New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-30
FAMINE IS NOW
CRUSHING MEXICO
Eight Million Persons
Hungry and Hopeless,
1t Is Declared.
THOUSANDS DIE
IN THEIR NOVELS
Women and Children Fight with
Dogs for Garbage Cans-Food
Lines Only Pretence.

the fortunate few who can get work to
do receive three pesos day for their
labor.
In Juarez the fortunate few. who are
able to buy bread pay two pesos loaf
for it.
In Chihuahua City workers get two
pesos n day for their labor and pay
three pesos loaf for bread.
The further one goes into Mexico
the more one pays for bread and the
less one receives for labor.
Mexico is passing through the valley
of despair. In Northern Mexico, where
ordinarily the people are reasonably
prosperous and cOntented, 8,OOO,O 600
persons to-day are declared to be hun
cry and without hope. Much has been
said and written about hunger in Mex
leo. but all that has been said and
written multiplied a thousand times
would not tell the half that the un-
happy people of Mexico are being made
to suffer TO further the ambitions of
Pancho Villa, former bandit, and
Venustiano Carranza.
When hundreds of women and chill
dren who once had good homes and
plenty to eat go about a city driving
hungry dogs away from garbage cans
that they may gather the scraps OF
food in them for themselves It may
be imagined that conditions are bad.
Seek Hotel Garbage Cans.
Cafes and hotels in Juarez, Chi
huahua, Torreon, Monterey, Saltillo and
in hundreds of other places in North
ern Mexico are daily besieged at their
back entrances by hungry women and
children who ask only the privilege of
! fighting with the dogs for scraps Of
| food that have been thrown into the
garbage cans.
In FL Paso the hunger of Juarez is
reflected by the scores who wade
through sand and water daily TO get to
this side in order that they may MAKE
raids upon garbage cans in the alleys.
Those who are able to visit the gar
bage cans are the more f. .tunate ones.
There are tens of thousands in all parts
of Northern Mexico and doubtless just
as many in Southern Mexico who are
too weak and emaciated TO get TO the
places where a scrap of bread or meat
may be found. They lie in filthy,
wretched novels and slowly die.
There are no Mexican charity or
CARNATIONS. Begging on the streets
brings no response from natives. 1t
is only the passing foreigner who
losses a centavo TO the beggar.
A Few Food Lines.
In a few of the cities there are food
lines. because Villa and Carranza have
been forced by American sentiment TO
make a pretence of doing something for
the starving ones The food line in
chihuahua and the one which until
recently was seen in Torreon serve as
samples. A thousand women and
children in both cities would wait all
day in a semi-tropic heat for pittance
of food, few grains OF corn that
would not serve 10 keep one person
alive.
In Torreon the food line became a
funeral line, for many persons, II IS
said by eyewitnesses, would drop dead
from hunger before the bits of food
could be given to them, and the pre-
tence at charity was abandoned be-
cause Villa feared it would cause un-
favorable comment IN the united
States. The same conditions are SAID
TO have prevailed in Monterey under
CarranZa control.
For five years conditions have been
growing worse. Once, for brief time,
there was slight improvement when Ma
dero ruled in Mexico City. Then Madero
was murdered and the riot of bloodshed
was resumed with greater fury
In .,orthern Mexico the poems, VINO
suffer because of him. have a new name
for Pancho Villa. 1t is 1.-THE Devil.
Fear of Villa is dominant among Mex
cans Il is fear of Villa that holds
his army together
Cruelty Inspires Fear.
II is the cruelty Of Villa that makes
the people dread and obey him. When
a man can 20 out in the street and say
TO his soldiers. xiii that man, ! do not
like his looks" or Kill that man, he
is whistling and do not like the tune
il is enough 70 inspire fear in super
stitious people. And Villa has done
these things, if the stories told by
Mexicans can be believed.
In its frightful plight Mexico cannot
be aided by outside influences. Ameri-
can charitable organizations are not al
lowed either by Villa or Cafranza to
distribute food among the starving.
They declare there is no famine IN
Mexico; that the people are contented
and well fed and that Mexico can take
care Of her own. Then they start Few
more food lines and several thousand
more persons die OF starvation.
The conditions IN Juarez are no
worse than in other towns in Mexico.
Indeed. il is asserted that they are not
half so bad as in many other cities, be-
cause Juarez is near the border and 1t
is possible for some OF the people TO
get work ard food on the American
side
Mexicans, while starving, are stub
born. They do not wish American IN
reference. They would like American
aid. but if to give that aid Americans
have to use troops on the Mexican side
there will be trouble, in the opinion OF
army men here.
Yet Mexico must be assisted. That
i recognized on the border now a.
never before. II is believed generally
that the only possible means for aiding
the unfortunate millions across the
border will be through the sending of
American troops into Mexico to stop
the revolution and put out Of the way
the self-appointed leaders, Villa, Car
rama. Zapata and others.
CORSET SHOW PUTS