The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-11-21
FOOD AND FUEL CONDITIONS IN GERMANY AREBA Saxony Suffers Great Priva- tAons Because of
 War
REV.H.J. SCHUH MAKES REPORT ON CONDITION
Says Something Must Be Done for Starving Ones Before Winter


 many are very bad and suffering in ! many sections is severe. Especially in Saxony that is the case. Its noun tainous parts have always been poor and during and since the war the
 lack of food and clothing has brought l great hardships. Rev. H. J. Schuh, now in Europe for the Lutheran Church to investigate conditions has submitted 8 report on conditions in Germany. He closes the report by saying. "Everything seems to tell us: finish up and get out before winter sets in, for God only knows what it will bring"
 | The report in part follows:
 Ut was nothing unusual in Ger
 many to see people gather nettles and | other wild herbs in order to fill their l stomachs even if these things did not 1 satisfy the cravings of hunger. For | months the only food for the civil 1 population was turnips boiled in wa | ter with a little salt, not a drop of 1 fat not an ounce of meat, not a bit 1 of bread. People went to bed and tried to forget their misery in sleep. | If they ate a trifle more than the i allotted quantity one day it only meant 1 to eat so much less the next. When l the American Food Commission dis l ributed condensed milk and cocoa in i German Bohemia, the children were so unaccuStomed to wholesome food 1 that for several days they could not 1 retain it, until their stoInachs again 1 became accustomed to real food. In 1 the so-ca1led "Eizgebirge" between 1 SaXony and Bohemia, there always was great poverty and now the popu- 1 lation is on the verge of starvation. i The transportation facilities are so | 6afaoti1ya yo1o- l tainable it is a question whether it 1 can be brought to these poor sufferers | in time to prevent a catastrophy with 1 the approach of winter. Let me give a few extracts from a letter of one 1 of the Lutheran pastors describing | the horrors of the situation: "One 1 of the worst things is tuberculosis 1 which not only attacks the lungs but i other organs. We have no means of l combating the disease. The food cure is out of question. The people l will hunger and freeze during the 1 coming winter. There is no milk,
 there are no eggs. and for months 1 we have had no potatoes, little fat, | scarcely any flour (for the eight per 1 sons in my family 1 1-2 kilogram per 1 week) and very little sugar; rice, oat- l meal, beans, peas, and lenti1s are al-
 most unknown. We would be glad if 1 we had at least a sufficient supply of
 Indian corn, but even this sells at 12
 crowns a kilogram. In the Spring we 1 still had horse meat and sausage
 made of horse meat. But this has | ceased Or is to be had only at ex- l horDftant prices. The delicacies from 1 abroad are of no avail to us, as we 1 cannot afford to buy them. Yesterday l on trip to give religious instruction
 in an outlying congregation which 1 took the whole day I wanted to buy
 a piece of cheese: eight crowns and
 ten pennys. It was too dear for i me.
 1 In our orphanage there are 20 chill l dren. We are no longer able to meet
 the expenses of it's maintenance We
 can buy neither food nor clothing, 1 nor pay the interest on debt of 4O- | OOe crowns. During the five years 1 of the war we have used up the en- i tire property of my wife and yet we
 suffered hunger. This spring my son was compelled to give up his studies | on account of under nourishment. My | sister-in-law smuggled him secretly
 across the border into Jugo-Slavia
 where he recuperated and ill four
 months grew 15 cm. showing how 1 under-nourishment had retarded his 1 growth. My oldest daughter of ten l years was saved from a physical col l lapse by being sent to Switzerland i The weeks she passed there were like
 a dream of Paradise. My wife was i seriously affected with stomach 1 trouble. The physician prescribed
 milk, eggs, and wheat bread all of which could not be had. An attempt to get over to her home in a German congregation in Jugo-Slavia where she could have secured better food, failed i She was sent back by the police and 1 fined
 The immediate future looks dark. 1 This will be a terrible winter We 1 have not a bit of coal. Public ser
 vices and official acts will have to be i suspended. Especially warm stock | lngs and underwear are wanting as well as warm colthing and shoes. We l very much miss felt shoes which are
 so necessary when working in cold
 rooms. So long as we had clothing
 and shoes from pre-war times the
 situation was not so bad, but when it
 is once necessary to secure new l articles what will become of us? And
 woe when one of us (pastors) dies,
 His family is doomed to starvation.
 With a pension of 800 crowns ($12) a
 year no family can live.''
 On our way from Neuendettkesau
 to Nuremberg on a Saturday evening
 the train was packed to it's utmost
 standing capacity with city folks who
 had been in the country after pro
 visions. They were loaded down with
 packs of potatoes and apples and
 cans of milk, for which they had
 walked from farm to farm until they
 had at exhorbitant prices secured the
 little food they could carry on their
 backs.
 The first thing we did when reach
 ing Berlin was to get permission to 1 eat-that Is, to secure bread, meat l and potato cards. The situation has
 improved a little, but 1t is yet far
 from being ideal Meat is still out of
 reach for the poor, and even bread
 and potatoes are scarce in spite of
 the fairly good harvest, and the inn
 portation of food from America. It is
 nothing unusual to hear of men and
 women who lost forty to fifty pounds
 in weight during the last two years. [ The pinched faces and loose hanging 1 clothes tell sad story. Add to this
 scarcity of food the lack of feul and
 you have situation that bodes i'll for
 the coming winter. In several cities, at the hotel we were unable to take t-< IL. IL J,o ra