Show STARVING MILLIONS Church and State Unable to Cope With Bussias Famine THE KICK GIVE THEIR JEWELS The Poor Their Mite Count Tolstoi and His Family to the Rescue Causes of the Famine For THE SUNDAY HERALD Copyrighted Russias famine finds its only parallel in the terriblo want and privation with which India has been stricken time and again and in the depths of the misery to which Ireland Ire-land has fallen during its awful famine years Where in Ireland the destitution was confined to a few counties in Russia at present it is ravaging over eighteen of the largest provinces in the empire an extent ex-tent of territory as large as France Belgium Bel-gium and Switzerland The rich are giving their jewels even the pOOt in the cities are bringing to the churches the remnants of their daily food No day passes in which a dozen relief trains do not leave St Petersburg and almost as many go daily from Moscow Liban and other largo cities The groat international market at Nijni Isovgorod Is filled with sallowcheelied beggar peasants who have flocked there only to find an empty market and destitution destitu-tion almost as severe as it is at their homes In Samara and Kazan The highways about Kiew about NovoOuzonsk Samara and Kazan are tilled with starving men women and children intent upon plunder looking to prison walls as a haven of food and drink Children are strangled as they reach for the crust of the bread which must go to the famishing and stronger father and mother CASES OF ACUTE STARVATION are reported from all sides Contagious diseases direct consequences of starvation have broken out in Kazan adding their ravages to those caused by hunger Judicial Judi-cial proceedings in common law courts Lave had to bo stopped because witnesses happened to be peasants and were lying with feet swollen from starvation Mothers are killing their children that they may not seothem tortured by hunger parents are selling their daughters to get a crust of bread Whole districts are slowly starving themselves out upon pig weeds husks and boiled grass The papers are publishing elaborate articles upon the use of acorns and other similar substances as a substitute for corn In twelve of the provinces the famine is complete In six only partial Forty millions mil-lions are suffering and it is estimated that I it will take 100000000 pounds or 7500JOOO I bushels of grain to keep the population nlive until the next crop As yet no appeal has been made by the government of that cbuntry to sister nations na-tions The story of the want and misery that is prevalent has leaked out bit by bit and it is only by the appeals of individuals that the extent of the deprivation was made known it is a queer fact that no united effort on the part of the people can be made to assist the stricken All aid must go through government gov-ernment agents or must be made by individuals indi-viduals In a word no two persons are allowed to make any appeal in their collective collec-tive name without laying themselves liable to prosecution on the charge of forming an illegal association A word as to THE STRICKEN DISTRICT Its geography and resources In what is known as Vest Russia South Russia and the Caucasus there is plenty It is in Astrakan and Kazan provinces of East Russia that the want is greatest The Yolpa river which empties Itself into the Caspian sea near the city of Astrakan waters the famine district a most fertile country and in whico since 1S40 there has been no great crop failure The city of Samara lies on the Volga and is the centre of the famine In the north lies the city of Porn Here and in the country adjacent there is at least a small quantity of seed t tr1aa yf 5t THE FAMINE DISTRICT grain but this is being eaten and unless succor arrives within the month the destitution desti-tution will parallel that in the lower country coun-try Moscow may be said to bo just outside out-side the stricken district and its streets are filled to overflowing with the starving peasants The prisons are crowded beyond be-yond their capacity and every hospital in and about the city is caring for twice and three times the usual number Most of these come from Penzo Saratoff Tauiboy NijniNovgorod and Samara Little Russia Rus-sia the province of the south of Moscow has enough food to care for its own destitute desti-tute and has thus far made no appeal for aid South Russia is caring for nearly 1000000 of the sufferers who nave flocked to its territory Russia has endeavored to cope single handed with the famine and even now when the records show thousands dying daily it has made no appeal to other nations na-tions Its me boas of aiding the stricken were planned on a most generous scale but the extent of the disaster made the application applica-tion anything but satisfactory The government gov-ernment itself was reported to have subscribed sub-scribed 65000000 rubles but only 20000000 were sent out among the poor the rest is still to come comeIN IN ST PETERSBURG the responses of individuals are numerous and liberal Women of noble birth are daily seen giving up their jewels at the re lief stations All army banquets have been postponed indefinitely and the funds intended for them have gone to swell the purse of the government relief associations At every church in the towns and cities outside the stricken districts wagons are seen coming and goingbringing and taking cold food and clothes brought by even the poorest of the members of the congregations congrega-tions tionTen Ten million rubles have been set npartby the department of public works to give employment em-ployment to the men in Samara anti Kazan a All of this money is being expended under the direct supervision or General Annen kow who built the railway from the Black sea to Eastern Asia This is a sample subscription list taken from the late issue of the Journal do St Petersburg Rubles Grand Duo Georges Mikhailovltch 35000 Grand Due Alex Illlthallovltch3i 000 Due Serge Mikballovitehnn 35000 Mlnlstre Debunge 00 4000 Major Gen Schenovsky 10JOOO Madame LeOountesse StenbockFermor10000 To this are added the names of four or five thousand prominent society people all of whom have subscribed in sums of over 500 rubles to the relief fund In fact the Journal de SL Petersburg announces that its own subscription list in four days reached 24436 rubles At the Anitchkow Bridge in St Petersburg Peters-burg the government receives each day over THOUSAND WAGON LOADS OF FOOD AND CLOTHING All the ship companies the Black sea are sending grain to the ports nearest the famine fam-ine district free of charge publishing their i offers in all of the papers oi Moscow and I St Petersburg Relief trains are leaving Libau and St Petersburg many times a day stopping at all way stations to add to their great loads of grain food and clothing The trains from St Petersburg cover the central part of the stricken district those from Libau go direct to the Volga river to the town of Tzaritzan near Astrakan The transportation facilities to the northern north-ern part of the stricken districts are exceedingly ex-ceedingly meagre and It is on this account that the famine there is so intense Caravans Cara-vans of wagons leave Moscow and the railroad rail-road termini daily aiding as they move along All this shows that while there may bo enormous waste through bribery and peculation pecu-lation the great mass of the Russian people have awakened to the situation and are doing what they can t vl s N i GENERAL ANNENKOW The Greek church is doing a herculean work Its arms reach out to every nook and corner of the vast empire and while in the stricken districts the places of worship have been changed into hospitals and distribution dis-tribution halls in all other sections thej have become receiving stations and none so poor as to hold back his mite It is this united work of the government and the church which was however found powerless power-less to relieve all the destitute Forty million is the number of the penniless penni-less and in the face of that gaunt spectre even despotism gave way and the one concession con-cession that individuals could distribute the donations they received was made It was at this juncture that Count Tolsto jumped armed with practical ideas and back of him a host of rich friends into the midst of the destitution and began the establishment es-tablishment of his FAMOUS SOUP HOUSES First the children and the aged he cried The strong can suffer untill those are relieved re-lieved I visited one of these Tolstoi soup kitchens kit-chens in the Dankov district writes an American to a friend in New York and I search in vain for words to describe the pitiful scene Tolstoi himself was there eating with the poorest of those ho aided With him were two Englishmen Angels of the Red Cross as some one calls them They were gathering the best morsels for the sick The sunken cheeks and bowed 1 frames of men women and children told me the story of their abject want All I were like children in their greed and it took the gruff voice and the tender touch of the great Tolstoi himself to bring them to a partial sense of duty I should judge that there were thirty people gathered in this barn Stones served as tables and on these the starving were served with a pitiful piti-ful bit of gruel the purchase and preparation prepara-tion of which tbe generosity of Count Tol stois friends had made possible by paying 10 or 113 per cent a year wnat will you say to a tax of 45 or 78 per cent on production paid under the lashes of the knout to the Russian government THE EFFECTS ARE WORKING IN TWO WAYS The intelligent class wishes to help its separate sep-arate people by organizing philanthropic societies all over the country Prof Sol ovieff proposed to the government a list of subscribers whose donation would amount 14000000 rubles on condition that the government allow the societies control of the distribution The rich widow Sara Morosoff proposed to give 3000000 rubles to the suffers on condition that she be permitted per-mitted to organize a relief society and in both cases the government < lecliuoU My Russian correspondents have given me several similar instances But the concession came when the dying and dead were fillinc the village homes when church and state with its burdens of officials found itself unable to cope with 40000000 starving peasants Individuals were permitted to receive contributions and distribute them in their own districts It was this concession that brought Count Tolstoi to the front and ho and his family are now doing a herculean work in the stricken districts At the outset the reactionary papers of Russia cried out that Count Tolstois action would produce a revolution Two weeks after this denunciation those same papers denounced the government organization in the famine districts as failures and boldly asserted that the government has not given onethird the amount subscribed at the beginning be-ginning of the famine As a result the people of Russia are losing faith in the Government and secret societies are being organized in Kiew in Moscow and in St Petersburg to show the Russian government that despotism must not stand in the way of the relief at such a time The government has answered with arrests ar-rests and instead of food has sent goner fti 11 i U11 f A RELIEF TPAIN In other districts the sons and daughter of the count are doing similar service while the wife issues appeal after appeal from her home in Moscow receives the donations and sends them on to where there is the greatest need There is no waste in this distribution it all goes to the poor and oven the richest are beginning to turn their resources Into the Tolstoi channel chan-nel It is a giant work and it is being done by mighty hands Here is one of the peculiar petitions sent out by the countess My whole family has broken up to go and help In various parts of the country I My husband Count Lyov Tolstoi ia at I present with our two daughters in the Dan kov district trying to arrange tho largest possible number of free soup kitchens or as the peasants have named them Care for Orphans My two elder sons who serve in the lied Cross arc actively help ing in the Chernski district and my younger young-er son has gone to the province of Samara to open soup kitchens there as far as bis means will allow I quote from a letter that my daughter has written to me from the Dankov district referring to the soup kitchens which the local land owners have opened I have been in two of them In one which has been OPENED IN A TINT CHICKEN HOUSE a widow cooks dinner for twentyfive persons per-sons When I entered a lot of children were sitting at the table each with a piece of bread and eating soup Several old women were standing and waiting their turn I talked with one of them The poor things are kept alive simply by these free dInners they have absolutely nothing at home so they have no breakfast Tbev receive two meals a day at the kitchen and the cost of this fuel included is from C5 kopecks to 1 ruble 30 kopecks a month for I each person Thus 13 rubles will save from starvation till next harvest one person But there are so many that enormous sums are needed need-ed Let as though at least try what can be done If each of us saves according to his or her power one two ten or a hundred hun-dred lives our consciences will be lighter Surely God will spare us another such year in our home life I II venture to appeal to all those who are willing and able to help lor material aid In the work that my family have undertaken All donations will be employed directly to feed children ana aged persons in tho soup kitchens opened by my husband and children chil-dren Donations may be forwarded as follows Count Lyov Nikolaevich Tolstoi No 15 DolgoKhamoynichesky Pereoulok Moscow Mos-cow It will not be forme to thank those who respond to my appeal but for the unfortunate unfortu-nate people whom they will save from starvation The Causes and the Remedy The famine now ravaging in Russia extends ex-tends to eighteen provinces the area of which is equal to that of France Belgium and Switzerland together and the population popula-tion of which is about forty millions In six provinces the famine is partial in the other twelve complete The official paper the Jourwal of Finance has announced that it will take seventyfive million bushels to keep the population alive until the next crop It seems strange that all the facts concerning the impending famine were known to the government in Juno and July for the Z ° mtvas or district assembles assem-bles had made complete reports at that time of the failure of the crop and in the light of the latest events it is seen that i their figures were correct their details accurate curate Their requests for immediate aid were lost in a tangle of red tape and inconsequence in-consequence half of the provinces were left without seed and in the other half the I staring peasantry was compelled to utilize util-ize the seed grain for food TATIANA TOLSTOI II is my opinion that if Russia had a popular pop-ular form of government the great surplus m Caucasia and in other parts of the Russian Rus-sian empire would have been sufficient to meet all demands As it is now grain is absolutely rotting on the Holds of Caucasia An autocrat like the Czar wonld rather bee millions starve than abandon a title or his beastly prerogative Taxes are the prime cause of the terrific disaster that has come over Russia If in America a farmer can hardly make a living als and guards to keep the stricken under control I applaud the decision of the American Congress It shows that a republic can never have faith or believe in a despotic government The American people are ready to send large donations to help the starving but they are opposed to transmit their assistance to the tax atberrs of a despot I congratulate them on their actions and krow that this will not diminish sh their donations which in my humble opinion should ell be sent to Countess Tolstoi Moscow L GOLT nEHG Editor of the American Edition of Free Russia to Fainlns Stricken tor Twenty Yenrs Of the localities afflicted by famine in Russia I am personally acquainted only with Saratoff and Samnra the first of which was settled by German colonists who own plenty of land and are among the wealthiest peasantry The total number of peasants in Russia is S000000c > L0000000 of whom are now suffering intensely from tho shortage in food supplies Tho immediate cause of this great famine is not to ba found ia the bad harvest of last I year It is a wellknown fact recognized by the conservative and liberal papers and magazines of Russia that this same famine has been in existence for twenty consecutive consecu-tive years during which time these same I people now uoignnntly affected have been living in a state of CHRONIC STARVATION now forced to a crisis only by the emptiness of granaries The cause of this starvation has been tho taxes extorted from tne peasants by the government These taxes may bo divided into three kinds Ooiest provincial and I LEo Tr METROPOLITAN OF MOSCOW ON THE RELIEF COMMITTEE imperial which correspond to the county state and national taxes of the United States The local or ooiest are per capita taxes that go to keep up the police roads schools granaries priests and churches Besides these the local officials appointed from St Petersburg have to bo bribed by the peasants The provincial taxes pay the salaries of the provincial officials keep up the police courts and the provincial schools I and colleges To this class of taxes must be added the cost of the revenue stamps that are attached to every petition addressed ad-dressed either to court or executive officials and to passports Then the central government govern-ment collects a per capita tax from each peasant of 3 rubles a year or the equivalent equiva-lent of 150 These various kinds of taxes including bribery extortion and usury aggregate ag-gregate from 30 to 40 rubles a year to the individual or 20 Now let us get at the value of a ruble to a Russian peasant In the central provinces a peasant with a horse can earn 1 ruble a day or 50 cents but he must find for himself him-self and animal But the average peasant does not earn more than 50 a year so the importance of a 520 tax to him can be appreciated ap-preciated at a glance Michailoff a writer lor a Russian magazine maga-zine has recently written of some startling examples of this taxing of the peasantry He has collected statistics from eleven vii laces in a small area in the province of Tmalensk that show that the uncollectod but overdue taxes for that territory are ten times the actual valuation of the property prop-erty Since no money could bo found among the peasants the officials RESORTED TO FLOGGING in an effort to squeeze it out of them Each inhabitant was subjected to filM lashes a year for three years That at least was the average number of lashes and it one man missed his allotment his neighbor was required to take a double dose At Narva in tho province of St Petersburg this same author estimates the total income of the peasants to be 250000 rubles a year in the time of an average harvest But the taxes during the same period amount to 4oOCOO rubles For the past twenty years there has been a gradual Impoverishment of the Russian peasantry during which time they have been compelled to sell their horses and cattle cat-tle and their small farm improvements have been going to ruin and decay There has been starvation during the best years Whatever breadstuff was sent to the granaries gran-aries was stolen by the officials It is the emptying of the granaries that has brought on tile ffimine of 1892 The discontent among the Russian peasantry peas-antry began to grow soon after their liberation libera-tion from serfdom in 1S52 because they were being deprived of bufiicient land to maintain their existence and oecauso they were compelled to pay 1UO times the value of such land as was given them The discontent dis-content was the cause of the Nihilistic movement Tho government in conse resorted to reactionary and I quence oppressive oppres-sive measures so that before the death of Alexander II not a shadow of the reforms that made that ruler famous remained Tbe reaction continues until today all hon cstjintelligent and educated men have been driven from the governmeut positions Only the vilest and most immoral elements remain in power men whom the Czar has to pay well for their loyalty In return for this these hirelings are allowed to devastate devast-ate Russia The Czar is upheld by them and the soldiery alone The suppressor of a local discontent is given carte blanche to rob burn or ravish the discontented territory terri-tory I know of hundreds of such cases a AT THE BELIEF STATION Is it possible to trust such officials with money from America for the famine stricken 1 Is the idea not repugnant to libertylovine Americans sending money to support and strengthen and help to continue con-tinue in power this despotism It would be like giving money to the Italian padroni to succor the Italian laborers whose blood they sucked or like sending money to a thief to aid his victim Has not civilization advanced too far to render it profitable to support this monarchy of physical force in which the people have no voice AMERICAN MONET should be sent to American consuls or the English pastors or some other foreigners in Russia but 1 not to Russian officials Count Tolstoi is a man of principle who can well bo trusted with tho distribution of relief funds but I must say that I doubt iftho Russian government will long permIt him or any other honest Russian to receive and distribute funds Assuming that the Czar is honest I bo hove that ho retains his crown so entirely by the sufferance of the bought officials and hirelings by whom he has surrounded himself him-self that he is at their mercy and thaw would not brook his making use of honest men even in the distribution ot charity funds LEO HAnnA the famous Nihilist The Calamity a Political Lesson I should be untrue to everything I have triced to learn about Russia if I did not say that the pitiable plight in winch the people of that country find themselves today is a spectacle to make goods and men weepand if I did not add to this the further state ment that tbo condition of affairs which now prevails under the misgovernment If tho Czar is one which ought to excite the burning indignation of every humane man I and woman now on tho planet That on a soil rich generally speaking as is that of Russia nearly SOOCOOOO people after indescribable privations and sufferings should still need the help of foreigners is a fact that tells tile politico lesson of the Russian calamity to the whole world I > J i j i JIK J I I 4 7 t li r Ir I I = I I 11i 1 I If JJ ir Ii > r t i Ij L J j ft ffj 1i F ih < i tV iI F t g W t I tt I = J l rJ Jt < 0 i IJ lZ Ioff w i J r d t FOR TIIH RELIEF OF THE SICK The one bright spot in the dark picture is the eagerness with which the nations are coming to the aid of their suffering sister So far ns the facts have been made known to her America has responded nobly to the cry of Russian humanity in distress ButT But-T I STOUT OF THE GREAT PAlI Chas C-has not yet been half tnld and the work of relief already done is but a small part of that which the occasion demands Facts published from time to time in the Russian papers as well as information received in private letters lead me to conclude that heartrending as are the accounts thus far received the suffering is very much greater than we have yet any idea of The Russians are a patient people and do not complain over mucbnor are their hardships hard-ships zealously noised about by tho press I know some of the stricken districts and have often traveled in them days at a time without seeing a sign of human habitation Russian villages are like tiny islands which winter cuts off from the world by wustes of impassable snow From isolated communities com-munities like these it is a weeks journey or more even in summer to a big town or administrative centve and when people die of hunger in one village months may elapse before news of it reaches the next Not a few of tho afflicted settlements are in this way winter buried and for them if imago ination counts for anything Russia must soon become a vast churchyard To reach these places and supply ade o unto relief demands an amount of energy systematic work and resources of both food and money to which the Russian gov rnment is entirely unequal Not only dole do-le sufferers lack food today their privations priva-tions will be cumulative for some time to I come since they cannot raise grain for themselves till the next harvest What may happen in January February and Vlarch the three most terrible months of the Russian winter nobo y can foretell j But it is safe to say that unless relief caches Russia from abroad both promptly and in abundance the resultant loss of life I will inane this famine not only the greatest I ulamity of the Russian national life but j also an event wholly and terribly unique in i modern history At such a juncture as this I can only ao I one knowing some little of Russian condi tions join my voice to that of others in tho appeal for aid Can any of us hear this cry j out of tho Russiim darkness without a I heart pang or turn away without lirst hay ntr done everything in our power to alleviate allevi-ate suffering and save lives I 1 Let those who will stretch out a helping hand and let the movement so generously begun by the Western States and by Governor Rus I jell j-ell of Massachusetts spread until it embraces em-braces the entire country I EDMUND NOBLE Secretary of the Society of American I I Friends of Russian Freedom 1 1f f |