The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1918-08-15


f. c. 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
ant of Mr.. Hoover in these invaded
countries, has pictured in graphic
way the conditions he found among
the people it was his duty to help.
After describing the terrible condi-
lions 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. II any refused, let no
other Pole give him to eat, not so
much as mouthful, under penalty Of
German military law.
This IS the choice the German gov
eminent gives to the conquered Pole,
to the husband and father of 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 its further de-
struction. If you, are obstinate, we
shall 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 to fight
against his own land and people. He
barbed wire entanglements, under
armed guard. He shall sleep on the
bare ground with single thin blan-
ket. He shall be scantily fed and his
earnings shall be taken from him to
pay for his food.
That is the choice which the Ger
man government offers to q proud,
sensitive, higll-strung people. Death
or slavery.
When Pole gave me that proclama-
ton, was boiling. But had to re-
strain myself. I 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. I asked Governor Gem
eral Won Beseler, "Can this be truef"
"Really, 1 cannot say" he replied.
IT have signed so many proclamations;
ask General Won Kries."
So asked General Won Kries. "Gen-
eral, this is a civilized people. Can
this be trueY
EYES," he said, sit is true"-with an
air of adding, Why not?
dared not trust myself to speak;
I turned to go. "Wait," he said. And
he explained to me how Germany,
official Germany, regards the state OF
subject peoples.
II is hard for us to imagine such q
condition In America as Mr.. Walcott
has described as existing In Hun-rid-
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 Ger
man province; our people would be
the slaves of the Junkers Of Germany,
subject to the beastly whims Of the
officers Of the German army. In no
war in which America has ever 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. D. IL 4