Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 304, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1919 — REBUILD OLD LAND [ARTICLE]

REBUILD OLD LAND

British Are Injecting Life Into Ancient Egypt. Occupation Has Resulted in Substantial Improvement in the General Welfare of the Country—Standards of Living Raised.

The British have been in actual occupation of Egypt for thirty-seven years (although Egypt was nominally* a province of Turkey up to the war) and most certainly have effected.substantial improvements for the general welfare of the country. A measure of self-government for towns and cities has been realized, which is really constructive. Town awakening is contagious. When in some hoary, blinking, bleached and odoriferous old town a few individuals, aroused more or less, succeed in slia king each other up sufficiently to start a 4own council, and impose a tax of perhaps $20,000 a year, spending It at first on street cleaning and a few lamps, then on some ghaffirs (policemen) and perhaps a water tower, the qdjacent towns begin casting envious eyes in the direction of the ambitious one.

Irrigation has been a special concern of the British and they have constructed the great dam at Assuan, costing over $21,000,000. Railways also have been considerably extended. Manufacturing has made small headway, but the country is essentially agricultural irr character. Cotton industries may some day develop on the foundation of the excellent quality of the Egyptian cotton. Industries are showing a much greater degree of growth than in the past, such as sugar refining, boot-making, stone work, ceramic manufacture, glass-making aind chemical fertilizers. With the. increasing prosperity of the country at large the towns and cities must expand and be largely rebuilt. This will lead to a development of the artisan class, as well as of the commercial and professional classes, so that the consequent demand for labor must enlist the fellaheen for city pursuits. This means the higher cost of agricultural labor and a consequent raising, of the standards of the fellah, both as to his methods of work and his living standards. Before the war farm labor Commanded about 15 cents a day, but during the war it rose somewhat. due largely to the formation of the Egyptian labor corps for military service in Sinai and Palestine. The labor corps has heen kept at a strength of about 120.000 men. Altogether something like 1,500,000 men have been relayed to this service, which is still operating most effectively.—Jackson Fleming in Asia Magazine.