Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1920-12-22
OLD CLOTHES HELP
AS WELL AS MONEY

The state conference of Near East
Relief workers, held recently in Mil
waukee, was one of the largest and
best attended in the country. the dele
gates-33O of them-refhaining during
the entire day and evening for the
program. DR.. Alonzo T. Wilson, ma.
tional field director, who has travelled
more than 10000 miles over this coun-
try attending a number of conferences,
declared il To be the largest, most rep
resentative conference of Near East
that he had attended this year
I'VE have spent S4l000,000 in the
Near East in the last four years" he
said in talking to the delegates. "and
the American people naturally are in
terested in knowing what they have as
an investment there.
Lest forget, let me thank you on
behalf of our national organization
and the people of the Near East. for
what you have done during the last
four years. not only by giving money.
but by giving old clothes as well, for
these people are dependent entirely
upon US, for both. / want TO tell you
a story of a Northwestern college girl
who was in charge of what she called
a department store, in the capital OF
Armenia. She had a mems. women's
and children's department We do
not. of course. sell old clothes. But
occasionally, she said, some applicants
for clothing would have a few cents
which they insisted on paying. as a
matter OF pride.
"one day a fine looking man came
in and wanted a suit of clothes. He
was so impressive looking that she
picked out a cast-off Prince Albert and
gave il to him. A few days later. the
weather was cold and the man re-
turned and wanted some warm under
wear. for he han none. She picked
out a good suit of underwear for him
and he gave her what would be 33
cents in American money. That man
was a government oficial--the presi-
dent OF the Armenian republic. His
salary was $50 a month.
THAT is just a sample of what the
old clothes are doing in the Near East.
People. formerly Of wealth, are PENN
less and dependent upon US for help.
No matter how much you have already
sent. there is still a need for clothing
and will be every month.
The president of Armenia says that
conservatively speaking, the help from
America through the Near East Relief,
has been instrumental in saving at
least 1000 900 lives. One million PEG.
pie are alive today because you and
the people of other states raised this
money and sent il over there to the
Near East. We are feeding SEQ. 000
people.
Mr.. Vickrey, national secretary
who has just returned from the Near
East. says that where we are caring
for one child. now. there are three
still to be cared for. There are 200,
600 children out in the mountains. iiv
ing on garbage. hiding in caves and
existing on grasses. Many OF these
will starve or freeze this winter.
What else are we doing? All OF
the medical work throughout that
country. We need doctors and nurses
We need more hospitals and better
equipment We are treating 10000
people every month in our us hos
pitfalls and clinics. We haven't SUN
cient time 10 look after the surgica.
cases because our doctors and nurses
are so busy.
What else are we doing? We have
eleven rescue homes full of these re
fined beautiful girls who have been the
slaves Of The Turk. IL we had lOs