Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1919-01-31

The following Is u statement by II.
c. Walcott, who served as an assist
ant to Mr.. Hoover during the time
America was doing all that was pos
sible to feed the starving millions Of
Belgium and Poland and northern
France. In this work he was brought
In direct contact with German military
officials and saw the conditions which
the German invasion had created
among the civilian population
4 went to Poland to learn the facts
concerning the remnant OF people
that had been dccimated by war. The
country had been twice devastated.
First the Russian army swept through
1 IL and then the Germans. Along the
roadside from Warsaw to Plnsk. the
present firing line, $50 miles. nearly
half million people had died of hun
ger and cold. The way was strewn
with their bones picked clean by the
crows. With their usual thrift, the
Germans were collecting the larger
bones to be milled into fertilizer, but
finger and toe bones lay on the ground
with the Undiscovered and raln-soaked
/ clothing.
I Wicker baskets were scattered along
the way--the basket In which the baby
swings from the rafter in every pens
ant home. Every mile there were
scores Of them, each one telling a
death. I started to count, but after
little I had to give II up, there were
so many.
That Is the desolation one saw along
the great road from Warsaw to Pinsk,
!. mile after mile, more than two hun
dred miles. They told me a million
people were made homeless In six
weeks Of the German drive in August
and September, 1916. They told me
four hundred thousand died on the
way. The rest. scarcely half alive,
got through with the Russian army.
Many of these have been sent to 81
IBERIA; II Is these people whom the
Paderewski committee Is trying to re-
lieve.
In the refugee camps, 100000 sur
vivors Of the flight were gathered by
the Germans, members of broken ram
lilies. They were lodged in jerry-built
barracks, scarcely waterproof, I'M
lighted, unwarmed in the dead of win
ter. Their clothes. where the buttons
were lost were sewed on. There were
no conveniences, they had not ever
been able to wash for weeks. Filth
and infection from vermin were
\ snreading. They were famished, theil
y daily ration cup of soup and piece
n of bread as big as my fist.
n In Warsaw, which had not been de
n stroyed, a city of one million inhab
n Itnnts, one Of the most prosperous cit
N les OF Europe before the war, thu
N streets were lined with people In tn
n pangs OF starvation. Famished ant
n rain sonked, they squatted there, witt
N their elbows on their knees or lean
N ing against the buildings, too feebl
n 10 lift a hand for bit Of money or
N morsel of bread n one offered II, per
NJ fishing Of hunger and cold. Chart
NJ did what II could The rich gave al
N that they had the poor shared thei
NJ last crust. Hundreds OF thousand
NJ were perishing Day and night tn
M pictures is before my eyes--a peopl
NJ starving, nation dying
IN The above statement by Mr.. Wa
III colt is a terrible arraignment of tn
W Hun, hut no more terrible than b
@ deserves. What has happened
S# Poland In Belgium, in nOrther
$M France and every other country thu
$M has been bllghted by the Huns pre-
$I ence would happen in America shou
SW the allies, by any chance, fail to w
$I this war. It would mean the enslav
$3 ment of American men, the starvir
$M and death OF American women and CHI
SM dren. Either the Hun or humani
$| must perish.