The Washington herald., 1919-06-20
By WILLIAM ALLAN WHITE.

ert Hoover 200 200. 900 people outside
Of Germany are either starving or
are living beside people who are
starving. That does not mean that
these 2oo.ooo.ooo people are starving
to death: but IL does mean that
they are living on rations coming
from other nations-chiehy from
America-and that IL the rations
stop those zoo. 900. 900 people will be
in danger of starving to death.
Lord Roert Cecil, of England. de-
ciares that over 100000 Russians
have starved to death since the ar
mistice and Mr.. Hoover feels that
the British estimate Is too low.
Also II may be we'll to define and
qualify the expression starved to
death" That does not mean that
these people have died of ac<al
starvation. But IL does mean that
because they were starving they
succumbed to diseases which found
them in SO weakened a condition
that they could not resist Tuber-
culosis resped its crop; the inSenza
moved them down by the hundreds
OF thousands. Children died OF in
fantile diseases which ordinarily
are not fatal.
Typhus has appeared in the famine
stricken countries and is cutting an
awful harvest. Moreover the typhus
is moving westward. and while IL sp-
pears now in the famine-blighted
countries. its ravages are not confined
to hungry people and this summer and
sutumn the whole world may pay the
penalty OF our neglect Of the starving
people in the winter just past
Fear World Plague.
Physicians are expecting this plague
and other plaques like il to sweep
over the world to avenge the innocent
VINO fell in the holocast that followed
the war. ami indeed was a part and
parcel of the war.
And so long as this famine is our
own famine. that is to say so long
as it may be the cause of death TO
ourselves and TO those near to us.
we surely have enough interest in IL
TO consider somewhat where il is and
how it has happened. Speaking broad
ly, and for the moment emitting any
consideration of Germany. which was
an enemy country some OF the time
at least while il starved. one may say
that the famine is raging chiefly
among the slavic peoples. Russia. all
of old Russia is ahunger. Poland. Fin
land. the Ukraine, Iatvia. Esthonia,
the Crimea. all that once paid homage
to the Romanoffs Is hungry.
The death rate in Petrograd was
100. 900 a month during the winter
months. and it was reported to have
doubled in March. Not a baby under
two years old was living in the
city when spring came, according
to competent investigators. A SINH
lar condition existed in Moscow
and in the other cities of central
Russia
In Poland early in the winter
the American Red Cross and later
the American Food Administration
went in with train loads of con-
densed milk and saved literally q
million babies during the winter and
spring. But people still are dying
of hunger in Poland; for there are
remote villages without transporta-
, tion facilities which are reached
with difficulty, and there want is
unchecked.
Finland is better fed than Po-
land. but conditions in Finland in
normal times would excite the
world.
The Greed of Mobility.
/ Further south and west in the
countries which fought on the side
of the allies-in Servia and Ru-
,mania-in spite of all that the
allies are trying to do. famine is
taking its terrible toll. The other
day in Paris a Red Cross doctor
DR.. Alice Farwell OF Los Angeles
came back with a typical story of
the famine. She went out in Feb
went at once to the interior where
need. The Germans retiring after
the armistice had stripped the coun-
try. They took every bed and
they took all the food. not even
leaving seed grain. They took the
copper cooking utensils: took all
the chickens, cattle, horses. every
movable thing that could make food
or give shelter. And the Rumanian
peasant was left almost naked: for
even clothing in his chest were
gone.
He lives in a mud hut made By
driving poles in the ground. weav-
]
poles, and then throwing dirt into
the crevices. The American In
dians lived more comfortably. and
it is to the everlasting shame of
the Rumanian aristocracy that the
upper classes. knowing of these
conditions, were callous to them.
There is no middle class in Rou-
mania: indeed the middle class is a
Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon spe-
cialty. which even the Latin races
are slow to initiate.
Now in Rumania both the Amer
lean Red Cross and the Food Ad-
ministration of the allies, under Mr..
Hoover, went with help. But. un-
fortunately for the lower classes of
Rumania. the Food Administration
had to do business with the actual
government of Rumanis. Ru-
mania was an ally; we could not
so into Rumsnis and distribute
food as we would And there are
stories of graft and speculation and
food hording coming from Ru-
mania-for which the Food Admin
istration is not in the slightest to
I blame-that make one shudder.
of course the lower classes are
dishonest. They will often steal
even from the Red Cross; once
while a Red Cross oamion was
backed up distributing blankets and
clothing to the needy in a town, the
townspeople stripped the camion Of
the supplies intended Tor the next
town. Servants employed in Red
Cross houses. whose families are
rationed literally. steal for their
neighbors. 1t is the morality of