The Weston leader. [volume] (Weston, Umatilla County, Or.) 189?-1946, 1918-08-30

+. c. Walcott. a member Of the
United States food administration. and
during the time America was feeding
the civilian populations OF Belgfum.
Serbia and northern France an assist.
ant OF Mr. Hoover In these invaded
countries. has pictured in q grarhic
way the conditions he found amone
the people II was his duty to help.
After describing the terrible eondi-
tons In Poland in 1916. the millions
that were dying Of starvation, the
hundreds Of thousands Of defenseless
people that had been ruthlessiy cut
down by the sword Of the German con.
Queror, he says:
In that situation, the German COM
mander issued a proclamation Every
RbIe-bodied Pole was bidden to Ger
many TO work. II any refused. lee no
other Pole give him to eat, not 50
much as mouthftfl. under penalty Of
German military law.
This rs the choice the German gcv-
ernment gives to the conquered Pole.
to the husband and father Of q starv.
Ing family: Leave your family or die
or survive as the case may be. Leave
your country which Is destroyed, to
work In Germany for its further de-
struction. II you are obstinate. We
shall see that you surely starve.
Staying with his folk. he Is doomed
and they are not saved: the father and
husband can do nothing for them. he
only adds to their risk and suffering
Leaving them. he win be cut on from
his family, they may never hear from
him again nor he from them. Ger
many will set him to work that q Ger,
man workman may be released TO nghk
against his own land and people. He
shall be lodged In barracks eeA4nA
1arbed wire entangiements. under
Irmed guard. He shall sleep on the
,are ground with a single thin blan-
Set. He shall be scantily fed and his
,arnings shall be taken from him 10
,ay for his food.
That Is the choice which the Ger.
nan government offers to- proud.
sensitive, higli-strung people. Death
,r slavery.
When Pole gave me that prociama-
ion, was boiling. But had to re-
'train myself. / was practically the
,nly foreign civilian In the country
md / wanted to get food 70 the people
That was what ! was there for and I
lust not for any cause jeopardixe the,
I asked Governor 0en-
raj Won Beseler, "Can this be true1'
"Really, / cannot say" be replied.
have signed so many proclamaticns;
SIX General Won Kries."
So asked General won Kries. "Gen.
raj, this Is a civiifzed people. Can
his be trueY'
"Yes," he said, lit Is trus'-wfth an
ir of adding, Why notf
/ dared not trust myself to speak;
turned to go. ''Wait." he said. And
e explained to me how Germany,
fIiciaI Germany. regards the state Of
1bject peoples.
II is hard for us to imagine such q
,ndition In America as Mfr. Walcott
rs described as existing in Hun-rid.
en- Poland, and yet that Is just what
ould exist should our boys, and the
,ys of our allies, now fighting In
rance fail to defeat the soldiers Of
lis murder empire. This fair coun-
y of ours would be made into Ger
an province; our people would be
e slaves of the Junkers of Germany
lbject to the beastly whims Of the
licers of the German army. In no
ar In which America has ever en-
Iged have the stakes been so great
in this present conflict. Should We.
any chance, lose; should the Hun.
any chance. win; our liberties. our
Ippiness, everything Americans hold