The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1917-03-01
LETTER TELLS OF HORRORS
Writer In France Pictures Efforts Pc
ing Made to Aid the Families
Whose Homes Have Been
Destroyed.

Another of the interesting letters
from the French front that have kept
the local A. L. T. w. committee APP
prised of the horrors of war and of the
needs of those who are homeless be-
cause of the devastations of the invad-
ing troops, has been received This one
tells more particularly of the sufferings
of the homeless women and children
and gives slight suggestion of the
terrible sufferings they are enduring.
One of the novel ideas suggested is
that advanced by scientists to the
effect that the land which has been the
scene of military activities and has had
the super soil blown off viii not begin
to produce vegetation again until new
supersoil has been formed, and this will
not be before century has elapsed.
The letter reads:
Our monthly report for December is
resume of what we have accomplished
during the last year, but it would be
incomplete without personal word re-
iterating that all we have achieved has
been through your generosity.
A wise distribution of such large
supplies has it's difficulties, but think
how much more trying is your work in
the making of all these articles. We
impress upon every French person who
comes into the depot how many good
wishes you always send with the gifts,
and it is keen pleasure to tell them
of our committees in more than three
hundred towns in the United States.
To be sure, there are only rs on our
regular list, but some months ago, New
England alone had 40 smaller branch
es. Chicago 50 and San Francisco IL.
Should all committees send us word
how many branches each has, it would
be interesting to publish these figures
in the monthly report, for our growth
has been little short of phenomenal
The American Red Cross has been
one of our strongest supporters. We
have received regular financial aid from
them as well as generous supplies, and
we now boast of a "Red Cross motor
car which does the errands in Paris.
re me this has shown very fine spirit
on the part of that society, for the gifts
which come from their regular chapters
were sent out from the Paris depot in
the name Of the American Fund for
French Wounded. This we could not
a hut
atized the question of giving that we
are now able to write to the lucky hos
pital when the supplies come from the
Red Cross and cards of thanks which
the wounded men send are forwarded
at once to the various chapters in
America.
You who have taken a voluntary part
III this work realize what this struggle
In the heart of Europe means, but we
feel sure from many letters and papers
that continually arrive, that the great
mass of our people, especially in the
far west do not have any conception
OF the suffering, decentralization, and
even determination of nations that is
going ON under Our eyes.
A motor ride Of only few hours
from Paris brings one to country of
devastation, country that may remain
this way for one hundred years, for
many agrieulturists affirm that the soil
will produce nothing for another cen
tury Only recently a well-known
b writer returned from such a district
and recounted to me of the twentv.one
villages through which he had passed,
not a vestige was left to mark the
boundaries of towns. Z 1t was but one
large waste of curious white plains. The
surface soil had all been blown away
and only All occasional wall or heap of
stones denoted that this had once been
the home of civilization.
What have these poor people done
that they have been driven like sheen
from their homes, in many cases their
children taken from their very arms.
and they themselves dependent ON the
mercy of strangers to keep them from
starvation. One can understand how
we Americans feel who live in the
midst of this, and who have daughters,
! have Intercepted villagers who have
been driven from their own firesides.
and am filled with the horror of it all.
II inspired us to stand by these unfor-
tunate women and in turn to beg YOU
20 preach the gospel of generosity that
has enabled our society to become
known throughout France as that to
which the needy may turn.
Only two weeks ago I was in the dis
trict Of the Aisne. Bombarding had
been going on for weeks, and we walk
ed through improvised trenches, the
mud up to our ankles, we passed