The Concordia sentinel. (Vidalia, Concordia Parish, La.) 1882-current, 1920-06-12

clothing are insufficient to make life tolerable.
Particularly In the broad belt lying between the
Baltic and the Black there is appalling mis-
cry. This great area includes the Baltic
states Poland CZechO- Slovakia, Ukraine, Austria.
Hungary, Roumania, Montenegro, Albania and
Serbia, to say nothing of Russia eastward and
Armenia to the south. In all that region there Is
almost complete paralysis of natODP' life rad al
dustry .,-,
All that part Of ET-ope has today a tremen-
dous number &c IDLE people. Many Of them want
to work ~ Ut there Is great shortage of raw
mateI ials with which to work. and the import
export situation seems all but hopeless. Such
has been the output of paper money and so much
greater is the need of imports than the POSSIBLE
iy of exports under existing conditions that these
countries have nothing either money goods,
with which to purchase from outside what they
need to sustain life ITSELF to say nothing Of sup
plies for the revival of industry. They totter on
the brink Of utter ruin, from which nothing but q
helping hand can save them.
The depreciation in the currences of some of
these countries. valued in dollars is unbeev-
able. According to market quotations of April 10.
1t ran as follows:
AuSIFa OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. .1(.0010
Hungary .................! ..... .91.4Sb
Germany ........................9 232%
Greece ..................... .43261o
Roumania .............. .........9 1Sl%
roland .A....... ...............S 19S9o
CZecho-Sl0vakia .................92 .IS%
In other words, If the peoples of these coun-
tries tried TO buy materials and supplies in Amer
ica at the present market values of their curren-
cies Austria would have TO pay approximately 40
times the normal cost. Germany Is times, Greece
Just double, Czecho-SlOvakia IA times and Po-
land So
These figures official and the only In
dex which can briefly give any comprehension Of
the economic conditions inside these countries
Their currencies deprecated because they
have neither gold sufficient production with
which to maintain their normal position the
United States with their immediate neighbors.
Until each such country is able to produce sutfi-
cient to maintain itself either from within or by
importing In exchange for gold or goods 1t can
not hope for normal conditions. II indeed 1t can
hope to survive. There is nothing difficult Of
comprehension about the situation Somewhere
somehow some time, those countries must be-
come possessed of food, clothing. raw materials
and the means Of transporting them. or they
must perish. Economically and politically they
are crippled to a point threatening complete
paralysis, while at the same time the people
ravaged by restitution and disease. The inroads
of the latter on the warwOrn and undernourished
population has reached the proportions which
Mr.. BafOur called appalling"
Men, women and children are dying by thou
sands and over vast once civilized areas there are
neither medical appliances medical skill sufi-
cient to cope with the sanitary crisis.
In the Ukraine. winter of 1859. typhus and
influenza affected most of the population. In vii
lagos of 1000 and 5000 half the people would be
i'll of typhus at the same time. Many physicians
attended territory 40 miles in diameter Some
who had 10000 to 10000 typhus patients could
get medical supplies whatsoever. and could
give only oral encouragement to their sick And
this year the condition is even worse. Pauperism
is becoming more and more intense. Prices have
advanced steadily.
In Austria according to a report dated Feb
ruary II, there in Vienna rations for three
weeks. People apathetic. fatalistic and
tired, and there was an epidemic of dancing One
dance was attended by 1000 people. half of whom
had had no dinners. Refusing to go home they
danced until exhausted One hundred thousand
school children underfed and diseased as
result of food shortage, lack of fuel and made
Quate hospital facilities. Crime was increasing
among the child population, hunger sometimes
driving little boys to attempts at murder. The