The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1918-09-26

The following Is a statement by H.
.. Walcott, who served as an assist
ant to Mr.. Hoover during the time
America was doing all that was pos
sible to feed the starving millions or
Belgium and Poland and northern
France. In this work he was brought
n direct contact with German military
officials, and saw the conditions which
he German invasion had created
among the civilian population:
I went to Poland to learn the facts
concerning the remnant of a people
hat had been deeimated by war. The
country had been twice devastated.
First the Russian army swept through
t and then the Germans. Along the
,Oadside from Warsaw TO Pinsk. the
present firing line, go miles, nearly
lalf a million people had died of hun
ger and cold. The way was strewn
With their bones picked clean by the
rows. With their usual thrift. the
Germans were collecting the larger
ZONES to be milled into fertilizer, but
niger and toe bones lay on the ground
With the m~ud-eovered and ra~in-soeked
lothing
Wicker baskets were scattered along
he way-the basket in which the baby
swings from the rafter in every peas
ant home. Every mile there were
scores of them. each one telling a
leath. I started to count, but after a
title I had to give it up, there were
30 many.
That is the desolation n saw along
he great road from Warsaw to Pinsk,
nile after mile, more than two hun
lred miles. They told me a million
people were made homeless In six
weeks of the German drive in August
md September, 1916. They told me
,our hundred thousand died on the
way. The rest, scarcely half alive,
rot through with the Russian army.
Many of these have been sent 10 81
3eria; 1t Is these people whom the
~Paderewski committee is trying to re-
lieve.
In the refugee camps, 100000 sur
sivors of the flight were gathered by
he Germans, members Of broken fam
lies. They were lodged In jerry-built
barracks, scarcely waterproof, I'M
lighted, unwarmed in the dead of win
,er. Their clothes, where the buttons
we're lost, were sewed on. There were
no conveniences, they had not even
been able to wash for weeks. Filth
and infection from vermin were
spreading. They were famished. their
daily ration a cup of soup and a piece
Of bread as big as my fist.
In Warsaw, which had not been ue-
stroyed, a city of n million inhaD-
ltants, one Of the most prosperous cit
les of Europe before the war, the
streets were lined with people In the
pangs of starvation. Famished ana
r~aln-soaked. they squatted there, with
their elbows on their knees or lean
ing against the buildings, too feebie
TO lift a hand for a bit Of money or a
morsel of bread If n offered 1t, per-
lshing of hunger and cold. Charity
hid what 1t could. The rich gave all
that they had, the poor shared their
last crust. Hundreds of thousands
were perishlng. Day and night the
pictures is before my eyes-a people
starving, a nation dying.
The above statement by Mr.. Wal
colt is a terrible arraignment of the
HIM. but no, more terrible than he
deserves. What has happened in
Poland, in Belgium, in northern
France and every other country that
has been blighted by the Huns pres
ence would happen in America should
the allies, by any chance, fail to win
this war. 1t would mean the enslave-
ment of American men, the starving
and death of American women and chill
dren. Either the Hun or humanity
Vnncf pariSb-