The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1920-06-05
IS SWEPT BY
DEADLY TYPHUS
Two Million Cases in Russia
Conditions in Poland
Appalling.
U. s. RELIEF BOARD SWAMPED
Several of Its Officers and Men Have
Died, Among Them One in Charge
at TarnopoI-shortage
OF Supplies.


Ian government, which, despite its
amazing weakness, remains the near
est approach to organized authority
that exists between the East Galician
frontier and the Dnieper, has sent its
minister of public works, Mr.. Bezalko,
to Warsaw to appeal for assistance in
fighting the incredible typhus condi-
tons in the Petlura country. He re-
ports that 10000 men, the remnants Of
Petlura's Ukrainian force, have been
stricken with the disease and that the
10000 men Of the East Galician army,
commanded by Pavlenko, who from
time to time have co-operated with
Petlura, are in an almost equally bad
plight. About half the cases have
proved fatal.
Hands Are Occupied.
It is virtually certain that the Poles
will not be able to give assistance to
the Ukrainians because their hands
are more than occupied in combating
the spread Of the disease in Poland.
There is some typhus in Warsaw
5000 cases perhaps; Dvinsk, recently
captured from the bolsheviki, is in an
appalling condition; the epidemic has
swept in virulent form as far west as
Cracow, where the normal activities
are half paralyzed; in most Of the vii
lagos on the eastern frontiers more
than half the inhabitants are sick and
there is disturbing amount Of typhus
in the army. Where 20 fumigating ma
chimes are needed, the Poles have one;
where a gallon of carbolic acid is re-
quired they have a gill.
The American typhus commission,
which, with 5000 men and $50 officers,
came here last summer to prepare to
combat the disease this winter, has
been overwhelmed; even the vast sup
plies the commission brought have
proved insufficient. Several officers
and men of the commission have died.
including colonel who was in charge
Of the work at Tarnopol. So there is
small prospect that Petlura can find
any help here.
Reliable reports indicate that soviet
Russia is being devastated by the dis
ease. In the recent exchange Of pris-
oners between the Poles and the boil
sheviki, there arrived here a Doctor
Czechowitz, who over year ago was
impressed into the bolshevik service
as a sanitary expert and assigned to
the work Of dealing with typhus. He
says that in March of last year there
were 100000 known cases Of typhus
in bolshevik Russia and that condi-
lions this year are worse than last
year. He estimates that there are
now at least 100000 cases in Russia.
The soviet government has almost no
facilities for controlling the disease
and comparatively few physicians are
available to care for the sick. In
consequence the percentage Of deaths
is now enormous, Czechowitz says.
Usually Follows War.
Such an epidemic as the present one
almost inevitably follows period Of
war in central Europe. It is to be at
tributed to insufficient food supplies,
weakening the resistance Of the peo-
pie, and to lack of clothing, frequently
making cleanliness difficult even for
the moderately well-to-do and impos-
sible for the poor.
A common assertion Is that typhus
is as great a menace to social quiet
as bolshevism. But competent observ-
ers here do not believe this. The peo-
pie of this part of the world, they
argue, have come through centuries
to accept the peril Of typhus as an un-
escapable concomitant Of life. Ger
tainly from Poles one hears little out
cry at present conditions; it Is only
those who have known Western civil
ization who are shocked by the spread
and virulence Of the disease.
The Polish cabinet has reached no
decision on the proposal to quaran-
tine the country and it is hoped that
suspension Of the railroad service for
two weeks, because Of the coal crisis,
may have q favorable effect upon the
typhus situation, which could never
have attained the proportions it has
If travel had been supervised and re-
stricted month ago.