The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1918-09-26


The following is o statement by f.
G. 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 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: -
I went to Poland to learn the facts
concerning the remnant of a people
that had been decimated by war. The
country had been twice devastated.
First the Russian army swept through
it and then the Germans. Along the
roadside from Warsaw to 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 were collecting the larger
bones to be milled into fertilizer, but
finger and toe bones lay on the ground
with the Undiscovered and rain-soaked
clothing. s IL
Wicker baskets were scattered along
the 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 q
death. I started to count, but after a
little had to give 1t up, there were
so many.
That is the desolation one saw along
the great road from Warsaw to Pinsk,
mile after mile, more than two hun
dred miles. They told me million
people were 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; it is these people whom the
Paderewski committee is trying to re-
lieve.
In the refugee camps, 100000 sur
vivors Of the flight were gathered by
the Germans, members of broken FAM
lilies. They were lodged in jerry-built
barracks, scarcely waterproof, I'M
lighted, unwarmed in the dead Of win
ter. Their clothes, where the buttons
were 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 cup of soup and piece
of bread as big as my flst.
In Warsaw, which had not been de-
stroyed, city Of one million fnhab-
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 and
rain-soaked, they squatted there, with
their elbows on their knees or lean
Ing against the buildings, too feeble
to lift hand for bit of money or
morsel Of bread If one offered it, per-
ishing of hunger and cold. Charity
did what it 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 UelOrS NY eycS-d PCORAS
| starving, q nation dying.
| The above statement by Mr.. Wal
colt is terrible arraignment Of the
Hun, 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
must perish, -- g.. =