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


Il. G. Walcott, a 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
mt of Mr.. Hoover in these invaded
countries, has pictured in a graphic
way the conditions he found among
the people it was his duty to help.
After describing the terrible condi-
tons in Poland in 1916, the millions
that were 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
mander issued a proclamation. Every
able-bodied Pole was hidden to Ger
many to work. If any refused, let no
other Pole give him to eat, not so
much as a mouthful, under penalty OF
German military law.
This rs the choice the German gov
eminent gives to the conquered Pole,
to 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 destroyed, to
work in Germany for it's further de
struction. If you are obstinate, we
shall see that you surely starve.
Staying with his folk, he is doomed
.1I kh1r- 1~o 80 .v-,J A. f1+l.~.. .,
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 a Ger
man workman may be released to igh'
against his own land and people. He
shall be lodged in barracks, behinC
barbed wire entanglements, under
armed guard. He shall sleep on the
bare ground with a single thin blan
ket. He shall be scantily fed and hi!
earnings shall be taken from him tt
pay for his food.
That is the choice which the Ger
man government offers to a proud
sensitive, high-strung people. Dealt
or slavery.
When a Pole gave me that proclama
ton, l was boiling. But 1 had to re
strain myself. l was practically tn,
only foreign civilian in the countr.
and l wanted to get food to the people
That was what / was there for and
na,,n+ ~o+ -, .ouso ioorardi1a III.
undertaking. l asked Governor Gen
eral Won Beseler. Can this be true?'
Really. l cannot say" he replied
81 have signed SO many proclamations
ask General Won Kries."
So l asked General Won Kries. seen
eral, this is a civilized people. Ca
this be trueP'
eyes," he said, 'ft is true"-with al
air Of adding, Why not?
/ dared not trust myself to speak
/ turned to 90. wait" he said. An
he explained to me how Germany
official Germany, regards the state o
subject peoples.
1t is hard for us t. imagine such
condition in America as Mr.. Walcot
has described as existing in Hun-rid
den Poland, and yet that is just wha
would exist should our boys, and tn
boys Of our allies, now fighting /
France fail to defeat the soldiers 0
this murder empire. This fair couI
try of ours would be made into a Gel
man province; our people would b
the slaves of the Junkers of Germany
subject to the beastly whims of tn
officers of the German army. In u
war in which America has ever eI
gagged have the stakes been SO grea
as in this present conflict. Should W.
by any chance, lose; should the Hui
by any chance, win; our liberties, OF
happiness, everything Americans hol