The copper era and Morenci leader., 1917-03-16
ROOSEVELT LAUDS ROCKY MI.
 CLUB

TO My FellOW Members Of The ROCKY
 Mountain Club and the Men and Women of the West:
 The action of the Rocky Mountain Club in devoting it's energies to the relief of the suffering children of Belgium rang true to the Western spir- it, as all of us who have lived in the mountains and the plains have come to know that spirit I have gladly joined in the movement to do what I can for a gallant little nation which has been cruelty trampled under foot, for no fault of its own, and now lies prostrate, threatened with the loss of it's spiritual as well as it's physical being. It is the literal truth that rarely since the days of Herod has child-life been so menaced as today in Belgium.
 I shall not deal with the material side of this question, or tell how l.. 250000 children are compelled to go hungry and are threatened with dis ease and slow starvation. All this is being told in the West in speeches, and in personal pleas Suffice it to tai danger of losing both its bodily life and it's soul.
 But what of us? What of our soul if like the Levite and the Priest we pass on our business with averted eyes? The nation that turns a deaf ear to the sufferings of ten million people, including million and a quar- ter children, is committing moral sui eide. Diseases born of want and hunger are spreading with dreadful rapidity among these 1,250,000 child ren of Belgium. Shall we look idly GU while these children die? Other nations do not sit idle. War-torn England and France have given largely. Brave little Holland has cared within her own borders for hundreds of thousands of refugees The rest of the world has spent $25O, ,O00,O00 for Belgium: We have contributed only nine millions. Is this enough to make us think that we unctuous standardization that we have been kept out of war" We chuck le because in 1916 we sold five billions worth of products to Europe. Are our souls routed? Can we see only the dollar sign in the sky? What oi our souls if we continue deaf to the crying need of gallant nation threatened with extinction through the loss of it's first born? Can any man of high and generous nature having been told the facts, continue to be indifferent?
 The West has done much. but it has not done enough. I appeal to the Mountain Club I appeal to the wo 1f hn fn 3o1 10 O Of wrecked and tormented Belguin to their hearts.
 I should like to see every schoo for the Rocky Mountain Club-Hoovel Fund.
 1 should like to see every Sunday school interested.
 I should like to know that every pulpit in the West was ringing wiIf the story.
 I should like to see in eve,y city and village central agency collect ing and forwarding relief to Mir. Wm B Thompson, the Treasurer Of tho Fund, No. 65 w. 44th Street.
 I should like to see Oil every cattle ra1ge a Rocky Mountain Club Fund 1 should like to krow that every u-'nlnS SupSriHteHueHt Ldu @u"TeSs'et his men telling them the story anG asking them 10 contribute each ral day regular sum. following the ex ample of the miners ill South Africa who are giving ten per cent cH theil wages.
 should like to se- every news paD3r open its Ir,nas t3 the cause
 I should like to see every socia ruiId nm with Rp1o inn ,,n lection.
 I should like to see the Wset or fire over Belgium's needs.
 I cannot say more. I should be ashamed to say less.
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT Oyster Bay, March 12, 1916.'