South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-12-30
GREAT DESPAIR
IN BUCHAREST
FrofieerS FIaunt wealth"
While Poor Are Allowed
to Die on Streets.


est the capital Of Rumania, one
fmagines tho porters shouting II out
as one draws into some stately sta
ton. What one does see as the
train orawIs in u hours late on a \
Sunday morning is what looks like
The whole country population OF
Rumauia sitting on the trucks. on
the roofs Of carriages. climbing on
the engines Of outgoing local trains,
and all OF them minus boots, shoes,
socks or stockings
They don't want boots ex-
planned afRumainan friend who had
Just been crying up the advanced
civilization Of Rumania.
Bucharest Poverty
Neither. I think, Go they want ed
.ucation: certainly they don't get il
and more than stockings. Never
1lave I seen a state OF backward
poverty as exists in Rumania today.
gt came with all the greater shock
or being plunged from a civilized
society into barbarlsm. because on
our Journey UP from Trieste we had
passed through the Banat, a great
district once South Hungary. now %
be divided between the Serbians
and the Rumanians
There we saw rich crops almost
eight feet high. modern towns with
electric light and tramways. and an
educated, Woodworking people.
Tell it not IN Gath, but they were
observation-disclosures planted there as
part OF the old idea Of the Austrian
empire Of putting a ring fence Of
German colonists round rebel Hun
gary Wei, ] would rather have
lived in the Banat under the old
regime than in Rumania under the
reign Of the new world. Even the
arrival at the big hotel showed that
we had passed TO the orient.
Have you room 2" I asked the
porter "Oh. yes. sir" ne replied
Then 7 want some"
Yes. sir, but you will not get
them unless you give me a pound. -
No Baggage.
OF course our luggage. registered
through from Paris via Trieste and
Serbia. had not arrived: nor would
it arrive for &c had been detained in
Serbia. For reason applied 20 the
Serbian legation in Bucharest.
Your luggage Yes IL has been
confiscated by the Serbian govern
ment."
but why?"
You were travelling TO Ru-
mania: it is an act OF reprisal
against the Rumainian government"
But what have 7, a Britisher, got
70 do with a quarrel between Serbia
and Rumaina?"
Well. It is an act OF reprisal. Your
luggage Is confiscated, and so it re-
mains TO this day. no Balkan state
has tho faintest conception OF ordi-
nary public morality. and one may
Us well realize this fact first as last.
Rumania has increased from q
principally OF six millions of peo-
pie 60 n kingdom Of eighteen mil
lions It Is like the frog that in
flatcd itself. and is living on that
initiation until IL bursts. as it must
do unless its puts some kind OF solid
work and organization into its huge
balloon. OF this last development
there is not the slightest sign. Never
have seen such abjeCt misery
cheek nv jowl with such Haunting
.oC bubble wealth as exists in Buchar-
tst.
Die From Cold.
Tn The back streets people are dy-
.iug of sheer cold and starvation.
nut take turn into the local picca-
-diUv cor Regent street and you will
'scc a long procession OF gaudily
dressed profitccrs. spectators poll
ticiaus and their wives, pacing up
baud Gown in an endless and aimless
.parad, .nn ing off the money they
'hav. roir backs. And IL Is
lau I IN talk about the
igreat I,.uaH5I with tho minerals
lit has conquered. and does not know
'row So utilize and with not bit
iof genuine enterprise and work TO
hack an this talk and this vast issue
'of paper money
cannot advise tbc foreign cap
,falist to put penny into Rumaml
as things stand as present
Look at tho other side of the pie
tgre 7 came home TO my hotel az
II o'clock ono night and nearly foU
over body of eight years or so ly-
ing on the pavement Ia newspaper
hoy most likely Another half hour
would have seen the end or him
from sheer exposure and exhaustion.
10 took mo half am hours hard
work. warm blankets and warm
drink to bring him round-aud be
is only one OF the hundreds There
is revolution waiting for Rumauia
due 10 the sheer iucapacitv Of the
governing classes either 20 work or
TO govern.
"How Ions will this inflated nom
sonse last2" L asked one OF few sane
business men I found among this
host of spectators "Tvvo years. BE-
he said. land then the deIuEc."