New Britain herald., 1917-02-01

only flag at sea that is immune from attack or selzure. We employ hum
 dreds of tugs and railway cars. We operate warehouses, mills, factories, and monthly distribute 2O,0OO,O0O pounds, of bread and 20,00O,O00
 pounds of bacon and lard. 5,000,000
 tins of condensed milk beans. corn, coffee, sugar. and thousands of tons
 of other commodities. Our depen- dents every month consume the wheat
 product of nearly 100000 acres of American lands.
 ITO ensure efficiency we have asked for and always received the advice
 and gratuitous service of the worlds
 greIter commercial houses and banks
 and accountants and food experts.
 The monument of our efficiency lies
 in the fact that the bread sold in
 Belgium to those who can pay has
 always been from 15 per cent. to. 20
 per cent. cheaper than in New York
 city.
 ITO assure the integrity of our or
 ganiZation we maintain bureaus of accounting, audit, statistics, and in
 spection, covering the whole range
 from New York and Buenos Aires to
 the last village in Northern France and Belgium.
 Beyond all these questions, we
 have had to take direct or indirect
 control over the native food supply of the country. With all the resources we could assemble there could be no
 hope of maintaining this population
 alive unless we could reduce their
 food consumption by at least fifty per
 cent. and to do this we must direct
 ly or indirectly control every mans
 food. In fact, we must repress con-
 sumption down to tho absolute crust
 upon which the human body
 can maintain an existence in health Such reduction of consumption
 must be accompanied by a rigid ad- justment of odd supplies to various classes, rigid justice in distribution to each individual, lest if some ob- tained more others might starve Such an instance as this lies in the feeding of the children. From early in the work special meals in pubhc canteens were provided for the babies and mothers but in July last year the physicians of the country reported to
 us :.n alarming increase in glandular tuberculosis among adolescent chil. dren. We Immediately instituted an investigation and developed the fact that the growing children of the in dustrial and middle-classes were showing signs of undernourishment and that we must find and apply i'm mediate remedy. We turned to the public schools, to the teachers or ganizations, to the use of the build | ings and we installed daily meal to 100000 school children as an extra l and supplemental supply, in extension | to the 100000 babies to whom we l were already giving special food This extra service costs over million a month on to our burden and we l asked America to help us in this for l the children, but with poor response. | Future Always Dark. We never have seen a day when our finance was certain for sixty days l ahead, nor in two years time when our contracts did not exceed our as- sets from five to twenty million dol lars. The Belgian Relief is haunted in
 every dark hour by the grim tragedy
 of possible failure.
 Americans opened the door to Bel
 cium and have founded and sustained
 this enterprise in its administrative
 and in it's political phases. We felt
 that it was the national duty for
 America who stood out unharmed in
 this vast swelter to keep alight the 1amr of humanity. Of the S250, 000,- 900 spent in this worK approximately s3O.OO0, has come to our hand from the public beneN olence of the l world and less than $9,000,O00 of this
 sum has come from the American people And with the exception of 1 one great gift of $1.000.000 it has l beel. the little rills of charity of the
 poor towards the poor. The great 1 bulk of this expenditure has been l furnished by the allied governments ahd has been debited to the Belgian ] government or to the communes or i municipalities m in Northern France l which have received it's benefits. They have yet to repay all of this expendl- ture and they assume this burden l cheerfully and with the dignity or 1 free men.
 "Of this vast sum of money we have spent over 50,000,000 in the United States in the purchase of sup plies and of this sum America has made a war profit of at least s30, ,0OO,- 900. Gentlemen, Europe has begun to take stock of us. We laid claim to idealism, a devotion to humanity and to great benevolence.
 "This has a wider import than mere figures Time and time again when the door to Belgium threatened to close we have defended its portals by the assertion that this was an Amer ican enterprise, that the sensibilities of the American people would be wounded beyond measure, would be outraged, if its work were interfered with. Our moral strength has been l based upon this assertion. l believe that 1t Is true, but, gentlemen, it Is difficult in the face of figures I have given to carry conviction and in the last six or eight months, time and gain we have felt our influence slip from under us.
 Entente Grows Pcnurious. ..1Nith the zrnNing exhaustion and