Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1920-11-25
HOW EUROPE CAN
ESCAPE COLLAPSE
WE MUST AID BY EXTEND
ING CREDITS, SAYS
DAWSON
GRAVE MENACE TO U. S. A.
European Ruin Would Involve
America - Starvation and
Disease Rampant.

Des Moines, Ia.-Speaking before
the general conference OF the Meth
0dist Episcopal church, Henry H. Da-
Vison, chairman Of the board of gov
esnors of the League Of Red Cross So
Cleties, said: "As chairman Of the con-
vention Of Red Gross societies, COM
posed of representative Of q nations
that met recently in Geneva, am Gus
todian of authoritative reports record
Ing appalling conditions among mil
liens Of people living in eastern Eu-
rope.
One Of the most terrible tragedies
In the history Of the human race is be-
ing enacted within the broad Of terri
tory lying between the Baltic and the
Black and Adriatic seas.
This area includes the new Baltic
states Holland, Czecho SIovaki, the
Ukraine, Austria, Hungary, Roumania,
Montenegro Albania and Serbia.
The reports which come to US
make it clear that in these war-rav-
aged lands civilization has broken
fering are present in practically every
household, while food and clothing
are insufficient to make life tolerable.
Men, women and children are dying
b. thousands, and over vast once civ
IIi2ed areas there are to be found
neither medicinal appliances nor med
ical skill sufficient to cope with the
devastating plaques.
'WhOlesale starving is threatened in
Poland this summer unless she can
procure food supplies in large guam
titles. There are now approximately
100000 cases Of typhus in Holland and
III the area occupied by Polish troops.
This is already one of the worst
typhus epidemics in the worlds his
tory. IN Galicia whole towns are Grip
pied and business suspended. In some
districts there is but one doctor to
each 10000 people !.
In the Ukraine, we are told, typhus
and influenza have affected most. of
the people.
"a report from Vienna, dated Feb.
Il, states: There. are rations for three
weeks. Death stalks through the
streets Of Vienna and takes unhin-
dered toll
Budapest, according to our infor-
nation, 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 de-
pendent on public charity. There are
100000 workers idle.
''Typhus and smallpox have invaded
the four countries composing Czecho-
Slovali, 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.
I'm 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, l found myself
once more in a land where granaries
were overlooking, where health and
plenty abounded and where life and
activities and eager enterprise were
In the full flood.
| Il asked myself, What if this
plague and famine were here and the
great territory between the Atlantic
seabOaId and the Mississippi valley,
which roughly parallels the extent Of
! these ravaged countries, and that 65,-
0O0 900 of our people, condemned to
tdlenesS by lack of raw material and
whose fields had been devastated by
lnyasiOn and rapidly were racked by
starvation, and if we had lifted up our
voices and invoked the attention of
on" brothers in happier Europe to our
| own deep miseries and our cries had
fallen on deaf ears, would we not in
our despair exclaim against their
Euartlessness?
There are only three ways by
| which these stricken lands can secure
supplies from the outside world One
Is by payment, one by credit, and the
thi d is by exchange Of commodities
Ii these peoples tried to buy materials
anl supplies in America at the pres
ent market value of their currencies,
Austria would have to pay forty times
the original cost, Germany thirteen
times, Greece just double, Czecho
Sl,yaki fourteen and Poland fifty
times.
1T is clear, therefore, that they can
not give US gold for the things they
mist have, nor have they either prod
ucts or sources to offer in return for
credit. If only they could obtain raw
material which these idle millions of
theirs could convert into manufacture
ing products, they would have some
| thing to tend 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
great step towards redemption?
"One-haIf the world may not eat
While the other half starves. How
| long do you believe the plague and
typhus that is taking a hideous death
| tel in Estonia and Poland and the
Ukraine, and eating along the fringes
Of Germany and CEecho Sloyaki, will
eolfne itself to these remote lands?