River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1920-05-27
HOW GAN EUROPE
ESCAPE COLLAPSE
We Must Aid BY Extending
Credits, Says Dawson.
GRAVE MENACE TO U. 5. 4.
European Ruin Would Involve
misunderstanding and
Disease Rampant.

Des Moines, Iowa-Speaking before
the General Conference Of the Meth
odist Episcopal church, Henry P. Davi-
son, chairman of the Board Of Govern
ors of the League of Red Cross Socie-
ties, said:
AS chairman OF the convention of
Red Cross societies, composed of rep
resentatives of 81 nations that met
recently In Geneva, am custodian Of
authoritative reports recording appal-
ling conditions among millions of peo-
pie living in Eastern Europe.
One OF the rnost terrible tragedies
in the history of the human race is
being enacted within the broad belt of
territory lying between the Baltic and
the Black Sea 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
It clear that in these war-ravaged
lands civilization has broken down.
Disease, bereavment and suffering are
present in practically every household,
while food and clothing are insufficient
to make life tolerable
Men, women and children are dying
by thousands, and over vast once
civilized areas there are to be found
neither medicinal appliances nor med
ical skill sufficient to cope with the
devastating plaques.
Wholesale starvation Is threatened
In Poland this summer unless she can
procure food supplies in large quanti-
ties. There are now approximately
250,OO0 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 epidemics 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, typhus
and influenza have affected most OF
the population.
A report from Vienna, dated Feb
ruary IL, said: There are rations for
three weeks Death stalks through
the streets of Vienna and takes un-
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. OF the 100000
children in the schools. 100000 are
dependent on public charity. There
are 10000 workers idle.
Typhus and smallpox have invaded
the four countries composing Czecho-
Slovakia, 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.
In Montenegro, where food is run
ming short, there are but five physi-
clans for a population Of 100000.
Returning to the United States a
few weeks ago with all these horrors
ringing in my ears. / found myself
once more in land whose granaries
were overlooking, where health and
plenty abounded and where life and
activity and eager enterprise we're in
the full food.
plague and famine were here in the
great territory between the Atlantic
seaboard and Mississippi Valley,
which roughly parallels the extent of
these ravished countries, and that S.
100000 of our own people condemned
to idleness by lack of raw material
and whose fields had been devastated
by invasion and rapine. were racked by
starvation and psstilence, and il we
had lifted up our voices and invoked
the attention of our brothers in hap
pier Europe to our own deep miseries
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.
II these peoples tried to buy materials
and supplies in America at the present
market value of their currencies Aus
tria would have to pay forty times the
original cost, Germany thirteen times,
Greece just double, Czecho-Slovakia
fourteen times and Poland fifty, times.
These figures are official and are
true index of the economic plight of
these countries.
1t is 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 II only they could obtain
raw material which these idle millions
OF theirs could convert into manufac-
tured products they would have some
thing to tender the world in return for
its raw material, food and medicine.
But if they have neither money nor
credit how are they to take this first
r~raok a&axN forvarda reclamation