Connecticut western news., 1920-05-27
HOW EUROPE GAN
 ESCAPE COLLAPSE
We Must Aid by Extending
 Credits, Says Davison.
GRAVE MENACE TO U. S. A.
European Ruin Would Involve America-Starvation and
 Disease Rampant.

| Episcopal Church, Henry F. Dawson, chairman of the Board of Governors of the League of Red Cross Societies, said:
 As chairman of the Convention of Red Cross Societies, composed of rep resentatives of twenty-seven nations that met recently in Geneva, am cus- todian of authoritative reports record ing appalling conditions among mill lions of people living in eastern Eu- rope.
 One of the most terrible tragedies in the history of the human race is being enacted within the broad belt of terri tory lying between the Baltic and the | Black and Adriatic Seas.
 This area includes the new Baltic i States-Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, the Ukraine, Austria, Hungary, Roumania, Montenegro, Albania and Serbia.
 The reports which come to us make | it clear that in these war-ravaged ] lands civilization has broken down. l Disease, bereavement and suffering are present in practically every house hold, while food and clothing are in- sufficient to make life tolerable. Men, women and children are dying | by thousands, and over vast once-civi- 1 lized areas there are to be found nei- ther medicinal appliances nor medical skill sufficient to cope with the devas- 1 tating plaques.
 Wholesale starvation is threatened in Poland this summer unless she can procure food supplies in large quanti- ties. There are now approximately 250,000 cases of typhus in Poland and iE the area occupied by Polish troops.
 Worst Typhus Epidemic In History.
 This is already one of the worst ty- phus epidemics in the worlds history. Tn Galicia whole towns are crippled and business suspended. In some dis tricts there is but one doctor to each 15O,OOO people.
 In the Ukraine, we were told, typhus and influenza have affected most of the population. - -...
 A report from Vienna, dated Febru- ary 12, said: "There are rations for three weeks. Death stalks through the streets of Vienna and takes unhinder- ed toll.
 Budapest, according to our informa- tion, is one vast city of misery and suffering. The number of deaths Is double that of births. Of the 160,000 children in the schools, 100000 are de pendent on public charity. There are 150, 900 workers idle.
 Typhus and smallpox have invaded the four countries composing Czecho- Slovakia, and there Is lack of medi- cines, soap and physicians.
 In Serbia typhus has broken out again and there are but POO physicians to minister to the needs of that entire country.
 In Montenegro, where food is rum ming short, there are but five physi- clans for a population of 45O,000. arA
 America overfIowing With Riches.
 Returning to the United States a few weeks ago with all these horrors ringing in my ears, found myself once more in land whose granaries were overfiowing, where health and plenty abounded and where life and activity and eager enterprise were in the full flood.
 I asked myself: What if this plague and famine were here in the great ter ritory between the, Atlantic seaboard and the Mississippi valley which roughly parallels. the extent of these ravaged countries and that 65,000,000 of our own people condemned to idle ness by lack of raw. material and whose fields had been devastated bY invasion and rapine were racked by starvation and pestilence and if we had lifted up our voices and invoked the attention of our brothers in hap pier Europe to our own deep miseries and our cries had fallen on deaf ears, would we not in our despair exclaim against their heartlessness p'
 Only Three Ways to Help Europe.
 There are only three ways by which these stricken lands can secure SUD- plies from the outside world. One is by payment, one by credit, and the third is by exchange of commodities. If these peoples tried to buy materials 1 and supplies in America at the present market value of their currencieS Aus tria would have to pay forty times the original cost, Germany thirteen times, Greece just double, Czecho- Slovakia fourteen times and Poland fifty times. These figures are official and are true index of the economic plight of ! these countries.
 It is clear therefore, that they can not give us gold for the things they must have, nor have they either prod i ucts or securities to offer in return for 1 credit If only they could obtain raw material which these idle millions of ! theirs could convert into manufactured 1 products they would have something to 1 tender the world in return for its raw 1 material, food and medicine. But if ! they have neither money nor credit how are they to take this first great step towards redemption
 One-half the world may not eat while the other half starves. How l. A.x