Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1919-02-07
AMERICA, THE JUST
By ELLIS PARKER BUTLER

to come the Syrian Christian and the
Armenian Christian will be returned
to his home and repaid in part Tor the
injuries he has suffered, but when ne
is naked and without food he cannot
wait for indemnity must have gar
ments and victuals or he dies.
Turks Used Rifle Butts to Save
Cartridges
When a man is dead indemnities
and PREPARATIONS do him no good He
is dead then. am not, you see, speak
ing OF people, or of village. am
speaking of a girl in rags with no food
to put in her mouth today and no food
in sight for tomorrow, or the next day,
or the next, unless America sends
food. 1t is not a question OF making
the Turks rebuild church they have
destroyed. 1t is question OF whether
a boy is to die of plain starvation be-
fore food can reach him.
Day before yesterday l was so busy
/ was not able to go out for my mid
day lunch until three o'clock. was
ravenously hungry but it did not
worry me much because | knew /
would get something to eat sooner or
later. If the very worst happened I
would eat more at dinner and make
up for the missed luncheon. These
women and men and children of Syria
and Armenia go without luncheon
and have no dinners to look forward
to. They go without dinner and have
no breakfast to expect. They go with
out breakfast and do not know
whether they will ever taste food
again. To starve to death is the most
miserable death. When an Armenian
is starving to death she may be ex-
cHsed for wishing she was one OF the
old women the Turks knocked on the
head with a club. The Turks did that
to save the expense of cartridge.
Things, am sure, are going to be
all right in Turkey one of these days
The Armenians will come into their
own and be given back what was
stolen from them. The Turks will
pay indemnities. Only, it will be nee
essary, first, to bring some sort of
order out of the chaos that rules in
Turkey. There will have to be Tur-
key bolstered together to pay the in
IDENTITIES. That may take a year or
ten years When you have had no
food for a week and cannot expect
any until the indemnity is paid, and
the indemnity may not be paid for
years, even a stout-hearted baby may
be excused for dying of starvation.
In the plainest words let me say
that unless America gives the hun
dreds Of thousands of Syrian and Ar
menian Christians cannot receive.
Unless America gives the Ar
menians and Syrian Christians must
die.
| could understand a Turkey that
condemned thousands to death by
starvation; cannot even imagine an
America eondemning those thousands
to that death. That, however, is what
America will do if she does not hold
out the open, giving hand to the Ar
menians and Syrians now.
America, the Christian knight, clad
in glittering white armor, unspotted,
victorious, blessed by prosperity be-
yond all imagination, has won
mighty war fought for the good of all
mankind. The God of Battles has
crowned us with victory. Tens of
thousands Of our sons who might have
laid down their lives in battle are liy-
ing today; our wealth, which might
have been demanded until we were
shrunken in bitter poverty, has been
preserved to us; we are mightier than
before-let us be worthy of our vic
tory!
We Have Won a Glorious Victory.
/ think a nation that is charitable
and kind of heart is worthy OF any
victory, however great, and that we
are a nation Of that kind. We have
fought a good fight, we have won
glorious victory, we are ready to go
forward on our great career of peace
full prosperity, but how can we when
a little child sits huddled in rags, the
cheek bones protruding through the
shrunken skin of her cheeks, her
pleading eyes turned toward us, and
her hand open, begging for a scrap
of food from our bountiful table?
o America, mighty and rich, before
you go forward toward your greater
future, turn and look at the Armenian
child! Stretch forth your hand to-
day. Tomorrow that child will be
dead.