The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1917-06-02
TELLS OF GERMAN BuTcHERY.
Atrocities in Belgium Vividly De-
scribed at Red Gross Meeting.

w. J. Leppert, director of the Gulf
division of the American Red Cross,
returned to New Orleans Sunday
morning from Washington, where he
attended the "war council held to
consider various matters appertain-
ing to the work of the society in the
present crisis. 1t was resolved, Mr..
Leppert said, to raise by popular sub
scription the sum of one hundred
million dollars, the greatest amount
ever asked for humanitarian use since
the dawn of civilization. President
Wilson has issued a proclamation des-
ignating the period extending from
June 13 to June IS as Red Cross
week, during which the people OF
the United States will be called upon
to give generously and in a spirit of
patriotic sacrifice for the support and
maintenance of this work of national
need
'sThe speeches by former Presi-
dent Taft, Secretary of War Baker
and Ian Malcolm, representative of
the British Red Cross, were master
pieces" said Mr.. Leppert.
perhaps the most remarkable OF
all was the talk delivered by John Fl.
| Gade, who spoke ON Belgium's plight.
| Mr.. Gade made no attempt at oratory.
He made no gesture. He gripped the
| back of chair, looked straight
ahead and never relaxed muscle
Throughout his speech. His sentences
came short and sharp-a verbal flash,
| Illuminating the awful horrors ne
yAiY
as the audience listened to the story
Iof national butchery. SeWart
Prosser, president of the Bankers
Trust Company of New York, was in
the chair. He burst into tears and
Ileft the room, only returning when
/ he was able to compose himself.
sFrederiek Wolcott, well-known
writer, spoke on Poland. He told how
wanton butchery had hurried babes
. and wounded men and women to their
i death. How the German army had
/ gathered up the large bones of the
/ dead for conversion into fertilizer
leaving the smaller bones to be
picked clean by the millions of crows
that darkened the battlefield. He
told of the cruel use of starvation 70
i force the Polish noncombatants INTO
/ the German fields, and related tales of
4 atrocity that caused the flesh to creep
i and men to yell in eager anger when
4 he called upon them to pledge them
4 selves to collect this mighty relief
fund that suffering humanity should
| no longer be ground down.
ssMr. Taft's impassioned appeal was
remarkable bit of oratory. lie in
sisted that the United States is not yet
aware that it is actually at war.
We cannot appreciate this yeti
Il be said IT has not come 49,
sgiss yet. It. vii
until we, like tlssals JeoI ID oIlE
/ stand before the bulletin boards with
bated breath and strain our eyes to
see if the name OF our loved one is on
the fatal list, and when it is thus
brought home to US then we)will know
Il that war is upon us, then we will feel
i the crushing weight of woe, and then
| we will rally to the call for this fund
/ and pledge not only this, but much
more to save suffering humanity from
H the Prussian paranaiac.'
i Mr.. Leppert said the one hundred
4 million fund will be raised under the
!, | auspices of the National War Council
\ appointed by President Wilson. The
council is headed by Henry P. Davi-
son, chairman, head of the banking
firm of j. P. Morgan and Company.
| With him are associated Cornelius N.
Bliss, Jr., Edward N. Hurley, Grayson
| NJ. P. Murphy, Charles p. Norton,
William H. Taft and Elliot Wads-
worth. In thirty-eight of the leading
cities, of which New Orleans is one,
the campaign will be waged for full
week, and every other activity OF the
! Red Cross has been ordered set aside
until the war relief fund is complete.