THE OMAHA, SUNDAY BEE: AUGUST 21, 1910.
D
Work and Wages Among Hindus; Millions Toil for Ten Cents a Day
is.
: ; sytr l s.niu.m : " fuming iv.-n
Miiiiiw m,.mi , ' y r . I ' ' j
f ...j-. ....... : . : 7. 'i .; V.' '" f .. -. JY- L '
... J- z y W " V 1 1 ; - : '-1
11.10. by Frank 3. Carpenter.) thlH, some of the labour, are bond w - ? . ifflSrftf it I i xVNim ' JUf t!fSMll M 6 ,: J I -i ' .- ! , ' ."iWi JT? . . V--? 1 i . 'i
Jfj I largely a matter of wage. Sup- The farmer, who have their own lands ''illlif'MKvlV V. : t ;rSE V.' " J If
MMI Govcrmgnb Clgis are Poorly Paul Q-W
.'Copyright
OMBAY, 1810. -(Special to The
.Bee.) The unrest of India la
largely a matter of wages. Sup
pone you had to work for 1 or 2
cents an hours? Siipikjso you
could have only one square
meals- every day, and nlynt after iiIkiii
your family should go to Ded hungry?
These are ' the conditions of millions
of , Hindus. Suppose. they existed
at home? Would we not have an unrest
r.lth a vengeance? I refer the question to
Brother Qompers for answer.
Low Wan;) In India, i
I have before me a list of the wages
the natives are paid. I take them from
the statistical abstract sent by the viceroy
, to the British .houses of parliament, and
therefore reliable. At Calcutta curpetv
ters, blacksmiths and masons are now
receiving less than fti a month; and that
would.be a high average for mechanics
throughout Hindustan.; In the Province of
Oude, they are paid lees than 13 and at
Agra only $1 more., .
, At, Patna able-bodied farm hands receive
less than 12 pet month. For this they
work twelve hours u day and In some cuses
havt to take-grain (or their wages. The
average Income for all Hindustan Is only
about 4 cents a day; Not long ago there
was a famine in southern India, during
which the government relieved the people
by . giving them lnbor on public Improve
ments. It paid 4 cents to the diggers and )
cents to the women who carried the earth
from on place to another In baskets. They
worked from daylight till durk. The chil
dren were paid 2 cents a day. They were
ustd to break up the clods and smooth over
the ground. ,
The Klch and l'"or at Calcutta.
The truth Is the Indian empire Is large
ly an empire of paupers, and that of pau
pers, surrounded .by plenty. . Tantalus-llke,
they are up to the neck In the waters of
poverty, with rich fruits of all kinds hang
ing over their heads. When they grasp for
the fruits they vanish, and they strive and
strive end strive In vain. I was struck
by this at Calcutta. That capital is known
as the City of -Palaces, but It Is also a
city, of hovels. It has Its thousands of
splendid carriages and automobiles, with
coachmen and chauffeurs In the most gor
geour liveries. It has rloh Kngllshmen and
native raJiUis and nabobs who are loaded
vants, who get only their living,
cent now and then for a feast
The farmers who have their own lands
are mortgaged up to tbeir eyes, and the
money lender and the tax collector give
them no peace. The government levies
on real estate have been advancing. The
ugitntors claim they are exorbitantly
high In comparison, nnd a current book
on India states that one-eighth of the
entire farming population of Madras has
been sold out of house and home within
lef than a decade. Not orly their farms,
but their furniture and - personal belong- '
ings, have been taken for taxes. On the-, rice, and that the majority live on flour
other hand. It Is claimed that the tax- made of coarse grains, which they cook up
ation today Is less than It has ever been, into unleavened cakes called chuppattls.
and that it is lighter per head than the t have never eaten with the Hindus. They
taxes of any other country of the world, would not tolerate my touching their food,
We pay thirteen ' times as much taxes for this would' make them lose caste and
per head as the Hindoos. The Russians lead to damnation,
pay eight times as much and the Bng-
llHh twenty times as much.
Oppressed by the Money Sharks.
Indeed, we shall have to look outside
India's Famines
The whole nation seems to live from hand
to mouth, and the result Is that a short
crop always causes a famine. This has
the government for the causes of India s been for centUrles. One hundred and
poverty. We can find one In the nature forty yearg ftg0 a famine In Bengal caused .
of- the people, which leads them to, bor- the ,jeath of W.OOO.pOO, and seventy-odd years are publio lodging places, where the ae
ro w whenever they can, and in the' money Bince 8,000,000 starved in one province. Kam- commodations cost from 1 to 8 cents:
sharks, who lend at usurous rates upon jne8 are R0 common that the British gov- night The ordinary farmer saves his cent,
their crops and lands. In many such eminent keeps a fund In reserve which It and camps outslde.VThe most common bed
cases the Interest is taken rh kind, the adds to every year, and It has a regular Is a rude framework of wood over which
shark having his agent on the ground system of taking care of the people by a netting of ropes of the size of a clothes
aid grabbing a share of the grain as it employing them on public works at such line Is stretched. This is the bed of the
pnmu mm iha tht-onhlnv Th iiHimt times Dnrlnu- the famine of 1896 more more favored members of the family. They
rate of interest is 21 per cent per annum, than 1,000,000 rations were issued each day, lie upon the bed spoon-fashion; for If they shilling and three pence. In . fact, we are
and many foreigners are paying 3 per and notwithstanding that almost 1,000,000 should stretch out their legs their feet
cent a month and upward. In the In- died of disease or starvation. The people would hang over. Sometimes the children
terlor of India the banks charge as much I've so closely that they have no reserve and always the widows sleep on the floor.
as 10 per cent per annum, although the force, and when their food Is cut down
government Itself has recently been lend- they drop off like sheep. In some parts Conditions Improving.
. tt in,n. iha, n, niiln t inn l n rieniut that Notwithstanding all this one of the cab-
at 5 or . ner cent B ' ' U does not Increase from year to year, the inet ministers of the viceroy tells me that have had their Incomes materially reduced
. There isTo country where banking!, s natural growth, which goes on over the the farmers arc much better off now than by the h , 'ot nM.
much of a business. There are castes rest p the world, being absent. I they were In the past This is one of the causesof the unrest.
A striking eviaence ot me poverty oi nw e nave "vri
India is the absolute lack of comforts which past generation. When I came to India
Is everywhere seen. The peasants live thirty years ago. the syce who took care
more like animals tnan men. iney win oi my norses goi aooui runr" vr;
as sixpence a day In most localities, while
in the Punjab, at harvest, he will get a
short of labor, and have hardly enough
to harvest the crops. The fanner raises
a large part of his own food and he Is
now profiting by the high prices of grain.
On the other hand, the professional men,
clerks and employes of the government
here who thoroughly understand the
breeding value of Interest, and there are
altogether In India 400,000 bankers and
money lenders, of whom more than 00,000
are women. Much money Is loaned upon
real estate mortgages, and from this iTie
bankers are getting hold of tho land. In
ome provinces as much as 68 per cent
of the country belong to them, and In
others 40 and 50 pr cent.
Poorly Paid Clerks.
This remark of the official reminds me
of an Incident which occurred at the post-
sleep anywhere. I see them lying on the month, and I now have to pay that much office here this tnorning. I .was waiting
floors of the railway stations with nothing for a common Bervant, ana twelve rupees to register a letter, when I neara a quar
but a thin piece of cotton between their ($4) or more for one of the better classes, reling among the clerks. The noise was so
bones and the stone. In the towns there A good farm hand can now get as much great that I went to the window and looked
in. I saw there a big, fine looking babu or Tla Increase of prices, which is a eom-
natlve official dressed In a long white --oat mon complaint in the United States, hat
and gold turban, cursing a lean Hindu In extended all over the world. It has affected
a cheap garb of white cotton. The babu all who have fixed wages or fixed in-
shook both his fists in the little man's face, comes, and especially those government A
generation. The little fellow protested and station. As to the government tmploySJ
apologised; but the babu only cursed him I will give you only the wages of postnieW.
the louder. He ended by shoving him 'back They vary in the different provinces, but
to his place at the sorting table. As ' I they are seldom more than $4 a month,
asked what the matter was, the weighing while the postal runners get half that. In
clerk whispered: '"The mall Is late and Bengal the postmen receive ; less than 13
that clerk Is partly the cause. It Is not cents a day; in Bombay they get about li
his fault,-though. He Is poor and has not cents, while In the central provinces their
had enough to eat. Hungry men cannot wages are less than twelve,
work rapidly. That clerk fitts only nine In India something like two million peo-
rupees (5) a month and one" cannot buy pie are supported by government Jobs of
much rice for that. It used to be better; one kind or another. There are a few at
but things are so high now that the poor the top who get fairly good Salaries, but
have not enough."
T
Live li Mail Hats.
The average home of the Hindu peasant
with Jewels; but with them Is want so Is not as good as the average American
keen that it cuts to the ht-art. There are stable. It is often a mud hut from ten to
thousands upon the street who go almost fifteen feet square, without doors or win
naked. The dress of the common people is Uows. The floor Is plastered with cow
such that the legs of the women are often dung, and the furniture is a rope bed and
bare to the knees and of thu men to the a lew pots and pans. The house la usu
llghs. The bones are clad only in sinews ally thatched with straw and its interior is
and skin. There is not enough meat on hte as bare as a barn. It seldom has more than
lag to tempt a hungry dog. They are as one room, and In this the whole family
straight as a pipe stem, the swelling of the accommodates Itself as it can. The stove
calves being absent. The poor Bengali cor- is a fireplace made of three or four bricks that It la responsible for the death of thu
responds to Kipling's description of the set on end and the cooking la done In pots little one no one doubts for a moment.
.woman who was "a rag, a bone and a hank and pans. There are no chimneys and the For several weeks Mrs. Tuil had noticed
of hair," save that there is now and then smoke finds its way out of the door and that her baby, which wa nearly a year
. a stringy muscle thrown in. from under the eaves. old. consumed an unusually large quantity
" These people work almost naked, and The most of the farmers live In villages,
their whole forms may be seen, 1 have of such huts. In riding across India you
pent aomai thne watching them bathing see these every where dotting the land- sumed the thinner In flesh it became. Local
ln the Ganges. The water glues the clothes scape. They are built along mud roads physicians declared that It was the Strang-
Some Quaint and Interesting Features of Every-Day Life
8tran-e Death of Iluliy.
HAT a big blacksnake of the
"mjuser" tribe Is fond of baby's
butt.e will be attested by, Mrs.
Mai Tull. wife of Samuel Tull,
a v.;!, -to-do farmer living up
Wlocmico creek, Maryland, and
per, the station's pet police horse who had
been drooping for two days In his stall,
announced that the horse was dying, of a
broken heart.' Instead Ueutenant Edwin
West, who for six years and until very
the smaller places, held by the natives, pay
very little.'
- The Beehive of India.
The Chinese are usually considered of
all the world the most industrlouurid
thrifty. As far as work Is concerned the
Hindus are a close second, and they make
this peninsula hum like a beehive. There
are all told something like 300,000,000 of thstn
and nearly every one has his own trade or
red-hot democrat paper I will take It, the mostly women, come to see the Lyric play
next one says If you say any thing about era In the dental farce "Billle." Every ref-
poiaucs yo ucan tune me on your usi erence to the hero s raise teeth produced profession. A man's business is fixed hv
now what Is the editor to do every man rippling fominlne laughter, but the prlncl- the gods. He must stick to his caste and
woman and child has their political prefer- pal center of merriment was s.en to be a has but little chance for outBlde employ-
recently had ridden Hesper as Sergeant ence and all talk polatlcs why not the edl- young. woman attlrtd like a bride who sat ment. The banker Is the son of a banker,
Well forward on the left hand side of the the shoemaker tho son of a shoemaker and
house. Kvtry line about Blllie's missing the beggar the son of a beggar. Begging Is
teeth evoked shrieks from her. Beside her fixed profession here and It is followed
sat a brldegroomlsh young, man, who b' more than two million people. Of these
laughed a good deal, but not as much as two-tniras are men and the rest are women
the woman. It was noted that every time
and children.
to the skin, and you see thousands of and have none of the surroundings or eat ca!,e that had ever been brought to their
' skeletons bathing and nraylng. conveniences of AmWlcan towns. There attention.
And then the homes of the people. Outside are no' big schoolhouses or churches, no While In the kitchen preparing the noon
the mansions of the rich, which face the street lamps, no gutters and no sidewalks. day meal the other day Mrs. Tull heard
Maldan and the fine buildings of the gov- There Is an absence of painting and white- her ba"y cooing and laughing in the sit
ernment, and the palaces of a few rajahs, wash, the only outside decoration being tln room a" though som one was in
the. native quarters of Calcutta are largely lumps of brown cow dung of 'the else and there "playing the clown." When Mrs. Tull
con. posed of homes no bluer than packing shape of a fat buckwheat cake. These are okl " to see who It was that was cre
. cases. The stores are mere holes in the the fuel of the people, plastered upon the "ting so much mirth for her little one, she
walls. Whole families live In one room walls of the hut to dry. This stuff Is beheld colled up in the crib by the side of
and even In the country the huts are so picked up by the women and girls who nr baby a "v-fuot blacksnake, with the
small that the beds are set outside in the follow the cattle. Thev carrv the dronnlnim rubber connected with the nursing bottle m
daytime. ' to their houses and mix them with dirt,
patting them into shape with their bare
The Par mere. hands. Such fuel is used all over India and
the women invariably collect it.
West, went out to the stable and patted tor you a lltake political papers of all par
tus old comrade's mane and talked sooth- ties for the purpose of reading why not
lng to him for over" an hour. have your home editor contrible some of
The old horse propped up in his stall by his tallent along this line are you afraid
means of a rope swing, block and tackle, the cyclone. will becomt popular or notor-
looked up at him and tried to rub its nose ious? I anounced In my first editorial my
a ,,, I,. . . , , , ... , agtt nst his b ue coat. XVeit was the only position on the lights and wrong In the
of ml Ik without der vliiaT anv benefit from . . ..... she lauelieil she nut her h
it: in fact, the more rn.lk tho babv con- coM recognise or who Political arenma ana i repeat i am w un In India and more than a million barber.
.'.i.. ...,, could rouse him. even slightly from his tne man wno is witn ine people ami ior - . The barbeis shave tlm t... t
sick stupor ' i the people first last and all the time to came uie scene wuere uiuie in f custom r. H r. .
West was promoted to a lieutenancy on accomplish this end shall be my aim while dcspuatlon steal, the false teeth of his u M ?h. J.M
June 1 and had to part with Hesper. He editor of this paper this be wrong and give prospective mother-in-law out of the gla.s , .havlna held 7.
,,.a . i ff.n. . . .... .1,-n n .hnnlil nnt nnhllsli of water where nh hn1 ....nftrllriirlv left . . lu' "Having neaa, lace
prevauea upon uupiain jkiiuw), j . - r- - - ana net.k ana 4 cents for a clean hiv ni.r
. .. ....... . ........ .... . IU. -rwl ua, h.,.. laKora.l f,.r them t..f Ih. nl.hl '1-1,1. ... ... . . . UMn in.ve OKf
10 put ine ugniest nuer 11
and to her mouth Tler re niore than 800,000 shoemakers
( ' I ' have traveled extensively among the
farmers of many countries, but I know
of no place where they work so hard for'
Its moult holding Its tall aloft and whirl
ing It around as If to amuse the babyt while
It stole its dinner.
In a Jiffy the snake was dispatched.
When It was taken out of the room the
child seemed to realise that it would never
could on the
horse. Even then, however, it was noticed
that Hesper saddened and drooped steadily.
He refused to feed until he grew bo weak
he was recalled from patrol and put In
the stall to die. The veterinary surgeon
could find no physical ailment In him.
Hesper, a large chestnut colored horse, IT
years old, lias been . In the police service
for nine years For two years he was rid-
foHo, w ..... . . . -v. ........ t ie bortv. . It ....... o .. . . ... . .
many years sink or swim survive or perrlsh duce disastrous consequences to the bricin. Bhave hair cut nrt .1,.,, .
She laughed aloud and then suddenly are also shampooers and they will knead
clapped her hand to her mouth. It was your flesh from your toes to your crown
noticed that she and her husband lingered for Z or 3 cents per time. '
after Hie final curtain and that she was
we expect to containe along this line who
can say na let us be American citizens. .
Down Pike's Peak on a shoe.
Sliding down Pke's Peak o:i an old shoe
end doing It In twenty minutes Is the
unique claim of C I. Holden and Harry
I.. Hartshorne, tourists, who are spending
appaiemly searching for something on the
floor. ' """"
Then the truth came out. She had
A Ktarvattua ct Diet.
The Hindu neasants hivit miula fatedlnar a. return and save everv evidence of havlmr
so litUe. This Is an agricultural nation, science. They know Just how much will lost its only playmate and companion and
den by Sergeant John T. Smith at Far the summer at Hanllou, reports the Denvtr
Rockaway and Prospect park, aiding in News. They came down the mountain' at a
many rescues of drowning persons in tho Kr(.at pace, and to prove their statements
surf. In his six years of service under ,.xhlblted a toboggan that was nothing
Sergeant West he made an enviable record nlora tlBn an ol1 uywe and a rixk- -fjie
in stopiing runaways on Westchester omj Bat oM ,he ,,noe and ,he otlier on ,(u,
boulevards and hurtling over ditches and rni.h .,, and ,hB w.re .,,
.o-m.ras or me people reiy upon farm- .uff,,.., to keen them aliv. snd thev est
lng as their principal business, and this uttle more. They save everything and
means about 300.000,000. There are more coon Juat enough. Their diet Is chiefly
than 100.000.000 here who work In the soil. bn., mlet and cotrae sninaf wlth chl
and there are SO.000.000 men. women and peppers and other condiments. They sel
chlldreit who actually farm. If every man, dom have meat and the caste, of many
woman and child In the United State. of them ar, ucn that t would d0
.hould go out In the field, every day to lather than eat beef or pork. They con
to dig up the land or harvest the crops. .idw. th eoW holy and would a, ,oon
you would have tne farming situation In thlnk of cht,wlnjr thelr KTandpal.enu
a..v... ... minions a tenderloin steak. They
engaged in stock graslng and two or three melted butter r-ll h..
niniiwi wnu care uk aomestic animals
of various kinds.
use a rancid
from that time on the baby wasted away
even more tapidly than before until It died.
Headstone for Cat.
In memory of Tabby, a cat, who five
years ago saved the lives ot Mr. Melville
Smith, a newspaper editor, 1130 Halsey
street, Brooklyn, his wife and three chil
dren, a small granite headstone was erected
over the pet's grave In the rear of the
Smith heme.
Tabby had Just passed his fifteenth birth-
fences in intercepting fugitives across the
open country.
He could pick out patrolmen oil pust and
would stop before them of his own accord
to let his sergeant chat with them. Hut lie
never made the mistake of paying such
deference to other than police unifoims.
by slopping In fore a fireman or a mail
shaped that they fitted Into the grooves of
the cog road and the two men slid down
the rails on them.
Holden is from Shamrock, Tex. Harts
horne's home Is In Walter, Okl.
The distance
Factory Hands.
In the past all the manufactures nf tni.
came out. She had were made in ih. h.,... .. ... .
laughed her false teeth out, and she could millions of weavers and woricir. t .
i)d them. She authorlied the box and metal who labor at home following '
to pay a liberal reward to anyone tho trades of tl-elr ancestors Within ih!
who should find and return her precious past generation, however, hundreds of mills
teeth. Also she seemed much embarrassed and factories have enrunir Int. i.i... .,
-v. ... .mi
these are equipped with modern machinery.
The natives can handle inachlnerv quite
as well as we can, and many of those
formally In the textile trades are nowi
working in the cotton mills, Jute mills and
Other SUch hlSlltlllUina Th... I-
An electric fan ha. been put up In th. ald wnat nl(fh waKeg - " Jt
taU of Missouri Chief Josephine, the Hoi- tho world. In Bombay the cotton mill men
nut find
office
to have her husband learn that her. pretty
teeth, which he had always praised so
niucii, wtre partly false.
Kleetrlc Fan for Cow.
.... v.,. stun nairy cow owneu uy ine agricultural sei -v cents a nay and the women "I cnt
cog road Is nine miles. Harry Itoblnson. college of the L'nlverblty of Missouri, which and under. Children are nald a and in ,... m
carrier. He was especially fond of women keeper of the Summit house, has a unique (a being sent after the world's record for and those who work half time frequently
and children, and once In his only rum
way, he came to a stop very gently on
seeing a womar. raise her hand.
n consideration of ins long record, lies-
toboggan on wnicn lie manes tne trip, n is milk and butter production. Josephine get anoui t cents per day. In the Ielhi
said, in eleven minutes. Such a trip Is ac- made a new mark for the first 120 days of cotton mills the wages for the men are
corr.panled with much danger. Six 'ars her test and Is now giving an average of about 7 or 8 cents, and In other places they
The Indian farmer rises at daybreak and day when he was killed by a Halsey street per waa Anally honored at the time' of the
tikes with him a snack of'cold food to trolley car. His death, was witnessed by work horse parade last Memorial day. ln-
v a ; "!;, ' ZlVi 1 ' , the fleM- At noon hla " t-rh'Ks him a Mr. Smith, who tried to rescue his pet from
ond American conception. The employe. not dlnn. He eaU ,lrilt and . M . , onconllI1l car. Th, cat
are often paid in kind, getting In some what la left At hr.m. th. .,,i. t.a K . .a t.Z ...... ... ..
nlng
the police
blue ribbon, the police
ago a young man attempted to come . 'ii
tin- nii'UMiuin on an ordinary bottle. He
placed the bottle, filled with Manilou soaa.
on the 10. is of the cog road and had rolled
fifty quarts of milk per day on about 6j
cents worth of food.
medal, the last being pinned on his biidlo fon,e distance when the bottle exploded,
(ha area.
o... ln..r uuu ...u - ....... percentage or the floor. If they are rich they have sev-
the crop. Where money is paid, the wages ,rai ial. dishes: If nw,r r.n- r t i
addition there are small dishes for curry
no not average sj s per month, and no
she re, except In Assam, do they rise to
3. In the valley of the Ganges, where
ine soli is as fat as thst of the Nile, the
average wage is 1.M monthly, and in the
- " ude It Is II. 28. In addition to
and i-odlments. All eat with their
gers, and th. men always first.
and neither heard nor saw the approaching
trolley.
by Mrs. Speyer herself. On that occasion
Sergeant West rode hlin for the last time.
precipitating him over a precipice and hor
rlby lacerating him. He died in a few
minutes.
fin- Horse Uylnar of Grief.
Not a man in the Westchester police sta
ll is a well-to-do family that has two tlon laughed or was In the least skeptical
good meals a day. I am told that not in Nw Vork City when the department Cyclone. As we go out to solicit subscrip
one-third, of the natives ran afford to eat veterinary surgeon, after inspecting Hes- Hons one man says if you will make it I
The Fditor K.s plains.
No one knows the trouble of an editor
but himself, observes the Stockport (la. I
I.aua-aed Her Teeth Oat.
There was a curious accident at the
Lyric theater In Minneapolis. The house
was crowded to the doors with an audience.
are more. Often a whole family will work
In the mills. Its earnings sometimes smount
lng 50 or 75 cents a day. Suc h are esteemed
very well off. ,
These factory hands usually live near
the mills In mud huts or In buildings made
for the purKe. At some of the Bomt.y
factories their dwellings are over shopa J
a .it.o.1. n. ...in a. i.... ..r.
r. .-e .a-iiiiir win usually nave uui o,
rinv The room wlfl be small, and its only
air and light must come through! the door.
In some other localities the dwellings are
Taking;
"Johnnie!"
"Tes'm?"
''Why are you sitting on that boy's face?"
"Why, I -"
"Iid I not tell you to always count a
hundred before you gave way to passion
and struck another, boy?"
"Yes'm, and I'm doin' It; I'm Just sittln'
on his fate so he'll be here when I'm done belter, but as a rule they are about as poor
countln' Uie hundred." Houston Post. a. can be. FRANK U. CARPENTER.