Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1920-03-18
Polish Artist Tells of Misery, ES-
peciaIIy Among Middle
Classes.
FOOD OUT OF THEIR REACH
Workers Make Apparently Huge
Amounts, but Are Obliged to Spend
1t All on Their Living
Children Suffer Most.

new 4OFk.-NlcOl ScnaIonSIoln, a
Polish portrait painter. who has just
arrived from Vienna, said that the
reason why he left the Austrian cap
ital to come to America was be-
for four years and his desire to join
his family, who are American citizens.
He expects to become an American
citizen, too.
'The worst sufferers in Vienna" the
painter said in an interview, "are
those of the middle class, because they
cannot afford to pay the high prices
demanded for food The working man
is we'll paid, but he has to spend it
on food to keep himself and his fam
lily. Thousands Of the children of the
masses have been sent to Italy and
Switzerland to be fed, but the unfOr-
tunate children of the middle class re-
main in Vienna to share the hunger
of their parents. When I passed
through Holland two weeks ago the
working people there were giving one
guilder, or 40 cents American money,
for the starving children of Vienna.
Pay Barber More Than Professor
"a BARRIERS assistant in Vienna"
Mr.. Schatenstein continued, receives
$4,000 kroner a year (about $4,000 in
prewar days., and has to spend it all
to live in an ordinary way. Compare
this with the 12000 kroner paid to
professors of the universities in Aus
tria and the 5000 to 5000 kroner a
year paid to schoolmasters and office
clerks. How can they exist in city
where food is scarce and dearer than
it is in New York? I had plenty of
money, but did not have an egg once
a month. Milk I never saw. Butter
was rare and dear. Meat could be
had in the restaurants in small pOr-
tons and potatoes on rare occasions.
Bread was scarce and so poor that
only persons with the digestion of os-
triches could eat it. I could never
find out exactly what it was composed
of except that there was scarcely any
-four. Wood, straw, rye and dried
bushes were all chopped up fine and
baked into a hard cake to be sold as
bread.
"The poor could eat dog sausage,
and the rich could buy horse sausage,
but I could never accustom myself to
eat such food. Instead, I went hungry
often with money in my pocket.
Of him vfntC In
the city last winter, saw the mob
knock q police officer off his horse and
shoot the animal. Half an hour later
the carcass had been cut up and car
ried off by the famine-stricken citi-
zens.
Lack Of Coal Causes Misery.
zone chief source of the misery in
Vienna was the lack of coal, because
the DOOR could have neither heat nor
light. The glassware, porcelain and
leather factories were unable to keep
going because there was no fuel to
drive their machinery. Only the
wealthy have a warm bath once a
week and burn one electric light for
five hours day when there is enough
coal to drive the dynamos in the power
houses. Multi-millionaires told me
that I was q fortunate man when I
was leaving for America.
II was not in sympathy with Aus
tria in the war, but I think that In
the name of our common humanity
something should be done for the
starving men, women and children Of
Vienna, especially the middle classes,
who are the greatest sufferers.
"Just before I left the capital city
the doctors in the hospitals went on
strike because scrubwOmen received
higher pay than physicians or sur
geOns.
'The peasants in the country have
food, but they will not send it to
Vienna because they do not like So
cialist form Of government. Some Of
the best stores in Vienna keep open in
the daytime and have fine artistic ar
ticles displayed in the windows, but
If one enters to buy them the proprie-
tor, or one Of his clerks, says that
they are not for sale. He will take Or
ders for goods to be delivered when
coal arrives and the factories start up
again."