Hogue forts fell, and then Canton, Amoy, Shanghai, Chapoo, and a lot of other placos gave up the yliost. Hy 1812 the Chinese emperor was very glad to buy peace by ceding Hong kong, paying an Indemnity of $21,000, 000, and throwing open four ports to foreign trade. Ho even humiliated himself by degrading Commissioner Liu who hud curried ut the emperor's orders. Nor did ho get oven the thanks of his own subject. for his efforts In their behalf. The whole empire was torn with rebellion. Hebel armies robbed, nuirdered and plundered al most as thoy ploasod. If they had had an Intelligent loader who could have welded ilium together ami directed thoni with spirit, thoy might have done uwaj with old Taou-kwang, but In 1850 he saved them the trouble by dying. From that day until two years ago no Chinese emperor dared say any thing against smoking. The Chinese raised popples In nine of the eighteen provinces of their country, and would have raised more If the climate and the soil had been suitable. From an Importer of the drug China has be come an exporter. Almost all of the opium that Is brought Into the United StntcB comes from tho Flowory king dom. No longer does It pay tribute to Hrltaln for Its supplies. Hrltaln can tax the trade In her own India, but that's a good deal.llko trying to lift herself by her own bootstraps. And ns was said at the beginning, when a national vice does not pay It Is in a bad way. The Chinese consul in Now York was sought to throw light on the ef forts of Ills government, after 70 years of silent resignation, to free Its sub jects from tho opium habit. He was educated at Ooorgo Washington and Columbia universities nnd speaks Eng lish well. "Will the Chinese," ho was asked, "bo able to break off the opium habit In the ten years In which they have boon given to do It?", "1 think so," he replied. "The gov ernment has already taken extraordi nary measures to curtail the salo of the drug, and tho increasing difficulty with which It may bo obtained will as sist victims of tho smoking habit In breaking off. it tiBed to be, for in stance, so that any coolie In a city need not go more than half the length of ono of your city blocks to find a placo where he could buy all the opium he wanted or could pay for. more than that, there were in all Chl neso cities places whoro anybody could go to sinoko the pipes nnd othor appliances being furnished by the proprietors. These places wero for tho accommodation of the poorer class of Chlneso who could not afford to own pipes. It was tho custom of Chi nese laborers to drop into these re sorts two or three times r. day and smoke, Just as an American laborer may take n glass of beer at noon and another at night. "All this is now changed. The Chl neso government has imposed the same sort of regulations upon the salo of smoking opium that many American municipalities have imposed upon the salo of liquor. If the public officials of America were suddenly ordered to stop smoking cigars I imagine the command would be obeyed only with tho greatest difficulty by some of tho A COMMON SCENE IN men who havo been using tobacco 20 30 or 10 years. They have tho habit. That's tho difference public officials In China havo not the opium habit. "It Is unfortunately tru-j that the lower classes In tho cities are slaves of tho pipe. When u poor man lives on a farm, he seems to get along easily without using opium, but when ho conies to tho city he picks up the habit within a year. If ho smokes la moderation, no great harm seems to come to him for a while, though ulti mately it uudermiiios his health . Hut the tumble Is that few Chinese In the cities uso opium moderately. They soon smoke as many times as they can luring tho day, and go at it aguin at night, continuing until sleep over powers them. In this way thoy econo mize on food, for ono who smokes immoderately can no I eat much and they aro also able to do a great amount of work for a while without feeling the usual fatigue. ' Yet tho henlth of such is these In variably soon gives way. First they become ghastly thin sometimes al most approaching the skeleton stage then they lose strength, ambition nnd lastly life Itself. "In the country it Is different. Many fanners who raise popples do not smoke opium. As n result they have good health and live long. It Is not unusual for a Chinese farmer to reach the ago of 70 or SO and occasionally one hangs on until he Is 100" Those who hnve believed that opium smoking Is a natural vice In China will perhaps be surprised at the consul's statement to the contrary. Yet this stntement Is verified by the fact that China's birth rate remains moderately high, notwithstanding the low rate In tho cities, where opium Is uod. Hut, If the consul's statement be sur prising, what must be said of that of Dr. Hamilton Wright. Dr. Wright says the Chinese who are resident In America are rapidly giving up the uso of the drug. The better class of Ori ental exiles not only do not smoke, but regard with scorn any of their countrymen who do. Why, then, are the Importations of smoking opium Into the United States Increasing? And who smoked tho million and a quarter dollars' worth that was Imported In the HrBt ll months of last year? In the answer to these questions lies the Interest of the United States In ex cluding opium from this country and slopping Its une everywhere. Tho fact Is that American women, or at least while women, used a large part of the smoking opium that was brought Into the country last year, and therefore supplied much of tho great sum that went to pay for It. Even the lowest white men aro not likely to develop a hankering for opium, but degraded white women yield to It ns readily as any Chinese ever did. Possibly thoy want to forgot perhaps opium helps them to blot out for a time that which they would not remember. In any event, every great city contains places where women may go to smoke opium, and In New York In particular, one need not go far down the hall of many a cheap lodging house to catch the fumes of the drug with which China has wres tled for 700 years. If white women used oven half of tho smoking opium that was brought to the United States last year, and each woman during tho year bought $20 worth there aro !I0,000 such women In this country. It doesn't seem pos sible! Hut the opium was brought i CHINA YEARS AGO. here, sold, paid for, tmd smoked, and those who aro most familiar with the facts say that white women used much of It. Such despondency as they never know will be ahead of these women after the bill to exclude smoking opium becomes a law. To be caught smoking or merely to be round with tho drug in one's possession will then make the offender liable to two years' Imprisonment. Yet precisely as ihero were Chlneso fiOO years ago who lost I heir heads because they could not forego their pipes, doubtless there aro Amorican woman who will go to prison If they can get the forbidden drug Willi which to violate tho law. For It Is us difficult to break a bad habit as II Is to form a good ono. A whole lot of women would llko their husbands hotter if thoy didn't always have to pick up after thoni. DetioP Fid' I've. What Profiteth It a Man to By HIRAM RICE (OrlL - The professor of etliiiolog In a cer tain Institution of learning, who was contemplating a trip to darkest Africa In search of curious specimens of hu manity, abandoned his design when he spotted among the students a cou ple named Thomas and Helney. There was no need, he told his wife, of muss ing around In the tangled swamps of Central Africa, fighting mosquitoes and other wild beasts, and running the risk of having to marry the dusky queen of some savage tribe In order to preserve his head In Its accustom ed place, while searching for people with whom nature had been having fun, when two such cholco specimens were, so to speak, left on his door step. Thomas was one of those Individuals who preferred to stuff his head Instead of his stomach, and as a result was about the hungriest-looking mortal that ever tried to make u scientific theory tako the place of u large helping of corned beef and cabbage. He had a head as big as a pumpkin, nnd there was so much learning Inside It that It bulged out in ridges until it resem bled ono of the aforementioned In gredients of a pie. Poring over books nnd holding up that enormous head had bowed out ills back nnd bent In his wishbone until he looked like an exaggerated Interrogation point. Na ture had been kind enough to Thomas In the beginning, so tho neighbors said, Inasmuch as she had endowed him with sulllcleut good looks to put him In the beauty class had ho cared to follow that lino; but tho Ambition Hug had bitten hint when ho was n small boy, and now about all ho cared for was to wear enough clothes to keep tho pollco from bothering him, nnd store up facts In bin think closet. Helney wns n big, husky chunk of bono and muscle, with a face that would frighten a she-bear, and a head about the shape of a green onion. He wore fnncy vests and loud socks, could roll cigarettes with one hand, ami was about as Intellectual as a crawfish; but having gumption enough to go Indoors when It rained ho was satisfied with ils mental attainments and paid moro attention to tho dinner horn than tho class bell, Thomas and Helney came from the snmo town, and in a way wero close rivals. Thomas' father was tho village plutocrat, having gotten rich shaving notes and forcloslng mortgages. Wlion no discovered that his son yearned to be one of the Intellectual lights of tho oouiitry he told him to go as far as he liked along that line, for he realized that soaking up learning was less ex pensive than soaking up highballs. Helney's father was a shoo cobbler by trade and an enemy of I ho rich by profession; when he heard that Thomas was to havo IiIb brain stuffed with nil tho factB and theories It would hold, ho declared that learning was ano thing tho. rich couldn't completely corner, and determined that Helney should have all that ho could cram Into his queer-Bhaped head, no matter how many half soles It took (o accom plish it. 'J nomas took to books like a girl lo pickles and Ico cream, but Helney's brain was as tough and unyielding lis onie of his father's solo leather. Tho only reut-on ho went to school was be. :auso no one would play hookey with him, and his father had a habit of bending htm across n barrel and beat 'ng the protruded portion of his anat omy with an oak lath every time ho spent a lonesome arternoou down by the creek hank. Helney could fling a stone with tho precision of a niulo's kick, nnd bolng as strong and frisky as a yearling colt In pasture, he developed Into the best baseball and football playor In tho town, and then ho endured the en forced hours In tho school room so ho could Indulge In his ravoiito sports during tho intermissions. Of course ho could not rub up against so much learning without being Inoculated with some of It, so the teachers gladly passed him on till the time enmo for his class to graduate; tho principal heaved a sigh of relief and crossed his fingers when he signed his name to Helney's diploma. A uooii ub Thomas hud acquired ull 1 ft R 1 j' "Beat It." Be So Wise lunl.) thi knowledge dispensed In the homo schools ho began to tease his father lo be sent to a university. The old man thought It over awhile, then fore closed on another farm, and set a por Hon of the proceeds aside for this purpose. When the news got around to Helney's rather he ordered n keg of kerosene, another side of boIo leather and spread the Information that he would keep his shop open nights. When the professors of the tin I verslly beheld Thomas' dome of thought they gathered about and made his matriculation an Intellectually hl hirlous event, but whon Helney pre sented himself they sized tip bis bullet' shaped conk In one glance, then hand ed him a frown and the htghly cut tured term of boat for "beat It." They had to simplify the expression before he could understand It, and then Helney picked up his enrpet Back and went forth wondering If dad would use the oak lath on hint when ho got homo and reported. However, ho didn't have long to worry about II, for n ho was wandering about the campus like a stray calf with too much sour milk aboard, he ran Into tho director of athletic Bports, who wns looking for a piece of humanity about tho bIzo of Hplnoy to fit Into the keystone position of the football bunch. Ho gently drew from Helney his tale of woo and lire's history, and when he learned that tho bulky young mnii with the small cupola could butt a hole through it two-Inch board without even peeling tho bark off his topknot, and could land a drop kick from tho 50-yard Hue, he took htm by the hand and led him back to the men who had turned him down, and ordered his name on tho roll for the "good of the school." At the first recitation Thomas got 100 per cent, and Helney got a zero, but the professor had his orders from the athletic director, and that counts some In most colleges or did when this happened. When tho first footbnll game was played Thomas was In his room wrestilng with a quadratic equa tion In tho third degrco, whllo Helney was covering himself with glory nnd mud on tho gridiron; and when ho was carried from the field on tho shoulders of tho enthusiastic football bugs, his standing In the university wnB set tled, no mattor what blunders ho made In the clasB room, mid ho wrnto a badly spoiled lotfer homo to cheer dad ut his nightly vigils with tho Inst and shoo pegs. As tlmo went by tho Intellectual bumps on ii'lioninc' head grew larger, while Helney was taken up by tho hilarious bunch that had money to spend and didn't care how It spent It. Trigonometry, geology, cnlculun, psychology and such things bocamo like unto AHC's to Tliomus, and by hard work Helney got enough mathe matics Into his bond to llgure out n raco-horBe dope sheet and tho per centages of tho baseball teams. Ho was a star In tho fall on tho footbnll flold, then ho lilbernnted In a spell of glory until spring, whon ho added now laurels to his crown by being tho only pitcher that could bo relied upon by the bnseball team. All the girls wero daffy about him, tho young mon woro proud to know him, ami small boys followed hint along tho streot hushed to a whisper by his grettnoss. No ono but the faculty knew that Thomas wns on tho roll of students, The time finally came when ThomnB and Helney's class had to graduate, and as Helney's days as a football player wero ended, by ti e laws or tho game, ho was handed a sheepskin that had as much Latin on It as that of Thomas, but he was afraid to tako It home for fear his father would ask him to read It. Thomas was immediately hired by tho faculty as an assistant professor of mathematics ami the dead lan guages at n salary of $500 por year, while Helney was offered tho position of football coach at $11,000 a year. Hut tho big leagues had been lighting for lilm somo time, and aftor haggling the usual time ho finally signed up ns a pitcher at tho modest sum of $G.000 por senson. Every paper In the United States made mention of this fact and lots or thoni run his picture. Tho home paper donated nearly a page to It, whllo Thomas' high honors wero dis missed with a llvo-llne squib on the loeni page. While the rolkn of the home town woro still talking In bated breath about Helney's great good rortuno lie slipped out of town one day and tho next heard of htm ho had married tho daughter of a millionaire, who had been bombarding him with sofa cush ions, collogo flags and such things for four years, and trembling all the time for fear she would not be ablo to laud him. When the old cobbler heard tho news he sent his congratulations, and tho happy btido responded by mak ing him a present of a mahogany cob bler'B bench, with inlaid pearl dudada all over It. gold peg trays, a seat of Itusslan sable and u diamond-mounted hammor. Is Worth Robbing. A diamond salesman ofton carries from $100,000 to $500,000 worth of stones on his trios.