Yerington times. [volume] (Yerington, Nev.) 1907-1932, 1918-08-17


The following is a statement by III
c. 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
went to Poland to learn the facts
concerning the remnant Of a people
hat had been decimated by war. The
country had been twice devastated.
First the Russian army swept through
t and then the Germans. Along the
roadside from Warsaw to Pinsk, the
present firing line. go miles, nearly
half 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
Sermans were collecting the larger
bones to be milled into fertilizer, but
inger and toe homes lay on the ground
with the mud-covered and rain-sOaked
,lothing
Wicker baskets we're scattered along
The way-the basket I'm which the baby
swings from the rafter in every peas
ant home. Every mile there were
scores of them, each one telling q
Heath. l started to count, but after q
haI 20 eriva
20 many.
That is the desOlation one saw along
!he great road from Warsaw to Pinsk.
nile after mile. more than two hum
lred 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,
rot through with the Russian army.
Many of these have been sent to ST.
,eria: il is these people whom the
Paderewski committee is trying to re-
ieve.
In the refugee camps, 100000 sur
rivOrs of the flight We're gathered by
he Germans, members of broken fam
lies. They were lodged in jerry-built
barracks. scarcely waterproof. un-
lighted unwarmed in the dead of win
.er Their clothes. where the buttons
we're lost, were sewed on. There were
40 conveniences, they had not even
been able TO wash for weeks. Filth
and infection from vermin were
spreading. They were furnished. their
1aily ration cup of soup and piece
If bread as big as my flst.
In Warsaw, which had not been de-
stroyed. a city of one million inhab-
tants, one of the most prosperous cit
les of Europe before the war, the
streets were lined with people in the
gangs of starvation. FamiShed ana
rain-soaked. they squatted there, with
their elbows on their knees or lean
ing against the buildings. too feeble
TO lift a hand for II hit Of money or
morsel of bread II one offered 1t. per-
lshing of hunger and cold. Charity
lid what 1t could The rich gave all
that they had, the poor shared their
last crust. Hundreds of thousands
were perlshing. Day and. night the
pictures is before my eyes-a people
starving, a nation dying.
The above statement by Mr.. Wal
rott 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 blishted 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
dlens Either the Hun or humanity
must perish.