The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1919-01-10
RELIEF WORK IS ENDORSED
President Wilson and Others Support
Movement


Work of the American Committee
for Relief in the Near East in its
campaign to raise $30,000,000 to re-
lieve the suffering and starving peo-
pies in Asia Minor, the Russian eau
casus, Persia, Mesopotamia, Pales-
tine and Syria and to help in the in
dustrial rehabilitation has been heart
lily Endorsed by some of the leading
Americans.
Statements from these men follow:
President Woodrow Wilson: For
more than three years American phil
anthropy has been a large factor in
keeping alive Armenian, Syrian, Greek
and other exiles and refugees OF West
ern Asia.
On two former occasions | have ap-
pealed to the American people in be-
half of these homeless sufferers,
whom the vicissitudes of war and
massacres had brought to the ex-
tremest need.
The response has been most gener-
Gus, but now the period of rehabilita-
ton is at hand. Vastly larger sums
will be required to restore these once
prosperous, but now impoverished,
refugees to their former homes than
were required merely to sustain life
in their desert exile.
1t is estimated that about 100000
Armenian, Syrian, Greek and other
war sufferers in the Near East will
require outside help to sustain them
through the winter. Many of them
are now hundreds of miles from their
homeland. The vast majority of them
are helpless women and children, in
Guiding 100000 orphans.
The American Committee for Re-
lief in the Near East is appealing for
minimum of $3O,0O0,000 to be sub
scribed January 1919, 1919, with
which to meet the most urgent needs
of these people.
l, therefore, again call upon the
people of the United States to make
even more generous contributions
than they have made heretofore to
sustain through the winter months
those who, through no fault of their
own, have been left in starving, shell
terless condition, and to help re-es-
tablish these ancient and sorely op-
pressed people in their former homes
on a self-supporting basis"
Ex-Pfesident William H. Taft: "The
Armenian Relief has been organized
now for some years; it needs more
money; it is spending well and eff
fectively; it is helping the poor peo-
pie of the Near East wherever it can
find them. You can be sure that
whatever money is given will be
properly administered for a people
that need it sorely."
Theodore Roosevelt: with all my
heart wish you Godspeed in the
work of relief you have undertaken
for the Christians in Western Asia.
And particularly do l wish you sue
cess in your effort to raise $30,000,000
for the maintenance of the tens of
thousands of Christians and other ref
ugees and sufferers, wherever found
in the Caucasus, in Persia, in Pales-
tine or in the interior of Turkey"
Charles E. Hughes: "Out of the
horror and nightmare through which
these people have passed comes the
gratifying word that we can be of as
sistance, that our efforts will prove
availing, and that we can share with
them the bounty which we, as Ameri-
cans, have enjoyed for years. The
work done by this committee has been
most unselfish and effective under
conditions of great personal sacrifice.
May America respond to their ap-
peals."
Robert Lansing, Secretary of State:
81 am very glad to give my hearty in
dorsement to the work which the
American Committee for Armenian
and Syrian Relief has been and is do
ing in Western Asia. 1t has prob
ably been the largest single factor in
keeping alive many thousands of de-