The daily progressive-miner., 1917-11-24
DEVASTATION OF POLAND BY GERMANY STEP TO KAISERlSM
 THE WORLD OVER

E W AlSNNt lk Il COuAcI ISuSS Os ASiO luSli | held September F. Mir. Walcott in- troduceS his subject with this pream. l ble:
 This I have seen. could not ! believe il unless I had seen it through and through. For several l weeks I lived with it: l went all l about it and back of it: inside and ! out Of il was shown to me-until finally I came to realize that the incredible was true. It is mons
 trous. it is untthinkable. but il ex-
 ists IL Is the Prussian system.
 4 year ago went to Poland to learn it's facts concerning the remnant Of a people that had been decimated by war. The country had been twice de YaStated. First the Russian Army swept throug1 it and then the Germ ans. Along the roadside from Warsaw to PinSk. the present firing line 2S0 miles. near half million people had died ot hunger and cold The way was s;rawn with their bones picked clean by .he crows With their usual thrift the Germans were collecting the larg- CT bones 10 be milled into fertilizer, but finger and toe bones lay on the ground with the mud-covered and rain soaked clothing.
 Wicker baskets were scattered along the way-the basket in whicNrhe ba- by swings from the rafter in every peasant home. Every mile there were scores Of them. each one telling a death I started 10 count, but after a little had 10 give it up. there were So many
 Oied by Hundreds of Thousands
 That is the desolation one saw along the great road from Warsaw 10 Pinsk. mile after mile. more than 200 miles. They told me million people were made homeless in six weeks ot the German drive in August and Sep tember. 1916. They told ne 100000 died on he way. The vest scarcely hais alive. got through with the Rus sian Army Many Of these have been sent 70 Siberia It is these people whom the Paderewski committee is trying 10 relieve.
 n the refugee camps 30o.00o suryi- vors ot the flight were gathered by the Germans. members Of broken famil- ies- They were lodged in jerry-built barracks. scarcely waterproof, unlight- ed. unwarmed in the dead Of winter. Their clothes. where the buttons were Iost. were sewed on. There were 10 conyeRiences. they had not even been able 70 wash for weeks Filth and in lection from vermin were spreading. Taay were famished. their daily ration 2 cup of soup and 3 spiece of bread as big as my fist.
 Oesolasion in Warsaw.
 h Warsaw. which had not been de- stroyed. q city ot 100000 inhabitants. one ot ,he most prosperous cities Of Europe before the war, the streets were lined with people in the pang Of starvation. Famished and rain soak ed. they sQuatted there with their el- bows on their knees or leaning against the buildings. 100 feeble 10 lift 2 hand for 3 bit of money or a morsel of bread fl one offered it, perishing of hunger and cold. Charity did what it could. The rich gave all they had. the poor shared their last crust. Hundreds Of thousands were perishing. Day and night tha picture is before my eyes a people starving, 9 nation dying.
 h that situation. the German com mander issued a proclamation. Ev- ery able bodied Pole was bidden to Germany 10 work If any refused, let no other Pole give him 10 eat, not so much as a mouthful. under penal v Of German military law.
 This is the choice the German Gov ernment gives to the conquered Pole. 10 the husband and father Of starv- ing family; Leave your family to die or survive as the case may be. Leave your country. which is destroyed, to work in Germany for it's further des- truction. If you are obstinate. we shall see that you surely starve.
 Facing Death or Slavery
 Staying with his folk, he is doomed and they are nor saved; the father and husband can do nothing for them. he only cdis 10 their risk and suffering. Lc.v...g them, he will cut of from his family; they may never hear from him again nor he from them. Ger many will set him 10 work that a Ger man workman may be released 10 fight his own land and people. He shall be lodged in barracks. behind barbed- wire entanglements. under armed guard. He shall sleep on the bare ground with single thin blan blanket. He shall be scantily fed and his earn ;ngs shall be taken from him 10 pay for his food.
 That is the choice which the Germ an Government offers to a proud, sen sitive high-strung people Death or slavery.
 When Pole gave me that procla- nation, I was boiling. But I had to