McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1919-01-24

Hold our babies just minute, plead
a hundred thousand mothers to Amer.
lea. Take them on your knee that we
may rest our arms. We have walked
miles and miles. Our breasts are dry.
Our babies are dying for the want of a
piece Of bread.
Can not the people of Tennessee
hear that cry from across the seas ?
From the Near East where filth and
disease lurk under every piece of de-
molished homes?
Their wall has been heard by tbs
American Committee for Relief in the
Near East and is being echoed to the
whole United States. With the echo
comes the call for money. Funds for
the greatest and most far-reaching
charitable cause ever presented to the
people OF this wealthy nation.
These peoples, this mother and her
brown-eyed baby, were driven from
their peaceful and quiet villages by the
Turkish armies when that German.
Differed organization of fiends invad.
ed the Western Asiatic countries of
Persia, Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia
and others. Deported for hundreds Of
miles, At each turn in the winding
road lies a heap of skeletons. Mile
stones in the marcn of Kultur with
its Turkish atrocities.
This mother is one Of hundreds Of
thousands returning to their former
homes. Her husband died on the way
that she and Baby might live. Both
were refined and educated. Baby was
to have been sent to the village school
and then given further opportunity to
become a useful citizen Of the world.
What If 1t does prattle with a weak
voice in another tongue? What is Ian
guage, anyway? Speech is nothing
more than certain arrangements of
sounds that express thoughts. Does the
fact that Baby's mother and father ex-
pressed their thoughts differently
from Americans lessen the duty to,
answer the call for help?
And now, unless the people Of the
United States heed this prayer for
help, 100000 orphans will die and their
deaths win be checked as the sins OF a
selfish heart. Every refusal to help
this Baby is the signing Of its death
warrant
Tennessee is asked to give $500, ,000
The entire State has been organized.
under the direction of state chair
man and state director. T. Graham
Hall is the state chairman and Seth;
Seiders, state director. Each county
has county chairman and effective
organization which is seeking contribu-
tions for the saving of these lives.
All expenses Of the campaign are met
by subscriptions privately solicited.
Every cent of every dollar given in
this drive goes to the purchase of food
hnd clothing for these unfortunates
and this Baby will be one of them. It
will be placed in an orphanage and
given education, and food for body,
soul and mind. 1t will be allowed to,
play with others. II Tennessee does
aot give 100000 or more there always
win be a stain upon 1t. Its citizens
viii, not fail in the only purely charit-
able relief work every undertaken on q
nationwide scale, by such men as
Cleveland II. Dodge. William H. Taft.
and Charles Evans Hughes. who are
members of the executive committee.
Cleveland II. Dodge is National Treas
urer. A. B. Benedict, general mana
ger Of the Nashville Trust Company,
is state treasurer. &.
This little Raby's mother knows that
somewhere there is food and lots OF 1t,
She knows that there are ships to bring
1t to her little darling. And the peo.
pie Of Tennessee know there Is, too,
and they win make the way clear for
that life-sustaining food to reach this
mother and child, and hundreds of
thousands OF other mothers and chill,
dren, in time to keep those heaps Of
skeletons fTom growing larger, ..s
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