The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1915-11-27
EARN GRATITURE OF BELGIANs.

When the city of Louvain started to
clear out the ruins and prepare, some
day, to build a newer Louvain, she re-
named public square which had car
ried for six centuries an old Belgian
name. She called it, "Le Place des
Etats- Unis," as, as we should say,
United States Square" At the same
time, other Belgian towns began to
name squares, streets and avenues
after our country and our great men.
There is scarcely a Belgian city now
but has President Wilson avenue, q
Lincoln boulevard or a George Wash
Iington park. The little children of
Belgium have been making pretty lace
squares addressed to "Our Benefac-
tors" or to "The Children of America"
The Belgians do this because for the
last year nearly every ounce of bread
that feeds them has been received
through the Commission for Relief In
Belgium.
The barges which bring the wheat
and bacon and dried vegetables down
the canals travel under protection of
our flag. The officers of the Commits
sion, who receive the supplies and see
that they reach the Belgians, are young
Americans wearing the flag in their
!buttonholes
To the Belgian the Stars and Stripes
mean bread and meat-the outward and
visible sign of their physical salvation.
Do we deserve the gratitude of Bel
GUM? In justice it must be said that
we do not. Feeding Belgium is com.
pick problem. Part of the people are
able to pay. Ways have been found to
turn Belgian property and securities
into cash outside of the country But
two million idle working people-and
the number may rise this winter to
three million-have neither money nor
property. They must be fed from out
side. 1t was thought, once, that the
United States, the only great nation
untouched by this war, would attend
to this. We did not; the Commission
had to ask food from the whole world.
And UP to date our country, which is
making money, has given only seven
cents per capita to Belgium, while New
Zealand, which is helping bear the
burden of the war, has given a dollar
and quarter per capita.
Now comes chance to deserve the
heartfelt gratitude of poor Belgium,
and the no less lively gratitude of
Northern France, which is also de-
pendent on the Commission. There
are 100000 souls being fed and one
third of that number to be clothed In
the north of France. Lille, Valencien-
mes and vicinity are the most highly
industrialized sections of France and
are behind the German lines. With
complete industrial paralysis and the
consequent unemployment of a large
laboring class, clothes and shoes are
almost more needed here than In Bel.
GUM. The Commission had hoped,
with all the neutral world, that before
this winter the end of the war would
end their task. But the war Is going
on, and winter is here The Belgians
and the Northern French without the
Commission would be facing starvation
and now have to anticipate bitter cold
For, though Belgium Is a weaving ma
ton, not loom has worked for fifteen
months because there is no raw ma
terial. Of course, the double blockade
prevents imports. So for fifteen months
no one has had any new clothes. The
rich and well-to-do can stand this, but
not the poor man with his one suit, the
poor woman with her work-dress and
her single decent Sunday dress. These
people will soon be in threadbare rags
and tatters.
Some one must clothe three million
people this winter This task will call
for about four million dollars in money
or in new clothes-there are reasons
why secondhand clothes, no matter
how good, cannot be used.
The Commission are entrusting this
Ire-clothing of Belgium to the United
States. So we may give cause, real
cause, for the gratitude of the Belgians.