Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-02-03
HELP STARVING EUROPE

For once congress has fallen down
badly. We do not refer to the oppo-
sition to the League Of Nations, the
bungling of the peace treaty or the
failure to provide for home econ
omics, although the record of con-
gress in regard to these important
matters is bad enough. Congress has
brought shame upon every American
by the dilatory n niggardly manner
in which it has responded to the call
Of starving Europe for help.
Never before in the history of this
nation has the United States assumed
such an Indifferent attitude toward
suffering humanity as at the present
time, In earthquake, pestilence and
famine; in fire, food and tornado,
the American people have always
been the first on the ground with re-
lief for the stricken people. 1t has
made no difference If the disaster
was at the other end of the earth,
a train load of a boat load of sup
plies was on the way almost before
the full extent of the disaster was
known.
Whether it is the war that has
hardened us, or perhaps it is the fear
of being entangled in some foreign
alliance, we do not know, but the
fact is that with misery and distress
: greater than it has ever been before
In the history of the world, America
halts and hesitates and some even
raise their hand in protest against
us Offering relief. What tardy succor
is at last being afforded is given,
apparently, most grudgingly.
1t is hard for us here amidst plenty
to realize the awful conditions hat
exist in Central Europe and the Near
East where millions OF children are
starving,
Five million little bodies standing
so near the threshold Of death that
but one day sees the ranks diminish
; ed by thousands-thousands of hum
ger victims. Five million feeble
voices crying for food!
Pitifully weak n wan, they come
to the relief kitchens for a crust of
bread, a bowl of soup, and joyfully
they receive the meager portions Of
food distributed among them. Chill
9 5-n,, hoya1r oh1a m drag their
! starved bodies to the hand that feeds
them, babies clutched tightly in the
arms of mothers, who, too, are upon
! the brink of starvation, come to the
American Red Cross. to the Amerl-
can Relief Administration, and-this
is tho worst paragraph of all the
story:
They cannot be fedl Hundreds of
thousands must be turned away,
hungry for the food of life. They
must be turned away because other
little children in the same land are
still nearer the starvation line.
And all because of the lack of five
CtllLS u udg tlidb II SOSho w ASS' -
child over there, in Poland, in
Esthonia, In Letvia, in L~ithuania, in
Austria, In Finland, in J~ugo-Slavia,
In Czecho-Slovakia, in Armenia, in
all the central states of Europe.
Five cents a day will ave a child's
lifel
Thousands of children are trying
to exist on a coarse bread made of
oats and the bark of certain trees,
on grass soup and on wild root and
weed seed" writes Harry B. Hunt,
newspaperman, who thoroughly in
v~estigated the awful child famine Of
Central Europe. He says:
give million children under If
teen years of age are face to face
with starvation. Three millions of
these are not merely within the star
walton line but are right down at the
gates OF death"
What shall America do about it2
Hunt advises:
Only IOou, lOOu lulllSuldLSiy' Sdh
prevent virtually the total extinction
of child-life in the larger cities Of
the hunger-swept districts"
Yet when President Wilson asked
congress, through the Treasury De-
partment, to extend a credit Of
$3.50, 900, 900 to Poland. Austria and
Armenia to relieve this condition
congress hesitated and all but ig-
nored the appeal.
1t was only after President Wilson
had written a second letter to Secre-
tary Glass renewing his appeal that
credit be extended so that the vast
amount OF our exportable surplus of
food might be purchased and sent
over there, that the Ways and Means
committee in congress finally took
action. But when the committee got
through the amount was but
$50, 600, 900 instead of the $3.50, O00.-
900 recommended.
Perhaps the saddest part is that
the Republican Steering committee
in congress opposed making any ex-
.+aos,on ne nra5it apd thus wOu1d bava