Omaha daily bee., 1919-09-12
Polish People Are
Suffering for
Provisions

New York, Sept. 4.-Conditions
in Poland, due to lack of food.
clothes, medical aid and hospitals,
are described graphically in a mes
sage just received from Lois Downs
of Pittsburgh, head of the Y. w. c.
A. commission to that stricken
country.
This mission went into Poland
several months ago to investigate
conditions and discover how mem
bers of the Polish Grey Samaritan
unit which had been trained for re-
construction and social work in
their native land might best be used
to advantage.
Miss Downs tells of a trip into
the Department of the East-terri-
tory that is being taken from the
bolsheviki. 1T is just impossible
for me to give you any idea of the
utter lack of food, houses, clothes,
medical aid, hospitals-everything,"
she writes. II saw many sick, hun.
cry uncared-for children that were
too weak to eat or cry. l saw many
children in all sorts of conditions
and only heard six crying. 1t sounds
unbelievable.
Men, women, children, horses
and cows, if a family is lucky
enough to have them. are all living
together in dugouts, in box cars, in
open wagons. along the roads in the
open with no covering or shelter
from the heavy rains. Refugee
camps have, at best, only a bare
wooden platform for each family.
All these camps are filled with
typhus, smallpox and cholera cases.
I'm one hospital sc cases of dys-
EMERY broke out within two days.
Men, women and children were all
lying on the floor in small, airless
rooms, with only one dirty blanket.
AT the same camp we found a ward
filled with badly wounded soldiers
suffering from dreadful lung, head
and stomach wounds. The surgeon,
splendid man who spoke English
perfectly, had operated on these
men without an anaesthetic. l saw
an eight-year-old girl stand up and
have iodine put on her hand, which
had been blown off by a hand gren-
ade. and never make one cry.
Poland is surely in dire need of
relief and workers. Everyone here
is in great need of normal recrea-
ton. The women and girls are
dreadfully nervous as the result of
years of fear. One simply cannot
keep them from continually discuss
ing horrors.
Very few factories are running,
SO that the girls who formerly
worked in them are now doing pub
lie work with the men-clearing up
buildings that have been burned or
blown up by the Russians and Ger
mans, helping in the public gardens
and such things. | did see some
women and girls working in fac
tory outside of Warsaw. They were
carding wool and received less than
a dollar a day. Conditions in the
factory were most primitive. The
girl simply came in, hung up her
shawl on anything handy and went
to work. Few of them wore more
than one garment. None of them /
had shoes or stockings.
II visited club OF business girls |
the other evening and with great |
difficulty got them to play some
games and forget the serious things |
they ordinarily discuss. In the end |
| was swamped with requests for |
classes in English and stenography. |
THE advance unit of Polish Grey |
Samaritans arrives in Warsaw to-
morrow and will go to work the
next day. We have had difficulty |
in arranging their work, as there
are SO many things to do. Nine.
Paderewski wants them to train |
some of the Warsaw girls for can
teen work. The minister of public |
health wants them to help nurses
in the epidemic hospitals, and the
military hospitals want them, too.
We are anxious that they be used
to the best advantage, and in this
have the cooperation of Nine. Pad
erewski and of ali the government
officials"