The Washington herald., 1917-11-18
Famine Gripping Germany
With Arrival of Winter
Harvests Fail, While Wheat and Potato Crops
Are Disastrous-Weakened Through
Privations Fall Victims to Disease

Dor and the destruction wrought dur
ing the last campaign, cannot amount
to more than half the normal.
Are Hit Hard.
The agrarian interests are hard hit
by the almost complete failure of the
foder crop, which the chancellor
was warned. imperils the cattle in
dustry, especially as the northern
neutrals will be unable this winter.
for reasons familiar to Americans to
supply Germany with fodder as they
have done in the past. The result of
in the milk supply that will almost
exterminate the infant population.
Most serious of all food deficien-
cies is the partial failure of the potato
crop. At the time the commissions
report was presented exact figures
were not available, but the commission
warned the government that not more
than two-thirds as many potatoes can
be expected as were grown last year.
Immediately the potato ration was
decreased to seven pounds a week,
which meant depriving the German
of three and half pounds of pota-
toes weekly, even though riots took
place last winter because the people
were only allowed. when they could
get them, ten and a half pounds Of
potatoes.
What these figures mean, in terms
Of human life, is shown in facts which
have ben obtained regarding the
spread in Germany of what are
known as hunger diseases" For
months past, the intelligence Of
ficers of the allies in France have
been discovering. on captured Ger
man soldiers, thousands of letters from
people at home describing their ter
rible privations. Some of these. tell
ing of typhus, scurvy and dysentery
ravaging all parts of the country.
were published some time ago by the
French authorities.
Undertakers Never Idle.
The worst epidcmics, it is now
learned are running their course II,
the regions of Allenstein. Cologne.
and Oppeln. THE undertakers are
never idle" is a phrase used in
report from AIIenstein describing how
people are dying like flies from dys-
entry. An official report from Berlin,
the best fed city in the empire, shows
like the writing on the wall at Bel
shaZZar's feast the doom that is
creeping upon the German people. The
number of cases of dysentery in the
city from the beginning of June. this
year. to the end of September, showed
an increase of 800 per cent.
Throughout all Prussia. there were
fFo1 i.
IN the second week i'm June. A month
later, the weekly death roll showed
go victims; the following week, the
disease claimed LBS people. the next
week 200. and the week after that
i.Ni. During August the authorities
took steps to conceal the spread of
dyscntcry, but letters captured and
other Information indicate that the
disease, with its companions typhus
and scurvy. cannot be checked even
by German medical science.
The undcrfcedinE of the people for
more than three years, the hundred
Of indigestible Substitutes" for
staples of life which they have been
consuming for many months, have so
enfeebled their bodies that nothing
can prevent the most frightful spread
OF the contag gion excepting wholesome
diet-the one thing that not all Ger
many's mighty armies and fleets of
aircraft can obtain for her people.
Half of unnity.
A little straw to show how the wind
blows: the Munich town council on
August 20 demanded an increase in
the ration of flour and of potatoes, on
the ground that the medical authori-
ties declare the people cannot stand
another year of food rrivations be-
cause in the three years that have
elapsed they have exhausted their
reserves of strength. This petition
was addressed to government
which was about to learn from its
own experts that it could give its peo-
PIE. in the coming winter not much
more than half the quantity of -four
ana of potatoes they have been re-
cciving hitherto.
The following letter from a member
Of town council in Westphalian
city was recently smuggled across the
Dutch frontier to the writer's brother,
who is a business man of Amsterdam,
and / am permitted to print extracts
You cannot imagine what We are
GoinG through" the despondent Ger
man writes, even those of US who
have money and influence and can get
privileges and allowances denied to
the mass of the people. For them. it
has long been hell, but now it is black
death. They are dying everywhere,
and really Of hunger or poison, al
though the doctors give it other
names. When people are forced to die
of starvation or eat horrible things
that are said to he substitutes which
slowly kill them, it comes to the same
thing. 1 learn confidentially that the
harvests have failed. When is il going
TO end? And, after 1t does end, how
are we to be fed? For unless food is
brought into Germany Immediately
after the conclusion Of peace, the peo-
pie will be carried away by the pes
ulences which even now are begin
ning'
1t did not seem to occur to this
worthy German that If he and his
compatriots permit the German ad-
miralty to go on depicting the worlds
shipping. there may not be enough
ships left. when peace does come. to
feed the Germans, since the allied ma
tions will badly need to replenish
their stocks of foOdstuffs themselves.
Must End This Winter.
The war must end this winter"
the writer continued, land it does not
matter what the terms are. What
good is 1t If Germany holds the East
and the West, and the German people
die of hunger? Would It not be bet
ter to give up everything that we
have for food, and so keep alive. and
then set to work to build up our trade
and Germany back where she was
before. She has withstood world in
arms, but she cannot fight with moth
ing in the StomachS of her nennle