Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1920-12-24

so; and we can not help hearing the
/ tragic appeal in their voices and see
! ing their tiny arms stretched out to
us, and their searching eyes looking
into cur souls, as they say, Help us,
OF we perish And if we fail TO lis
ten to this great call of three and a
| half millions of Gods helpless chill
dren; if we close our eyes and ears
to this great demand of duty, we
shall be just as guilty Of the "slaugh-
ter OF the innocents' as was Herod
nearly 1000 years ago.
In these lands, swept by death and
filled with tragedies too deep for
tears, a sum of human suffering is
being written greater perhaps than
for all ages gone by. The mind
grows numb and the heart sick from
constant recital of tales of such
tragedy as it is difficult to believe
the twentieth century could hold.
There they are, in the midst of
wletChed homes, and farms, and fac
tories; in cities crowded with masses
OF refugees without sustaining food
for children through the destruction
of live stock; seeds for planting, raw
materials, tools and machinery gone;
great areas with everything burned,
or looted, or smashed vast unem-
ployment for workers. no means of
subsistence; land of economic ruin,
of mutiated life and lingering
death; and in the midst of it all
the little children.
In long lines they are waiting at
the American food-kitchens. Will
the food be there for them? Will
they be turned away? There are no
happy, healthy faces in those long
lines-not one. You have seen rags
and barefooted children, but never
so many little boys and girls literally
dressed in tatters. Soon it will be
very cold, and for those bare little
feet and legs and arms there is moth
ing at home to put on.
Hollow faces and shrunken bodies
are so common that their real condi-
ton does not become evident until
We inquire more closely, and then
we find that most of them are from
one to five years back in their
growth. Children of eight years old
( "A 81 ~, ,P
two and a half. They are Just
learning to stand alone. Others al
most as old can not yet stand on
their feet. Their arms, and legs,
and spines, and chests are twisted
and warped. The flesh and skin are
shriyeled on their bones. 1t is sur
prising that life can still exist there
If they can have food they will
gradually regain their health and
strength, but with most of them it is
question of now or never. Starva-
ton and tuberculosis will not wait.
In Poland alone a million five hun
dred thousand such children must be
cared for. In Latyia and Esthonia
the people are living mostly on a
diet made from potatO-flour, oat-
flour and sawdust In Czecho-Slo-
yakia, in Hungary, in Austria and in
other countries of central and south
eastern Europe, two millions more
are in dire need of food; and who
stops to ask regarding creed. or race,
or nationality when a little child is
starving? Children are just chill
dren the world over, and the great
American heart is big enough to care
for them all
But the appeal now is not for all
The three and half millions of chill
dren in immediate danger of starva-
ton, if this organization fails, who
must have food at once, are only a
fraction Of the total number. The
hungry children of those destitute
countries have been examined by
competent physicians, and only those
whose wasted little bodies are re-
huNSu " Oht minimum weight, ana
whose endurance of hunger has
reached the end which merges into
actual starvation, are admitted to
the American kitchens and given one
| meal day, 1t is hard to turn away
thousands of hungry boys and girls
to hear them ask. pleadingly, DO
! weigh too much?' Am | not thin
enough Cant I come any more?"
But this restricting of food to the
extreme cases is compulsory, be-
cause there isn't enough for all.
And these neediest ones can not
reach the kitchens through the cold
winds and the snow barefooted and
in the pitiful rags which form only a
partial covering for their bodies
They must have clothes. Each outfit
consists OF one pair of warm wooden
stockings, one pair Of boots, and a
. little