The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1920-07-30
LACK OF WINDOWS
SPREADS TYPHUS
Mud, Used In Place OF Glass, Shuts
Out Light and Air.
By Herbert Cooper Thompson.

Paris, June Slack Of window
glass is responsible for the spread Of
typhus, tuberculosis and other conta-
gious diseases in Eastern and Central
Europe.
To resist the severe cold Of winter,
windows were closed with mud, shut.
ting out light and fresh air. Shortage
Of buildings causes overcrowding In
the rooms, accelerating contagion and
the spread of disease.
The Jewish element is the Greatest
sufferer, owing to the habit of mobs
breaking all glass when footing Jew
ish homes.
Lieut.. James H. Becker, who as re-
lief administrator for the Joint Distri.
button Committee for Jewish War Suf-
ferers, penetrated into isolated dis
tricts Of Bukowina, Roumania, Ressa-
rabia and the Ukraine, heretofore I'M
visited by the allied officers, told Of
these conditions here upon his way to
the United States. He was detailed
to the Joint Distribution Committee
from the Relief Administration, with
whom he served in Poland and Central
Europe.
observers who have seen only the
large cities can obtain no idea of the
restitution of the small towns and
the country" Lieut.. Becker said. "Med-
icines and disinfectants are exhausted,
food and clothing are obtalnaDle only
at prohibitive prices, while shoes are
practically impossible to get.
"The country is agricultural, not in
dustrial, and the lack OF transporta-
ton prevents the exchange of goods
with manufacturing countries and has
even stopped the shipment OF wood
and fuel from Bukowina, which Is well
forested. Trade is reduced to barter,
owing to the low rate Of exchange,
while the division of great estates
among the peasants has reduced pro-
duction, as the peasants revert to
primitive conditions and are content
now to provide their own needs, In
stead Of supplying the markets"
Lieut.. Becker related how the Joint
Distribution Committee, through funds
raised for it by the American Jewish
Relief Committee and its allied organ
izations, has enabled numherless Jew
ish families to start anew, loans be-
ing granted them for tools or mer-
chandise. The people, encouraged by
this reconstructive relief, took heart
and showed their gratitude by their
eagerness to repay the loans with their
| first earnings, he said.
I'm the Ukraine" Lieut.. Becker con-
tinued, Jewish orphanages lack meat,
fats, blankets and medicines and the
children are emaciated. Bukowina,
with more than 100000 Jews, has only
one Jewish hospital, and that with o
capacity of 46 beds. Three new or
phanages for Jewish war orphans have
been started in Roumania by the Joint
Distribution Committee, but the facil'
tiles are woefully inadequate.
"In some places the orphans were
left to exist like little savages, owing
to the destruction of the adult popu-
lation. Bojan in Bukowina has only
70 inhabitants. Before 1t was wrecked
by a bombardment it had 2,OO0."
Lieut.. Becker said that through Jew
ish relief funds communal bath houses
are being rebuilt, which are necessary
to sanitation and as preventative
against typhus, while an effort is be-
ing made to save the Jewish schools
of Roumania many of which have
been forced to close and which are
culturally necessary, as They are the
only educational institutions to which
Jewish children are admitted.
Silo Most Economical Farm Building