The Nome daily nugget., 1915-08-17
FEEDING BELGIUM
HOW THE LITTLE KINGDOM HAS RESPONDED TO ITS OWN
 NEEDS.

By the middle of August the Ameri- can Commission for Relief in Belgium will have expended s65,0OO,O0O in be- half of the people of that unfortunate land.
 Of this great amount America con- tributes $5,000,000; Belgium itself $55,- OOO,OOO, and the rest of the world $5,- 000,O00. In other words Belgium, beg gared and despoiled, is paying 75 per cent of the enormous total needed to keep it's people from starvation.
 When the American Commission took charge of affairs in Belgium there was no metallic money in the country. Different communes were printing paper money of their own, which had no value outside Belgium.
 Negotiations were opened with the belligerent governments for permission to set up form of exchange whereby persons or institutions abroad owing money in Belgium should turn over to the commission the amount due. The commission undertook to pay their debts for them in Belgium out of paper money which it received from the sale of foodstuffs. The belligerent nations agreed to this after long negotiations. and there was thus set up a form of exchange. The commission is today the only institution which is doing a systematic banking business across enemy lines.
 The communes have been enabled in this manner to procure money to pay communal officers, to maintain the schools and keep up municipal works, thus enabling the Belgiums to carry on the details of civil government and saving the country from the danger of anarchic conditions
 Before this machinery was set LID practically the whole population was dependent on the worlds charity, pa : per money being of no avail The in itial appeal of the commission, there fore, was made on behalf of the T. 100000 of people.
 The commission estimated it would cost about $3,00O,O0O a month to SUD- port the destitute. Having complete monopoly of the importation of food stuffs, and being thus enabled to fix nria h4 T to place the price of bread at such a figure that it would show a small pro- fit This profit has been turned over toward the support of the destitute.
 Furthermore, as some of the com munes in Belgium still had resources. or at least credit, the commission de- cided that portion of the costs of feed ing the impoverished should be inn posed upon the communes. By this means the amount of benevolence claimed from the outside world has been reduced largely.
 By it's careful purchases of food stuffs in the primary centers, by the chartering of it's ships and by the elimination of middlemen and the sub stitution of monopolistic and volun- tary effort, the commission has been able to maintain the price of bread in Belgium since November 1 at an aver age figure of more than 10 per cent under the price of bread in London. Notwithstanding this fact, it is pro- bable the profit derived from the sale of bread by September 1 will have amounted to 60 per cent of as much as the benevolence of the entire world.
 As the net result of these operations tfe Belgians, although they faced fam inc, have never had to meet it.
 Of late the commission has extended it's work into northern France and taken on an additional 2,000,000 per- sons. They are being handled in the same manner as the inhabitants of Belgium.