learning. These lands are either assigned from ancestral land to some one who has made his clan famous by becoming a scholar, or by a society of learning from great estates or funds procured from the government. These societies are a trade union of the literate sections of the village ruling class. All these lands are cultivated by propertyless tenants.
The mass of peasantry gets no benefits from public lands. The principal effect of this form of landownership is to weld into a closely-knit body, the village ruling class, the "gentry," who are the masters of the village, of its funds, its road building, irrigation, etc., who levy taxes, control the local militia, and administer "justice" to the peasantry.
19. The Peasant Unions
Ten million peasants are today organized in the Peasants' Union. This is the basic force which has made the Chinese Revolution, and shaken the political stability of the entire world outside of the United States. Organizing what is practically a new government from below, with its own armed forces for defense, the Peasant Movement is transforming China from one of the most backward countries into a modern land.
Most Chinese peasants are tenants, or semi-tenants. Their living conditions are so low, that it is hard for an American to understand how they can exist. The average income of a family of tenants is 36 dollars per year. Rent takes half of their produce or more; taxes of all kinds takes another 20%; and they finally have 3 dollars per month left to feed and clothe the family. Their food is a couple of bowls of rice a day, and "congee," a kind of grass fried in peanut oil, supplemented twice a month by a few ounces of fat pork. Their clothes consist of a plain cotton jacket and trousers, grass sandals, and a grass hat. Their houses are hardly fit for pigpens.
The great object of the Peasant Union now is to lift the terrific burdens of rent. At first they tried to reduce rents 25%. The landlords and gentry, in control of village governments, formed militia to crush their unions.
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