Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-11-30
PEOPLE OF EASTERN EUROPE WITHOUT HOPE
 ARE AWAITING DEATH
American Attorney Describes Conditions in Poland and
 Austria.

starving millions of Eastern Eu- rope, brought back by Henry Lasker, attorney of Springfield, Mass, who has just returned to this country af- ter four months spent in Europe on legal business. ss
 "The old folks, the parents l saw in Poland and Austria, have given up all hope," declared Mr. Lasker. "They are without food. They are without clothes. They are without medicine with which to combat typhus and other diseases, which are thinning them out so rapidly.
 "All they want is that their chil- dren, the young men and women, the boys and girls and the babies, will receive food and clothes to tide them over the winter, which is already set ting in.
 And they are looking to America to keep the children alive, to give them the strength to live through the severe winter, so that next Spring they will be able to take care of themselves.
 "In whatever town visited in Pol and, was immediately surrounded by a crowd of starving, emaciated creatures, who kissing my clothes and on their knees before me, al- ways gave me the same message to take back: Tell your generous peo- pie to send us food and clothing, 50 that our little children will not die this winter
 Mir. Lasker related stories of the suffering he saw, which he declared, struck him cold with pity" In the town of Nova Gorde in Lithuanla, he found mother and three little chil- dren living in shed whose roof was half gone. Two of the children were dying from starvation. The whole family was lying on dirty, worn out mattress, which was the only furniture in the room. The mother, weak as she was, made daily trips to sand bank mile outside the town and carried bag of sand to | merchant, for which she received q mark and half day. With this, she was trying to keep her children alive.
 But for the work of the Ameri- can Jewish relief agencies in admin istering to these people, l can't be- gin to imagine what their conditions would be-" Mr. Lasker continued. "Everywhere l travelled, l found Jewish relief agents handing out soup and milk and bread to long lines of starving people.
 ''This was their only sustenance. The people can't work, for even for those able to work, there is nothing to do. And even the large sum the Tor,,s~h ro1iof 1tf and allied bodies are raising this year, is but drop in the bucket, when one sees the terrible misery of these countries"
 He told how he saw two and three year-old babies, their heads swelled to twice their normal size, the result of starvation.
 '.It was common sight to see boys and girls, who had to be carried because they were too weak to walk" " he added. Rarely did l see child with underwear or with shoes. Most of the clothing saw consisted of dirty rags pieced together with a string"
 In Kalvaria, Lithuania, the rabbi and delegation from the congrega- ton gave Mir. Lasker the following message for the Kalvaria synagogue in Pike street, New York, which is named after the Lithuanian synago- que:
 "Tell the members of the Kalvaria 'schule' in New York, that the com munity of Kalvaria is starving and needs relief and also money for a new synagogue-(Signed) Joseph Gordon, Hilel Smolensky, Rubin Gull bas."
 The Kalvaria synagogue was de- stroyed by a German bombardment in 1914, Mir. Lasker was told, after the Jews of the town had placed all their furniture, silver and other val uables in it, for safe-keeping. The end of the bombardment found them stripped of everything they owned.
 q encountered hundreds of chill dren who have become lost from their parents in the ceaseless wanderings that have been the lot of the Jews for five years," added Mir. Lasker. "These homeless children live as they can. most of them in the streets, always with the hope that some day they will find their parents. Sometimes a mother, with three or four of her own to provide for, will take in one of these little wanderers, adding to her hardships, for it means that much les sfor her."
 In Warsaw where he found prices cheaper than anywhere else in East ern Europe, Mr. Lasker said shoes were sold from 800 marks up ana an ordinary suit of clothes cost l20O marks. He found bread and sugar eaIl,rr for o00 r,lhleS a DOund
 In Austria the people eat a miser- able black bread made out of fruits which affords little or no nourish- ment, according to Mir. Lasker. In the restaurants in Vienna if ono doesn't bring his own food along, he will get little or nothing to eat, he declared. ..
 "Last winter thousands died through lack of shelter, clothes, and food. l dread to think what will be