The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1918-10-24

The following is a statement 10y f.
c. Walcott who served a. an assist
ant to Air Hoover during the time
America was doing all that was pos
Sible 10 feed the starving millions of
Belgium and Poland and northern
France. In this work he was brought
in direct contact with German military
officials, and saw the conditions which
the German invasion had created
among the civilian population:
went 10 Poland to learn the facts
concerning the remnant of a people
that had been decilnated by war The
country had been twice devastated.
First the Russian army swept through
it and then the Germans. Along the
roadside from Warsaw 10 PinSk. the
present firing line, 230 miles, nearly
half million people had died of hun
ger and cold The way was strewn
with their bones picked clean by the
crows. With their usual thrift the
Germans We're collecting the larger
bones 10 be milled into fertilizer, but
finger and toe bones lay on the ground
with the mud-covered and rain-soaked
clothing.
Wicker baskets We're scattered along
the way-the basket in which the baby
swings from the rafter in every peas
ant home. Every mile there were
- 4.,1lf a.
death. started to count. but after a
little I had to give it up, there were
so many.
That is the desolatlon one saw along
the great road from Warsaw to Pinsk
mile after mile, more than two hun
dred miles. They told me a million
people We're made homeless In six
weeks of the German drive in August
and September. 1916. They told me
four hundred thousand died on the
way. The rest, scarcely half alive,
got through with the Russian army.
Many Of these have been sent TO ST.
IBERIA; II is these people whom the
I paderewSki committee is trying to re-
lleve.
/ In the refugee camps, 300 600 sur
viyorS Of the flight We're gathered by
the Germans, members of broken fam
/ illcs They We're lodged In ierry-huilt
barracks scarcely waterproof, un-
lighted, unWarmed in the dead of win
4 ter Their clothes. where the buttons
were lost. We're sewed on There We're
no conyenlences, they had not even
been able to wash for weeks. Filth
and infection from vermin We're
spreading They were famiShed, their
daily ration a cup Of soup and piece
Of bread as big as my fst.
In Warsaw. which had not been de-
stroyed a city of one million inhah-
I ltants, one Of the most prosperous elf
/ les of Europe before the war. the
streets were lined with people in the
pangS Of starvation Famished AMI
I rain-Soaked, they sQuatted there. With
I their elbows on their knees ar lean
/ Ing against the buildings too feeble
/ 10 llIl HHnU lNT blt tl tnhbtN VT u
morsel Of hrend If one offered it, per
ishlng Of hunger and cold Charity
did what # could The rich gave all
that they had the poor shared their
last crust Hundreds Of thousands
were perishing Day and night the
pictures is before my eyes-a people
starving nation dying.
The above statement by Mr.. Wal
colt is terrible arraignment of the
Hun but no more terrible than he
1 deserves What has happened in
Poland in Belgium in northern
France aud every other country that
has been blighted by the Huns pres
cnce would happen in America should
the allies, by any chance, fail to win
this war It would mean the enSlaye-
ment of American men, the starving
md death Of American women and chill.
drcn Either the Hun or humanity
must perish.