The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-11-03
Tells State Journal Readers of
the Diseased Soldiers.
PRISONERS ARE SHIPPED BACK
Germans Sending Them Home
To Spread Consumption.
American Red Cross To Fight
This ScOurge Soon.
BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE.

Bligmy finished by the American Red
Cross. This building will provide for
| $50 beds and will be turned over by
the American Red Cross to its French
owners who began the building before
| the war and were unable to finish it.
This summer tho American Red Cross
seeing the pressing need of tubercular
aid in France, called the directors of
the hospital together and offered
funds to finish the hospital.
| At first the French could not under
stand that the Americans had no utter
Tor motive in desiring to finish the
hospital; but when the Red Cross
commission made it plain that tie
Americans had no desire to control
or operate it, but merely wished to
help France with her most tragic
problem, the French lent every effort
to help finish the building. The COM
pletion of this hospital is part of the
American Red Cross program to give
| to our European allies. and particu-
| Iarly to France, an invaded country
with acute needs. such social and
| economic first aid as may be achieved
with our available funds. And tuber-
| culosis is the most gaping wound in
bleeding France. Tuberculosis is for
the French the greatest and most
awful by-product of the war. Tuber-
culosis, if it is not checked, will con-
quer France after the German guns
have been forced across the Rhine.
| For during the three years last past
conditions in France have combined
with devilish fatality to make the
| land a vast culture ground of the
tubercular germ.
Two million people in France are
| homeless. Many of them have been
living in cellars and barns behind the
| German lines, their own homes hav-
| ing been destroyed by the invaders.
The more fortunate who escaped be-
| fore the German lines became fixed
been living in school buildings, con-
vents rough hutS, hot in summer and
cold in winter; or have been crowded
into the homes of relatives and
friends. In any case those refugees
of the better condition have been
housed in crowds, underfed and thin
| ly clad. The least fortunate are those
who were caught back of the Ger
man lines. They have been taken to
Germany by the thousands. worked
there long hours, fed on bran, housed
in sheds and clad in rags; and when
at last they broke under the awful
conditions these wretched creatures
were shipped back to France thru
Switzerland to spread tuberculosis
thru their former homes.
| Every day at Avian, on Lake Ge-
| neva, long trains pull into the station
| and pour into France thousand
broken Frenchmen from behind the
| long German lines. And tuberculosis
is written white and ghastly over the
| faces of the crowd like a German
curse. These refugees are taken di-
are able to travel But scores of them
| are too i'll to travel. And Avian is be-
| coming crowded with these sad hulks
of the discarded French.
| The American Red Cross is estab-
| fishing at Avian two hospitals; one for
children-of which more may be writ
ten later-and one for tubercular
| patients. More than this, at Avian the
American Red Cross has stationed a
| delegate who will have charge of
American activities there; he has at
| his service ten automO bileS-ambu
| lances, camions and a Ford car-to
| aid in the prompt and comfortable
handling of the sick and infirm who
are pouring in the town. OF course
only the critically ill are kept at
Avian. And those who go into France
go into housing conditions peculiarly
| adapted to the spread of tuberculosis.
| For one must remember that until
recent years Frenchmen paid win
| dow tax. And in the majority CT
French rural homes, light and air
are luxury, and tubercular infec-
ton has every encouragement that
architecture can give to it. Added to
| the bad housing is the food and cloth
ing and work conditions of the French
in the war; Fats are scarce, Clothing
is old and thin. Fuel is expensive.
and with the men and boys in the
trenches, work falls heavily upon
| those at home. So when the tuber-
cular French from back of the Ger
man lines are scattered thru France a
menace rises that may not be blinked.
The ScOurge of the Armies.
Now add to this menace the danger
that comes to France from tubercular
infection from the soldiers returning
broken from the trenches. Tubercu-
losis is the scourge of the armies in
this war. Thousands of French SOL
diers are returning every month brok-
en- with the disease. They too go IA
| to these rural homes, to spread the
| plague. The tubercular army hos
pitfalls of France are filled, army sani-
taria are crowded, and the situati ton
is tragic.
It was not all without a selfish in
terest that the American Red Cross
mas undertaken to help France For
We are about to send a million Arneri-
can boys to France. They will be bill
| letted In these French villages. They
will meet French soldiers in the tren-
ches. and to make the world safe for
| democracy it is necessary first to
| make France unsafe for tuberculosis
And here is the program of the
fight of the American Red Cross
against tuberculosis as it has develop
ed this year. Three hundred thous-
and francs was devoted to the COM
| pIetion of the hospital at BligTny to
be occupied next week. The tuber-
cular work (other than the tuber-
cular hostel) of the Tuberculeux de
| guerre-a work for which Mrs. Edith
Wharton is largely responsible--has
been transferred to the American Red
Cross This includes a hospital for
20 patients in Paris; another hospital