published by the National Geographic Society

“ America alone can defeat man's third foe There is still a chance, however, to defeat mankind's third great foe—famine.
Is the struggle to feed the world worth the sacrifice which America will be called upon to make? Here are presented a few pages from history's black chronicle of the suffering and the degradation which famine has wrought in every clime and among every people. If to save mankind from a recurrence of these horrors is a goal worthy the industry and the resources of our republic, the answer is plain. ”

“ Thousands of peasants lay down to die on the highroads, and so dire was the pestilence which accompanied the famine that even the vultures refused to feed upon the fallen.
This scourge of starvation and pestilence extended as far west as England. During a brief period 5,000 people died daily in Rome, where the only method of combatting disease was the practice of “filling the noses and ears with sweet-smelling ointments to keep out the contagion.” ”

“ From this kaleidoscopic picture of suffering undergone during some of the most direful periods of world history it is apparent that there is nothing grandiose or heroic about death from starvation; neither is there glory to be gained, nor medals of honor or military crosses to be won in the battle for food. ”

“ Letting down ropes to which were attached great meat hooks, these anglers for human flesh snared the unwary pedestrians, drew their shrieking victims through the air, and then prepared and cooked the food before presenting it for sale in the stalls on the street level. ”

“ Packs of raging wolves came out of the forests and fell upon the defenseless peasants. It seemed as if mankind in France could never recover. But suddenly the fields brought forth grain in abundance and the peasantry responded with astonishing virility. ”

“ Ships and military highways safeguarded rome from famine From the time of Augustus, throughout the days of the empire, Rome seldom suffered from famine—a striking contrast to the frequency of this affliction in the days of the infant republic. The nation's sources of supply were now so numerous and her far-flung provinces so fruitful that when crops failed in one quarter there was sure to be a bountiful harvest in some other part of the Roman world. ”

“ The miseries of mankind in Gaul at that time were incredible. The whole course of nature seemed to be upset, and there was intense cold in summer, oppressive heat in winter. Rains and frosts came out of season, and for three years (1030 to 1032) there was neither seed time nor harvest. Thousands upon thousands died of starvation, and the living were too weak to bury the dead. There were many horrible instances of cannibalism, and human flesh is said to have been exposed for sale in the market at Tournas. In their maddened condition the peasants exhumed human bodies and gnawed the bones. ”

“ Even when the fires of conflict have burned themselves out, the grip of famine frequently has remained upon a land because the husbandman either cannot or will not immediately resume his productive function. Oftentimes a whole people's industrial fiber has been impaired by the hardships of war and by moral degeneracy incident to camp life, so that a full generation has been required to restore their country's thrift and enterprise. ”

“ No other race is as docile as the Chinese in times of famine. Their resignation in the face of calamity is amazing. For instance, in the food shortage of 1906–1907 a starving army of 300,000 peasants camped beneath the walls of the city of Tsinkiangpu. The grain warehouses of the town, a place of 200,000 inhabitants, were overflowing with wheat, maize, and rice, and these supplies were constantly on display; yet there were no riots. The thousands outside the walls sat themselves down to die, while those within continued to transact the ordinary affairs of every-day life. ”

“ Famines of France No country of Europe suffered more from famine between the eighth century and the close of the eighteenth than France. The failure of crops from natural causes entailed far fewer hardships, however, than the gross injustice of the country's kings and courtiers. From 750 to the French Revolution, the land scarcely recovered from one period of dearth before some untoward event plunged it into new woes. ”

“ Hunger and the Russian peasant Next to the proletariat of India and China, the Russian peasant feels the pinch of poverty and hunger more keenly and more frequently than any other citizen on earth.
One of the earliest famines in Russia of which there is any definite record was that of 1600, which continued for three years, with a death toll of 500,000 peasants. Cats, dogs, and rats were eaten; the strong overcame the weak, and in the shambles of the public markets human flesh was sold. Multitudes of the dead were found with their mouths stuffed with straw. ”

“ The primary cause of famine almost invariably has been a failure of food crops. This failure has often resulted from a variety of natural causes—long-continued drought, blasting hot winds, insect armies, earthquakes, severe and untimely frosts, and destructive inundations.
But war also brings in its train crop shortage by withdrawing from the fields the men required to till the soil, and by devastating harvest land in order that an enemy may be vanquished through starvation. ”

“ From 987 to 1059, during the early stages of feudalism, forty-eight famines devastated the peasantry—an average of a famine every eighteen months. The year 1000 was a time of extraordinary suffering, for the whole country was seized with a panic, fearing that the world would come to an end during this the millennial year. Thousands went on pilgrimages, deserting their homes and their fields and obstructing the whole normal course of existence. ”

“ Chinese famine which started the Black Death China is another land which famine seems to have marked for its own. Here the difficulty is not so much a matter of crop failures as the excess production of the human crop from year to year. Existence is a perpetual struggle for food in the Celestial Empire, and the smallest deviation from a maximum yield destroys the margin of safety between “barely enough” and “starvation.” ”

“ America's task To allay the pangs of world hunger and to banish famine from the earth is America's task and her determination.
Early last spring, when it became evident that all Europe would be largely dependent upon the United States for its food during the coming autumn and winter, an appeal was issued to the American people to utilize every available acre of ground in the production of foodstuffs. Farmers were urged to increase the yield of their fields by employing every agency of science and industry; dwellers in towns and cities were asked to plant vegetables in their garden plots ”

“ If the United States should consume its normal amount of grain, the quantity available for export from the 1917 harvest would fall short of the requirements abroad by 250,000,000 bushels. But this deficit can be made good, without serious privation to Americans, by the exercise of economy, thrift, and ingenuity—economy, in avoiding all waste; thrift, in gathering the vegetables which have been produced in such abundance this summer, and ingenuity in preserving, curing, canning, and drying for winter use all the perishable foodstuffs and fruits not required for immediate consumption. ”

“ Pestilence is the inevitable handmaiden of both famine and war, for the dead of the battlefield breed contagion which finds easy victims among those whose powers of resistance have been sapped by lack of nourishment. ”

“ In time of distress the restrictions which caste throws about rescue and relief work would be exasperating if they were not so tragic. For example, in the terrible Orissa famine thousands of Santals perished, in the midst of ample supplies furnished by the government, before it was discovered that there is a peculiar tenet of their faith which forbids them to touch food cooked by Brahmins. It was also discovered that skilled weavers would not go to the ordinary relief-work camps for fear that the hard labor would cause them to lose the delicacy of touch which they value so highly. ”

“ With the exception of the present world war, perhaps no other calamity that ever befell the human race can be compared with that of the Black Death and the accompanying famine, which afflicted all western civilization during the middle decade of the fourteenth century. Its toll has been variously estimated at from one-fourth to three-fourths of the entire population of Europe. ”

“ Caste complicates Indian famine relief Great Britain has had many difficulties to overcome in handling the Indian food situation, not the least trying being the ever-recurring problem of caste.
Occupation is still preserved among the Indian natives by inheritance and tradition, so that the diversion of labor to industrial pursuits has been an almost impossible task. The supply of agricultural labor constantly outruns the demand, thus keeping the wage scale extremely low. Caste also prevents people from leaving crowded districts and going to sparsely inhabited regions, of which there are many. ”

“ She was mobbed in her carriage by the hungry crowd as she rode out of Versailles, where the living skeletons of men and women clamored daily for bread and could with difficulty be kept from the presence of the king. ”

“ The severity of the winter added its hardships to the horrors of famine. The civilian population was reduced to the most desperate straits. Dogs, cats, and rats were sold for food at extravagant prices and they were deemed rare luxuries by the starving. When the garrison finally capitulated and the Germans marched down the Champs Elysees, on March 1, many foreign nations joined in spirited rivalry to revictual the stricken city, but it was many weeks before the distress of the people could be relieved. ”

“ The famine of Joseph's day While the suffering which accompanied this famine was perhaps in no degree comparable to the devastation wrought by the failure of crops in subsequent periods of the world's history, no other has a stronger hold upon the imagination of western civilization, for the details of the dearth are set forth in Biblical records of engrossing interest. ”

“ Famine among the French crusaders France suffered greatly from famine and pestilence during the Crusades, but like the other nations which participated in the eight attempts to wrest the Holy Land from the Mohammedans, the most spectacular instances of privation occurred among her armies in Palestine and Egypt rather than among the people at home. During the first crusade, plague, supplemented by famine, destroyed 100,000 men, women, and children between September and December of the year 1097. ”

“ But the era of permanent peace is yet to be won by the sword of democracy, and science finds that she still has her battles to wage against the armies of contagion mobilized in the charnel houses of ravaged nations. ”

“ Only by the sacrifice which the individual American makes will the welfare of another individual across the Atlantic be assured. Never before in so literal a sense is each man in this country the surety and the keeper of his brother abroad. ”

“ First curb on the middleman It was during this famine that England for the first time imported from Germany and Holland grain to alleviate the suffering of her poorer classes. The Earl of Cornwall himself sent sixty shiploads of food, which was sold for his account to the starving. More grain was brought into the country than had been produced the previous season in three counties. The following year (1258) there was a bountiful harvest, but destructive rains caused the heavy crops to rot in the fields, and even the grain which was gathered became mouldy. ”

“ The suffering of those who succumb is pitiful beyond description, and the individual's anguish inevitably is intensified by the necessity of witnessing the agony of his loved ones who perish with him. ”

“ The four years between 1333 and 1337 constituted a period of unimagined suffering throughout China, and it is highly probable that it was in this era that the seeds of disaster were sown for Europe's Black Death, which appeared in the following decade. Famine and pestilence laid the whole country waste. Excessive rains caused destructive inundations, and according to Chinese records 4,000,000 people perished from starvation in the neighborhood of Kiang alone. ”

“ Ireland's many famine woes Ireland has been a land of many woes, and not the least of these have been the famines which from time to time have taken such heavy toll of the island's manhood. As early as 963–964, an intolerable famine visited the country, and parents are said to have sold their children in order to get money with which to buy food. On at least three occasions the peasantry has been driven to cannibalism. The most notorious instance occurred during the dearth which accompanied the wars of Desmond, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth in England. ”