The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-11-11
The Slaughter of the 1nnocents

total overhead expense of only three-eighths Of
one per cent, with no remuneration to the Amer
lean directors. Now he asks us all to help the
children who are in imminent danger of starva-
ton this coming winter
There they are, in the midst of wrecked homes
and farms, and factories; in cities crowded with
masses of refugees without sustaining food for
children, through the destruction of live stock;
seeds for planting, raw materials, tools, and
machinery gone; great areas with everything
burned, or looted, or smashed; vast unemployment
for workers; no means of subsistence; land of
economic ruin, of mutilated life, and lingering
death, and in the midst of it a-the little children.
In long lines they are waiting at the Amer
lean food kitchens. Will the food be there for
them? Will they be turned away? There are no
happy, healthy faces in those long lines-not one.
You have seen rags and barefooted children but
never so many little boys and girls literally drest
in tatters. Soon it will be very cold, and for those
bare little feet and legs and arms there is nothing
at home to put on.
Hollow faces and shrunken bodies are
common that their real condition does not become
evident until we inquire more closely and then we
find that most of them are from one to five years
back in their growth. Children of eight years old
have not reached the normal size OF two and half.
They are just learning to stand alone. Others al
most as old can not yet stand on their feet. Their
arms and legs, and spines, and chests are twisted
and warped The flesh and skin are shriveed on
their bones 1t is surprising that life can still exist
there If they can have food they will gradually
regain their health and strength, but with most of
them it is a question of now or never. Starvation
and tuberculosis will not wait.
In Poland alone million five hundred thou
sand such children must be cared for. In Latvla
and Esthona the people are living mostly on a
diet made from potato flour, oat-hour, and saw
dust In Cecho-Slovakia, in Hungary, in Austria,
and in other countries Of central and southeastern
Europe two millions are in dire need OF food;
and who stops to ask regarding creed, or race or
nationality when little child is starving? Chill
dren are just children the world over, and the
great American heart is big enough to care for
them all.
But the appeal now is not for all. The three
and half millions of children in immediate dan
ger of starvation, if this organization fails who
must have food at once, are only traction OF the
total number The hungry children of those desti-
tute countries have been examined by competent
physicians and only those whose wasted little
bodies are reduced to the minimum weight and
whose endurance of hunger has reached the end
which merges into actual starvation, are admitted
to the American kitchens and given one meal
day. 1t is hard to turn away thousands OF hungry
bows and girls-to hear them ask, pleadingly,
EDO weigh too much?" cam not thin enough?"
"Can't come any more?" But this restricting of
food to the extreme cases is compulsory, because
there isn't enough for all.
And these neediest ones can not reach the
kitchens through the cold winds and the snow
barefooted and in the pitiful rags which form only
Creat-Hearted Response. Sets