Imperial Valley press., 1915-01-30
How America Has Saved
Belgians From Starving

London, Jan. 3O.-Take every living
soul in New York and Philadelphia
some seven millions of human beings
and scatter them over a war-torn
country as big as Belgium. Remove
every ounce of cereal food supplies
from the land, leaving only a scanty
stock of meat and vegetables. It is a
full size mans job to feed those peo-
pie and keep them from actually
starving to death. This job has been
done in the case of Belgium by Amer
leans, and it has been done in a way
to make every American proud.
Brand Whitlock and Herbert Hoover
are the two men who are doing the
work, and their names have sunk
deep into the hearts of the poor Bel
gians. Next to King Albert they are
the national heroes Of Belgium today.
In Brussels Whitlock stands as some
God-se apostle of humanity to pro-
tect the weak against the strong. He
has done it in way that has turned
hatred into admiration, and has
taught men who looked upon compass
sion as the only sin that there was
nothing maudlin about his wo-fisted
Americanism and that, whether there
was Belgian government in Bel
gium or not, women and children
should not starve to death so long
as he represented the people of the
United States.
Hoover is a man of a very different
type from Whitlock. He is a mining
man who knows all about transpor-
tation and can hold his own with the
best when it comes to making a big
deal Broadway would pick him out
for q good sport" and even a profess
sional gambler would hesitate about
getting into a poker game with him.
In manner he is just like Gates; he is
exactly the same sort of citizen. He
has put the fear of the Lord into the
heart of every regular charity worker
or true philanthropist that has tried
to help him. lie will have not of
them, but he has a picked lot of big
business men-about twenty in all
and they are doing the work.
Every man on that committee is a
$4,000 year man-that is the
standard Hoover set for those who
offered their services. If they
couldn't make $4,000 a year for
themselves he was grateful for their
offer, but they could not be of use
As result he has men from the Steel
Trust, the Tobacco trust, the Oil trust
all kinds of trusts, and he has or
ganized the biggest charity trust in
the world. This is what he told me
about his work himself:
"There are today between 5000. .OOC
and 100000 people left in Belgium
and there is no bread except what is
imported by the Commission for Re
lief in Belgium. The normal con-
sumption of cereal foods was about
100000 tons a month, of which 100000
were imported, because Belgium was
an industrial country, paying for hel
food supplies with the results of hel
labor. There had been no import.
since August Is, and when this com.
mission was formed in October the
German army and the Belgian popu-
lation had consumed all existing
stores. We were face to face with {
veritabIe democracy of famine. Oul
first problem was to find out thC
minimum need and it was calculated
that if a ration Of 800 grams ol
bread a day, or less than thirC
that allowed to an ordinary soldier
was provided, the inhabitants coulC
keen body and soul together.
"This meant $4,000 tons of cereal.
per month till the end of February
when the meat and vegetable supply
would also give out; and this is tn,
way it looked from a business poin
of view.
eighty thousand tons of cereal ar,
worth roundly $5,OOO,OOO, and trans
portation would cost another $1,000,
600, so il was up to us to get tha
amount in foodstuffs, either through
gifts in kind or money to buy ii
and to provide the transportation AM
set up the machinery for distribu
tion.
eve have got it to this point to
day: If farmer in Iowa wants t
give the starving Belgians a sack o
wheat. all he has to do is to delive
it to the nearest railroad station ad