Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1920-12-09
FROM
ALICE REED
Tehch5,y, China, Oct. 80, 1920

realize what is actually upon us
and what we must have if we are
to be spared the sight of starvation
seven times as vast as that which
the Literary Digest'' is portraying
to us by the pen of Herbert.
Our stricken region is about the
size of Iowa but has eighty million
inhabitants. or these, 2O,00O,O0O
will starye to death by next June I'M
less food or the price of it reaches
them by the charity route. The
FOREIGNERS, the Educated and es-
peciaIly the Christian Chinese are
awake to the situation. The Ameri-
can Y. M. c. A. have devoted half
million dollars to our district alone
which is about one-tenth of the
whole scope devastated. We esti-
mate that what means we have IN
sight will save the lives of five thou
sand workmen and four of his fam
ily, a total of twenty-five thousand
through the remaining months till
harvest; but there are two million
in this one district for which there
is no provision in sight, and in all
the region that has been afflicted,
not less than twenty million that
must starve or be helped by the
charity of those who are better fav-
oEed. All that comes into the hands
of our committees, Y. M. c. A, as
well as the rest, will be used in pay
ing wages on public works. Every
man must produce all that he can
for permanent benefit while others
are tiding him over this most I'M
paralleled calamiaty.
AS early as September there was
placed in the hands of the mission
aries $1,000. with which to buy and
distribute seed wheat for next years
crop. So early as that they were
met with sights to which the word
'horrible" sounds very feeble. A
family of four started to somewhere
that food might be more plentiful.
Being unable to secure food by the
way they succeeded in selling the
fifteen year old daughter for twen-
ty dollars After little the mother
tarried behind and tarried so long
the father went back to look for her;
and found she had killed herself.
He, not knowing how to care for the
baby in his arms, took it's life and
went back to/take up the. bundle he
had left, containing the price of his
slavery, with other things.
With it all he was so overwhelmed
that he took his own life. That was
Of course an exceptional affair, but
the season then was only September
and there could be no harvest until
June. Moreover the winter must in
.ervene and the cold is bitter there
% them that are underclothed.
China had famine forty years
lgo that is still a horror to those
who can remember it. But it was
only fraction Of the extent of this.
This would be unspeakably worse
tut for the fact that Railroads now
,ring in the grain that is plentiful in
,ther districts Also there are COM
,lete organizations for handling the
elief proposition. 1t is now solely a
natter of getting the necessary mon
" for handling the facilities and I
tuff. But it is dreadful to think |
What 'if the money does not come" I
We will not be able to show you any
# the emaciated, belly distended pic l
ures that come to us from India.
hose come from the land where I
YARN weather hermit them to starve
iterally. In China they freeze from e
nutrition long before they reach l
hat stage of emaciation. '
1 dislike to burden you with these
latters, but what else is possible ex-
ept just to sit by and see starvation
onsume them away and all SYM
athy consume away in you at the
anne time? There is nothing but b
lst to tell what we are compelled X
} see and then use as wisely as n
ossible whatever may be entrusted T
} us for such a merciful ministry.
1 am especially glad and thankful F
,r the amount put into my hands o
, be administered for the benefit of S
iris that have come to know and o
we in the school work. This should 7
OF be counted a large amount, but n
am sure l can keep the spirit Of a
ope alive in a few while we are b
implying out our lives in the strug- e.
e to keep body and soul together r.
the many, if friends see fit to 81
peat such gifts from time to time. I
The Relief is planned in most W
way, both as to solicit P
g distributing funds, and there is N
.arcely a community but has some
lie whose heart is aching with the B