The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-11-29
Many Thousands i'm Poland Are
Facing Starvation.
Awful Conditions Prevail in
Battle Riyen Nation.
CONTAGIOUS DISEASE RAMPANT
Soup Kitchens and Bread Lines
Pitifully Inadequate.
Industry ParalyZed; Country
Lies in Utter Ruin.

! Warsaw, Nov. 29.-Hundreds of
| thousands of the civil population in
the Warsaw district of Poland are suf-
fering for want of food. A consider
able percentage of this number still
are homeless, living in huts, caves and
abandoned trenches. The situation is
more serious because of the immense
number of persons thrown out of work
by the almost complete paralysis of
Pollsh industries. Some workers have
emigrated to Germany where employ
ment is plentiful but the great ma
jority prefer to remain near their
homes in the hope of better days
Prominent Poles in all walks of life
maintain that drastic relief measures
are necessary if wholesale deaths from
starvation are to be prevented.
Such flour as is now on hand is
being distributed by the Germans I'M
der the bread card system but only
potatoes are available in quantities,
While there is an acute shortage of
dried vegetables, meat fats and con-
densed milk. Prices all over Poland
have risen to unprecedented heights,
but can not be checked by the estab-
llshment of maximum prices it is
claimed, because of the fear that inn
portat1on then would cease altogether.
Pensions Cut Off.
Suffering is especially acute among
the families of Russian reservists who
formerly received regular payments
from the government. Pensioners now
are cut off from their former incomes
and the Russians are charged with
having taken with them the funds of
savings banks depositors. The. coun-
try districts of Poland from one end
to the other are battle SCARED, barren
and fire-swept. In the Warsaw gov
ernmental district alone it is estimated
1000 villages were burned by the Rus
slams. Many of the inhabitants who
at first fled with the Russians later
~ M Cn1H
the mercy of the Germans. Thousands
already have died of starvation and
disease superinduced by hunger. Moth
ers remaining alive are so under
nOuriShed they can not feed their
children.
In Warsaw and LODI women now rise
at 8 o'clock in the morning to get good
places in the bread lines and not miss
the chance to obtain some food at
least. The horror of the situation is
increased by a serious shortage of
coal, due in part to destruction of the
mines and in part to inadequate rail-
road facilities
Heroic Efforts to Aid.
Committees composed both . of
Christians and Jews, with the as
sistance of the German government
are conducting soup kitchens at War
saw and Lodz, distributing food and
fuel.
Eignty-one kitchens are running
full blast in Warsaw. while numerous
asylums and homes Tor young and old
are in operation
Lodz is trying to feed 100000 of its
half million population. The authorf-
ties are holding tight rein on the
flour supply to make it last until the
next harvest. Homeless peasants are
being given lumber and tools to erect
houses before winter, living mean
while in dugouts near their old homes |
cooking on improvised hcarths. The |
city OF Lodz is paying pensions to the
wives of reservists on the chance of /
being reimbursed later.
Road building, railroad and bridge |
work are being carried or extensively |
in order that the unemployed may |
earn something. All these measures /
bring only partial relief however, be- !
cause of the shortage in a number of !