Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1915-02-17
RICH OF BELGIUM
ON Bread Line
Vivid Word Picture Of DeVaS-
tailed Country.
NATION DEEP IN DESPAIR.

Brand WhitIock a Hero.
DR.. Percy III. Williams of the faculty
Of the College of Physicians and Sur
geons, New York city, who went to
Belgium in December and took charge
Of the feeding Of nearly a million peo-
pie in the province of Liege, is back
home. At the offices of the commission
for relief in Belgium, II Broadway,
DR.. Williams talked Of his experiences
in the stricken country. The picture
he painted was one of the blacklist
misery, whole nation plunged into
deepest despair.
MY whole impression said DR..
Williams, "after all these weeks in
Belgium Is one of the deepest gloom.
/ never saw a smile. People go about
waiting, waiting. They are neither
frightened nor are they hoping. They
are just waiting. It IS simply land
Of 100000 people who are living on
black bread and soup. Many of their
homes are in ruins. Many Of their
close relatives are dead or lost. There
is no work. For example, l went into
lace store one day at Liege. There
were several clerks, but they told me
/ was the only person who had been In
the store that day.
Another impression; it is a country
of old people and of children. There
were over 100000 children in Belgium
before the war between the ages of one
and nine years, and they are there
now. At Wise, for example, where
there is no longer a house, where the
whole little city is gone, l saw chill
dren, children everywhere. They are
living in cellars and going to school in
sidetracked and wrecked passenger
| cars. We gave them two meals of
food a day so that they might keep in
school.
Neri a Remarkable Man.
"While l was at Louvain l met Bur
gomaster Neri, the brave and vigorous
man who volunteered to act in the
early part of the war in that capacity
if the Germans would agree to pre-
serve military order. They kept mill
tary order, and he has kept civil order.
This man is a most remarkable man.
He was a professor of international
law at Louvain university. He studied
international law under President Will
son at Princeton college in 1896, so he
told me. He is acting at LOuvain as
head of our provincial committee.
"It is not a question of being rich or
poor. The richest people OF Belgium
are in the bread line. For example,
spent one night at the home of Senator
Woroque, the leading philanthropist OF
Belgium and it's wealthiest man. He
is known as the coal baron. He is now
acting as the head Of the provincial
committee. He lives in the Chateau
MariemOnt, near Charleroi. On his la
BILE the night l was there ate the
same supply of bread that the poorest,
humblest laborer in Belgium is getting
This supply is 250 grams of brown
bread per person per day.
"In the small towns it is made by
the communal baker. In the big towns
it is baked by the baker, and each
baker certif1es the number of his Gus
toners, and then each customer re-
ceives it on presentation of his ticket
to the baker. In the big cities like
Liege and Brussels and Antwerp all
the bread and soup are distributed by
ticket. All the soup is free, and it is
fairly good.
No Hope Till Next Harvest.
"There is certainly no hope of an i'm
provement in conditions in Belgium
until the next harvest or until the war
ends. Consider Liege. 1t is a minia-
ture Pittsburgh. l have been there In
times of peace and seen it's great
stacks belching out black ribbons of
smoke as l have seen in Pittsburgh.
1t was the center Of the automobile,
steel and arms industry. Today its
great stacks are Smokeless. The few
old men there are idle. There are no
young men because they have all Ell
Their gone to the war or been taken
prisoners into Germany. There is no
work for the few people who are left.
$50 far as 1 know, there have been
no actual cases of starvation in all
Belgium, but the common sense of any
person will tell him that there can be
no food in a country which in times
Of peace depended for nearly all of its
flour and about one-half of its other
foodstuffs on imports.
'The biggest man in all Belgium is
Brand Whitlock, our minister. When
anybody in Belgium wants anything
he tries to see Whitlock about it, and
Whitlock sees him and does what is
asked, if he can. This means that he
is working night and day. In the eyes
of the Belgians he is wonderful
man."