Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-07-18
5QO FOOD PACKAGES
BEING SENT DAILY,
AMERICA To GERMANY
Money No Good but Food Fills
Bili-System Is Based Upon
Food Draft Issuance.
BY GEORGE SELDES

Hamburg, July 1.(By MaiD-occa-
sionally the sunshine of humor breaks
through the sad clouds of suffering and
starvation which hang over the Amer
lean welfare work in Europe. Capt.
Francis Wickes, formerly of the intel
ligence department of Pershing's army
now in charge Of the American Ware
house association in Germany has made
d collection of strange letters.
The best in the lot is a note from a
German to his insurance company
branch in Chicago. 1t says:
You had better send me a food
draft It is to your interest to keep me
alive. isn't it. Well. if You don't send
ne food, I'll be dead soon. and you'll
have TO pay heavy insurance. What
are you going to do about it?
What tho company did was to refer
the letter to the food distributors to
investigate the case If the man proved
worthy ne would get a food packet as
a gift.
Receives Food Draft
Another German having no relatives
or friends IN America bought an Amer
lean newspaper and in the advertising
department found likely address. He
sent request for food to Villa Ber
tha. 80 Surf avenue Rooms to let by
the day or week"
Still another receiving food draft
from a relative in America. and notic
ing the value as $50. wrote a most pa
thetic letter to Capt. Wickes. Now
that / have the draft, he saidw, where
in this miserable world am | TO find
the $500 marks for it. | am an old
man. in my seventies. and | have lived
in America many years and have writ
ten to my old friends to help them.
They sent me the enclosed paper. but
as l have no money l am not better
off than before.
The old man sang a different tune
when told that the paper was the equiv
alent Of $50 food packet which was de
livercd to him. There are quite a
number of persons who receive the
drafts and do not understand that there
is nothing more to pay and no strings
tied to the gift.
Deliver 10000 Packages
Kenneth A. Mcpherson of Chicago
has charge of the packing work for all
of Germany. There have been 10000
packages delivered to date and an av
erage of more than 500, a day is being
maintained, Only small percentage is
made up of the two sorts of 500 pack
hRtH. - tAlbl'heu NiitNha'h - sum ~
collaboration with the German Red
Cross and its branches in every city and
village prevents the undeserving from
getting packets and from doing business
with them.
Capt W'ickes has charge Of prac-
ticaly all the food sent from America
for this work, as he superntends the
loading ships and trains for Dantzig,
Hungary Austria. and Czecho- Sovakia
Barges as well as trains take food to
Vienna and Budapest. Every shipment
is watched by four German policemen
and agents of the association.
More Precious Than Gold
As food is worth more than money in
Germany, owing to governmental re-
strictions which make buying impossible
in a free market, the workmen on the
huge docks in the Hamburg free harbor.
have great temptations, and sometimes
escape with a nice stockyards ham or
slice of bacon in their shirts 1t has
therefore been found necessary to in
stall system of search approaching
that of the South African gold mines
The Warehouse association and the
Society of Friends are cooperating
throughout Europe Mr.. James G. Vail
of Media, Pa. has charge of, the food
shipments for the latter organization
here. The Friends are now feeding
o50, 900 children daily in Germany