The Nome daily nugget., 1918-01-10

ton issues the following article m The Prussian system" as told by F. c. Wnlcott at a conference of field men held September F. Mir. Wal colt introduces his subject with this preamble:
 This have seen. could not be- and through. For several weeks ] lived with it; l went all about it and shown to me-until finally 1 came to realize that the incredible was true. It is monstrous, it is unthinkable, but it exists. it is the Prussian system.
 A year ago I went to Poland to learn it's facts concerning the rem nant of the people that had been de- cimated by war. The country had been twice devastated. First the Rus sian army swept through 1t and then the Germans Along the roadside from Warsaw to Pinsk, the present firing line 230 miles. near half a mit- lion people had died of hunger and cold The way was strewn with their bones picked clean by the crows. WTth 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 mud covered and rain soaked clothing.
 Wicker baskets were scattered along the way--the basket in which the baby swings from the rafter in every peasant home Every mile there were scores of them, each one telling a death. started to count. but after Q little had to give it up, there were so many
 This Is the desolation one saw along the great road from Warsaw to pinsk mile after mile. more than 200 miles They told me a million people were made homeless in six weeks of the German drive in August and Septem- Der. 1916. They told me the 100000 died on the way The rest scarcely half alive. got through with the Rus sian army. Many of these have been sent to Siberia. It is these people whom the Paderewski committee is trying to relieve.
 In the refugee camps 3O0,O00 survi- vors of the flight were gathered by the Germans. members of broken families. They were lodged in jerry built barracks, scarcely waterproof, unlighted, unwafmed in the dead of winter. Their clothes. where the but tons were lost were sewed on. There was no conviences. they had not even been able to wash for weeks. Filth and infection from vermin were spreading. They were tamished, their daily ration a cup of soup and a piece of bread as big as my fist.
 In Warsaw. which had not been de- stroyed, q city of 100000 inhabitants, one of the most prosperous cities of Europe before the war. the streets were lined with people in the pang of starvation. Famishcd and rain soaked, they squatted there with their elbows on their knees or leaning against the buildings. too feeble to lift . hand for bit of money or a morse, of bread if one offered 1t, perishing of cold and hunger. Charity did what 1t could. The rich gave all that they had. the poor shared their last crust Hun. dreds of thousands were perishing Day and night the picture is before my eyes-a people starving, a nation dying.
 In that situation. the German com mandcr issued proclamation. Evory abte-bodied Pole was bldden to Ger many to work. If any refused, let no other Pole give him to eat. not so much as a mouthful, under penalty or German military law.
 This is the choice the German gov. ernment sivess to the conquefed Pole. to the husband and father of a starv- ing family: Leave your family to die or survive as the case may be. Leave your country which is destroyed. to work in Germany for it's further de. 1 structton. If you are obstinate we shall see that you surely starve.
 Staying with his folks, fe Is doom. cd and they are not saved; the father and husband can do nothing for them: he only adds to their risk and suffer. | ing. Leave them, he will be cut of l from his family: they may never hear | from him again nor he from them. |