The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1920-06-17
EUROPE FACES CHASTITY RUIN
Raymond B. Fosdick Corroborates
Story Of Appalling Tragedy that
Menaces the World

UttIll anu Stdi Ndti'ii 'NioN VIZ W. 80
prccedcnted scale, and disease is
sccping i'm wherever the wheels OF
industry are stopped. Hundreds OF
thousands are dying for want OF
sheer necessities. and the spread OF
contagion is ominous."
These are brief sentences taken
from a statement made for the New
York Globe. by Raymond r. Fosdick,
former ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OF
the League Of Nations, who recently
returned from Europe. Mr.. Fos-
dicks statement was made to cor
roborate facts quoted by II. p. Davi-
son. chairman Of the Convention Of
Red Cross Societies, in his speech in
Des Moines, Ia, recently.
Mr.. Davison's plan for a revolv-
ing fund of s5OOOOO,OOO to restore
these stricken nations industrially
was approved by Mr.. Fosdick, ex-
cept that he said the amount was
pitifully inadequate.
Mr.. Fosdick's statement follows:
mfr. Davison's statment is sober
truth. without color or exaggera-
ton. The world is face TO face with
catastrophe of appalling proper
tions, interpretable in loss Of life on
a scale hitherto undreamed Of. Over
wide areas in eastern Europe civil
lization. as we defined il prior to
1914. has completely collapsed, and
people are thrust back into an agri-
cultural state Of existence, in which
the man on the farm is the only
ore who has a chance Of survival.
For the vast city populations which
have been built up on industry, and
the intricate processes OF trade,
there is little hope. The breakdown
in the currency system, with the re-
sulting collapse of the exchange,
makes it practically impossible for
countries like Czecho-Slovakia, Po-
land and Siberia to purchase raw
materials such as cotton, iute, tin,
leather. rubber, etc. Consequently.
there is nothing to start the fac
cries so that they can begin to turn
out their finished product. 1t is
not that eastern Europe does not
want TO work-most of the people
through this vast territory are in
dUstriOus and used TO hard work;
but, with all the factories shut
down, and all the industries closed,
there is literally nothing for them
&c do. So that there follows IN
employment and starvation on an
unprecedented scale. Disease breeds
on malnuirition, and typhus and
other epidemics are seeping in
wherever the wheels of industry are
stopped.
Legions Starving
THE reports that have been COM
in in to the League Of Nations on
this proposition are staggering, and
ever since | returned from Europe
four weeks ago, | have been trying
to give a picture OF the CHASTITY
tragedy that is being enacted.
While we here in New York are
dining and theatre-going and indulg-
Ing ourselves generally in a mad
orgy of spending, hundreds of thOus-
ands of men, women and children
are dying from the want of the
sheer necessities of life.
And yet it is not a problem for
philanthropy. All the philanthropy
Of America could hardly make an
impression on the situatiOn-cer-
tainly not a permanent impression.
Only some scheme of credits by
which raw materials can be sent in
TO eastern Europe and the wheels
o. industry started, can really solve
the situation. Until such a scheme
is put into operation on a basis
broad enough to care for all Of
eastern Europe, there is no hope
that we can cure the evil or keep
il from spreading.
America Threatened
"And it is the spread of this con-
t6gion that is really ominous. Star
walton and industrial chaos are like
rotten apples, and to let eastern
Europe go on in her present con-
dition, in the belief that her dis
organization can be confined TO a
limited territory, is like hoping
that a barrel of apples can be kept
sound when there are rotten ones
at the center. The world cannot
remain half starving and half pros
porous any more than America I'M
der Lincoln could remain half slave
and half free. There is a cOmmu-
nifty of interest in the worlds af-
fairs today, from which no Chinese
wall Of tradition or policy can iso-
late us. The fate Of Europe is
Americas fate. II Europe crashes,
we crash with her"
KpNTUCKY NpWS