The Devils Lake world and inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, N.D.) 1915-1920, 1920-01-28
(By Julius Rosenwald)

The sending Of vast quantities of
'oodstunfs and clothing and medicines
speedily to Europe is not a matter
merely Of relieving distress. The prob
en- is n far greater one.
To-day it means an effort to save
rom death a large part Of the people
II hundreds of cities, villages and wide
areas that have been turned into ruins
and desolnte wastes by five years of
%'enSeless fighting and destruction.
In what it means to the whole world
IF tomorrow, many sce a problem more
staggering still. When he pointed out
the Importance of this relief work In
helping to save the world from Boil
shevisln. because where there is food
and plenty this horror cannot live"
Samuel GOmperS spoke the conviction
Of nearly all who have made personal
investigation of the terrible after-war
conditions In Europe.
To the Jews Of America the problem
Is to save from extinction the greater
part of EurOpe's remnant Of the race ;
for Of all who have come alive through
the horrors OF the war, the Jews, men
and wolnen and children, are today the
greatest sufferers. and out Of all pro-
portion in number.
But Jewish relief is not limited to
the Jews. 1t is non-secta-ian. 1t goes
out to Jew and Gentle where other
aid is not available. 1t co-operates
where cooperation works for eff
cheney and for speed in distribution.
The Joint Distribution Committee,
which controls and directs the relief
work made possible by the American
Jewish Relief Committee, and other
American Jewish Embarrassing organi-
cations. has taken Y e during the past
six months a considerable part of the
task of feeding undernourished chill
drcn in Poland and other sections Of
Central and Eastern Europe. And the
manner In which the task Is being
accomplished has brought this word
from Herbert Hoover:
1.-THE broad, ~nOn-sectarian spirit
shown by the Joint Distribution Com
mittce, although primarily devoted to
Jewish work. and their willing cooper
alton. which my own administration
has enjoyed. places me under an obi
CATION to the committee. I do wish
you every possible success for there
was never a greater need"
1t vas Mr.. Hoover who estimated
the number of these undernourished
children ut between four and five mil
lions in the territory named. And this
was after he had had access to reports
II data available to no other man
in tho world, and after he had con-
Quoted exhaustive Investigations Of his
own.
OF these starving children about a
million are Jewish. The orphans
among them number a hundred thou
sand. They and the 100000 or more
destitute adult Jews are scattered In
pnthetir, helpless groups that swell
into thousands in the cities and dinin-
ish to scores, or to fewer still, on the
sites Of what, five years ago, were
prosperous villages.
For their relief, more than thirty
millions Of dollars have been raised in
America and expended; yet this sum
has been far from adequate. The
American Jewish relief organizations
are now engaged in a series of state
campaigns to raise q minimum of S2O,-
UO,oN to v In part the needs of
the coming year. 1t is hoped tine total
will reach 3 ,O0O,OOO.
While the var still ragged, the awful
extent and a%cuteness of the suffering.
especially in Eastern Europe, was
hardly sensed here. But after the
armistice, American investigators were
hurried abroad. The conditions thew
discovered stunned them. All agree
that no description can even family
make n realize the suffering and
distress.
Now the relief workers have a fair
knowledge of the gigantic task thew
must carry through if additional hun
dreds Of thousands Of lives are not to
be sacrificed. 1t is not just q problem
OF supplying food, though the wide
spread nenac If starvation must h
met first Of all.
Hundreds Of thousands are not on,v
homeless and without shelter Of any
kind, except wreck-strewn cellars, but
lack even the scantiest of clothing. In
many Of the most desolate regions
fhrollph which fha or,~jo. h.<Al- -