The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1920-06-11
HOW EUROPE CAN
ESCAPE COLLAPSE
We Must Aid BY Extending
Credits, Says Cavison.
GRAVE MENACE TO U. S. A.
European Ruin Would Involve
America. Starvation AMI
Disease Rampant.


dist Episcopal Church. Henry p. Davi.
son, chairman Of the Board of Gov
ernors OF the League of Red Cross So
cieties, said AS chairman of the
convention of Red Cross societies com
posed OF representatives Ct twenty
seven nations that met recently in
Geneva, | am custodian of authorta
tive reports recording appalling con.
ditions among millions Of people liy-
ing in eastern Europe
"One of the most terrible. tragedies
OF the history OF the human race is be.
ing enacted within the broad belt of
territory lying between the Baltic and
the Black and Adriatic seas
This area includes the new Baltic
states-Poland, Czecho-Slovakia The
Ukraine, Austria, Hungary, Roumania
Montenegro, Albania and Serbia
The reports which come to us
make 1t clear that in these war-ravaged
lands civilization has broken down.
Disease, bereavement and suffering
are present in practically every house
hold, while food and clothing are in
sufficient to make life tolerable
Men, women and children are dy-
ing by thousands, aud over vast once
Civilized areas there are to be found
neither medicinal appliances nor medi-
devastating plaques.
Wholesale starvation is threatened
in Poland this summer unless she can
procure food supplies in large quaint
ties. There are now approximately
100000 cases of typhus in Poland and
In the area occupied by Polish troops.
Worst Typhus Epidemic in History.
This is already one Of the worst
typhus epidemcs in the worlds his
tory. In Galicia whole towns are
crippled and business suspended In
some districts there is but one doctor
to each 100000 people
in the Ukraine, we were told, ty-
phus and influenza have affected most
OF the population.
"A report from Vienna, dated Febru-
airy -, said: There are rations for
three weeks. Death stalks through
Tic SlISots VI NltllHd anu taxes uD-
hindered toll
Budapest, according to our informa-
ton. is one vast city of misery and
suffering. The number of deaths is
double that of births.
"Typhus and smallpox have invaded
the four countries composing Czecho-
Sovakia, and there is lack of medi-
cines, soap and physicians.
''In Serbia typhus has broken out
again and there are but 200 physicians
to minister to the needs of that entire
country
Returning to the United States
few weeks ago with all these horrors
ringing in my ears, | found myself
once moro in a land whose granaries
were overlooking, where health and
plenty abounded and where life and
activity and eager enterprise were in
the full flood.
Il asked myself: What If this plague
and famine were here in the great
territory between the Atlantic sea
board and the Mississippi valley, which
roughly parallels the extent Of these
ravaged countries and that $1,000 ,OO0
of our. own people condemned to idle.
ness by lack of raw material and
whose fields had been devastated by
invasion and rapine were ra&ked by
starvation and pestilcnce and if we
had lifted up our voices and invoked
the attention Of our brothers in happier
Europe to our own deep mseries and
our cries had fallen on deaf ears.
would we not in our despair exclaim
against their heartlessness
Only Three Ways to Help Europe.
There are only three ways by which
these stricken lands can secure sup
plies from the outside world. One Is
by payment, one by credit and the
third is by exchange OF commodities.
If these peoples tried to buy materials
and supplies in America at the present
market value of their currencies
Austria would have to pay forty times
the original cost, Germany thirteen
times. Greece just double, Czecho-
Slovakia fourteen and Poland fifty
times. These figures are official and
are a true index Of the economic plight
of these countries.
1T 10 clear, therefore that they can
not give us gold for the things they
must have, nor have they either pro
ducts or securities to offer in return
for credit If only they could obtain
raw material which these idle millions
Of theirs could convert into manufact-
ured products they would have some
thing to tender the world in return for
its raw material. food and medicine
But II they have neither money nor
credit how are they to take this first
great step towards redemption. One
half the world may not eat while the
other half staryes. How long do you
believe the plague OF typhus that is
taking a hideous death toll in Esthonia
and Poland and the Ukraine and eat
ing along the fringes of Germany and
Czecho- Slovakia will confine itself TO
these remote lands?
Only last Saturday our health com
missioner Of New York, DR., Copeland.