El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1919-12-27
BUCHAREST NOW
WRECKED LAND
Of DESPAIR
Gaudy Profiteers Flaunt
wealth" While Poor
Die In Streets.
AMBITION GIVES
WAY TO DELUGE

"
mania-one imagines the porters
shouting it out as one draws into
some stately station, What one does
see as the train eraWls in y hours
late Of a Sunday morning is what
looks like the whole country popula-
ton Of Rumania 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 explained
a Rumanian friend who had just been
crying Up the advanced civilization
o. Rumania-
Backward Poverty.
Neither. I tninz. do they want edu-
satiou- certainly they don't get 10 any
more than stockings Never have ]
seen such a state Of backward pow
ertv as exists in RdIlaull today IL
came with an the greater shock o.
being plunged from a civilized So
ciety into barbaris-n, because on our
journey I'D from Trieste we had
passed through the Banat a great
district once south Hum gary. now 70
De divided between the Ser5lars ana
the lRumauiaus.
There we saw rich crops almost
eight feet high, modern towns.
with electric light and trnmHnys.
and an educated, hard working
people.
ZEN it not in Cath. but they were
Austrian-Germans planted there IS
part Of the old idea Of the Austrian
empire OF putting a ring fence Of
German col0nists round rebel Hun
gary Wen, ] would rather have
lived in the Banat under the old
regime than fin Rumania under the
reign OF the new world Even the ar
rival az the big hotel showed that we
bad passed 10 the Orient
High Rates
-Ifare you ROOM asked che
porter "Oh. yes, sir" he replied
Then I want some"
eyes. sir. but you VIII not get them
unless you give me a pound
OF course. -ur lugEage, registered
through from Paris VIA Trieste and
serbia. had not arrived nor would it
arrive, for IL had been detained IN
Serbia For reason I applied 70 the
serbian leeltion in Bucharest
Your luggaEe2 Yes. IL has been
confiscated by the serbian govern
meuE'
but whyg
-Nou were travelling 20 Rumauia.
20 is an act OF reprisal against the
Eumauian govarumenL
-But what have / a Britisher, got
io do with a quarrel between Serbia
and Eumania-
Confiscates Luggage
Wcll 20 IS an act OF reprisal. Your
luggage is confiscates and so IL
remains 20 this day 10 Balkan
state has the faintest conception o.
ordinary public morality and one
may as vel realize this fact first as
last.
Rumania has INCREASED from a
principally 81 6,00t000 people 70 a
kingdom OF 1900. 600 IL IS like the
fr0g that inflated itself and 81 MV-
ing on that initiation until g. bursts,
as BE- must do unless it puts some
Kind OF solid work and organization
into its huge balloon OF this last
Development there IS not the slight
esq sign Never have I seen such
AFFECT misery cheek by jowl with
such Haunting OF bubble wealth as
exists Boz Bucharest.
In the hack streets people are
dying Of sheer cold and Etnrrn-
tlon. hut take n turn Into the
local plccnduly or Regent street
and you VIII see a long proces-
sion OF Eaudiiy dressed prof..
tecrs-s spectators politicians and
their wives, pacing up and down
in an endless and ainnlezE parade.
showing of the money they have
zot on their backs.
And Il Is all inflation-an talk
about the great Rumania with the
minerals 70 has conquered. and does
not know how 20 utilize. and with
not a bit OF genuine enterprise and
work 90 back all this talk and this
vast issue OF paper money.
cannot advise the foreign capital
isl TO put q penny into Rumania sas
things stand at present.
Other Side OF Picture
Look az the other side OF the pie
ture- I came home to nv hotel az
m o'clock one night and nearly fell
over boy Of eight years or 80 lying
lu the pavement newspaper boy
most likely. Another half hour would
have seen the end OF him from sheer
exposure and exhaustion It took me
half an hours hard work. warm
blankets and warm drink 70 bring
him round-and he IS only one Of
hundreds. There Is a revolution wait Z
Ing for Rumanla due to the sheer in
capacity Of the governing classes {
either 10 work or 70 govern.
How long viii this inflated non
sense last- 7 asked one OF q Few /
sane business men found among .
.his host Of spectators Two years"
be said. and then the deluge-"