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

F. c. WalcoIt, member of the
United States food administration. and
during the time America was feeding
the civilian populations of Belgium,
Serbia and northern France an assist
ant Of Mr. Hoover In these invaded
countries, has pictured in "A graphic
way the conditions he found among
the people 1t was his duty 70 help.
After describing the terrible condi-
lions In Poland in 1916. the millions
that We're dying Of starvation. the
hundreds of thousands of defenSeleSs
people that had been ruthleSsly cut
down by the sword of the German con
queror, he says:
In that situation, the German com
maudrr issued proclamation Every
Hble-bodIed Pole was hidden to Ger
many to work II any refused let no
other Pole give him to eat not SO
much Us mouthfu, under penalty of
German military law.
This rs the choice the German gov
9rnineut gives to the conquered Pole,
10 the husband and father of a starv-
ing family: Leave your family or die
or survive as the case may be- Leave
your country which is des royed, to
work in Germany for its further de
struction. If you are obstinate, We
shah 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 will be cut off from
his family, they may never hear from
him again nor he from them. Ger
many will set him to work that Ger
man workman may be released 70 fight
against his own land and people. He
shall be lodged ia barracks, behind
harbed wire entanglementS, under
armed guard He shah sleep on the
bare ground With a single thin blan-
ket. He shall be scantlly fed ana his
earnings shall be taken from him to
pay for his food
That Is the choice which the Ger
man government offers to proud
sensitive, highstrung people. Death
or slavery
When Pole gave me that proclama-
ton, | was boiling. But | had to re
strain myself | was practically the
only foreign civilian IN the country
and | wanted to get food to the people
That was what | was there for and
must not for any cause jeopardize the
undertaking asked Governor Gen
eral Won Beseler, "Can this be true2'
Really, cuunot say he replied.
Il have signed SO many proclamations ,
ask General Won Kries'
So | asked General Won Krles Gen
eral tins Is civilized people. Can
this be trueF
"Yes,' he said 1T IS true'--with an
air Of adding, Why not?
| dared not trust myself to speak
| turned to 20 "Wait" he said. And
he explained to me how Germany,
official Germany regards the state Of
subject peoples,
Ii is hard for lis to imagine such a
condition IN America rs Mr.. Walcott
has described as existing in Hunrld-
den Poland. and yet that is just what
would exist should our boys and the
boys of our allies, now fighting in
France fail to defeat the soldiers OF
this murder empire This fair coun-
try of ours would be made into a Ger
man province; our people would be
the slaves of the Juukcrs Of Germany.
subject to the beaStly whims of the
officers of the German army. In no
war in which America has eNr en-
gagged have the stakes been So great
as in this present conflict Should we,
by any chance, lose, should the Hun,
by any chance win; our liberties our
happiness, everything Americans hold
dear, would be lost