Washington Journal., 1919-11-21
Starving! Not hungry.

ellaA iAAS W. AANAO
In the Inferno Of a people; in
the Erzgebirge.
An auto trip Of four days with
the Hoover Commission which IS
going to feed the hungry children
OF Czecho -Slovakia, has taken me
through the most wretched, most
ptihn misery that a people could
endure. A German population IS
perishing here without uttering any
cry for help, in the apathy of deep
est despair. Thousands OF these
most wrctched people are already
swollen with hunger-dropsy, and
undone thousands lie dead. And,
shameful enough, these Americans,
with whom ! travelled through this
he'll of the Erzgebirge, were the
first who had raised a hand TO help
these forlorn people. Others had
forgotten them, as one always for
gets those who do not bewail then
misery through the streets! But
the Erzgebirger has no longer the
strength to cry out.
How terribly the cottagers OF the
E~rzgebirge suffer is scarcely to be
depicted. saw the soldier inter
prefer OF the American mission
twho is not reported to be unduly
sympathetic towards the. German
nuhemians) sob as he looked at the
Daby who was raised on black coffee
and oatmeal; | saw IN American
trained nurse whose nerves were
steeled by five years hospital serv-
ice, break down fainting before the
skeleton-like body OF a starved old
woman; | saw a year old baby
smaller than when he was born
And | came into a large community
where 80 per cent OF all the chill
dren are ricketty, where they dc
not begin 10 walk until three years
old.
For OF all the terrible sights OF
these mountain slopes the most ter
rifle are the children!
Come with me into a school IL
the Erzgebirge You do not be
lieve this is a school room? You
think il is a kindergarten for the
~littlest ones? Softly These chill
dren are seven or eight years old
For have brought you into a first
Grade room OF a public school. The
undernourishment letters the mind
no less than the body, and for that
reason these children need more
than a year, possibly two or three.
in order to nearly master the work
OF that grade. For that reason you
will ever see nine-year-olds here.
Here among these little dwarfs
Certainly. The little one there or
the second bench is nine years old
his neighbor is eight. That same
type which you notice on and on
the benches: wizened faces in which
CLEAN large, heavy eyes, overhune
BY great, swollen, ricketty brows
the little arms merely skin and bone
and over the crooked, swollen-Joint'
ed legs the swollen stomach of the
dropsical! Scarcely one of all these
children can hold its head VI
straight; the wasted neck-muscles
are TOO weak Il support 1t. Oh
please, do not allow yourself to bt
led. out OF sympathy. to stroke the
head OF that tiny onel The chile
has the itch, like most of its school
mates-and like its teacher. Yor
will have noticed, indeed, that he
refused you his hand, and appeared
mortified owe doing 50.
A few questions to the children:
Tell me, which of you have
eaten nothing Tor breakfast thi:
morning? Really nothing? Nc
bread? No water-grnel?"
Out of forty-seven children
twelve show up!
WHO has had black coffee fol
breakfast" (The black war cof-
fee. a substitute, of course BLACK
coffee only?"
Thirteen lean little arms go up
"Who has breakfasted on coffee