The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1920-02-20
ATROCITIES IN THE NEAR EAST

st. Louis, Mo-, Feb. Lett is hard
for me to tell the whole story to q
mixed audience. We found bodies of
hundreds of women which the Turks
had pierced with red hot nails. In one
instance we counted thirty-six nails
in one woman's body"
This was the statement made by j..
o. Arroll, the young American who
recently returned after two years of
Near East Relief work in Armenia,
while speaking before the Chamber
of Commerce luncheon meeting at the
Statler Hotel here yesterday.
Arroll addressed six audiences dur
ing his two-day visit in this city, de-
scribing the sights of the horrors of
war, revolution, starvation, hair
breadth escapes and hand-to-hand
combats during his service in the
Near East. His itenerary during the
week included speaking engagements
at Sedalia, jefferson City, and other
points.
Arroll, together with John Elder Of
Tideout, Penn, was originally sent to
Russia by the Y. M. c. A. After nine
months these two American youths
were isolated in Arcmnia, where they
helped feed, clothe and equip the Ar
menian armies. They organized nosri-
tails, orphanages end took million rou-
bic contracts for supplies without the
Legendary "shoestring" to back them;
wrote drafts for hundreds of thou
sands of roubles without cent to
their credit and pulled through in safe
ty without even day of illness, while
people around them were dying by
| thousands and disease was epidemic.
These two young men set the Arme-
MAN Republic on its feet in its fight
for the Allied cause against the Ger
manophile Turk.
In urging the people of Missouri to
get behind the campaign for the sup
port of 5000 Armenian orphans,
which is Missouri's quota, Mr.. Arroll
referred to the consideration by the
United States Senate Of the Williams
bill, which will provide that the Unit
ed States furnish protection and money
for work in Armenia.
He said the principal objection to
the bill was that it was stated that
100000 troops would be required to
adequately protect the Armenians
from the invasions and massacres Of
the Turks. He said that this estimate
was far too high, and that as a mat
ter of fact only 10000 men would be
necessary to police properly this ter
ritory.
He characterized every day of delay
in passing the bill as playing politics
ct the price of souls. Each day, he
said, more men, women and children
are dying from massacre and starva-
ton as a result of procrastination.
Encouraging reports from num-
Der of counties were received by w. Z.
Miller, State Director, 1923 Chemical
Bldg, St. Louis, Mo-, this week. "The
term failure, said Miller, Gin this
campaign carries with it more than
the word usually means in the ordi-
nary run of events. A man may fail
in business, lose all that he has-all
his earthly possessions, perhaps some
of his most cherished plans upon
which he might have been working
for months or years, might fall
friends he had thought steadfast and
true might fail him in an emergency,
yet he can gather the remnants Of
things, pick up the tangled skeins of
life, and with good health, brave
heart and clear conscience, grit his
teeth and start once more all over
again. He still has life and hope left.
But if one Missouri county fails in
| this great nation wide effort now be-
ginning its onward and overpoweriug
/ To act n
failure means DEATH to just as
many innocent young lives as are
numbered in quota which fell short.
"This is not campaign for dollars
and cents; the goal is not money; it is
not the honor of achievement, which,
of course, is very praise-Worthy OBJ
ject to be associated with the effort,
but it is LIVES OF CHILDREN, VINO,
helpless and alone, abandoned and
starving, will have held out their
small bony hands for just piece of
bread in vain. This thing is unthink-
able to great generous-hearted Mis-
souri,. 1t is only question which we
have reiterated time and time again
of getting this appeal before the peo-
pie of the State in order to justify
that overwhelming conviction which
we already have in American gener-
osity and receiving 100 per cent re-
Spouse. 1t seems to us as though we
could never look into the laughing
eyes of our own little loved ones
again--into the eyes that look up to
US as their earthly example of every
thing that is good and noble, unless
we have exhausted every means to
save their little brothers and sisters
from the horrors of death by starva-
ton.
"The whole country is watching
Missouri. Shall we be proud or
ashamed? Shall our record mean to
little children LIFE or DEATH. 1t
is up to every man, woman and child
in this campaign to do their share to
help save the lives of these little ones.
missouri SHALL NOT FAIL IN
ATTAINING HER QUOTAw