The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1920-05-20
H0fEUROPE CAN
ESCAPE COLLAPSE
We Must Aid by Extending
Credits, Says Dawson.
GRAVE MENACE TO U. S. A.
European Ruin Would Involve
MISREPRESENTATION and
Disease Rampant.

~
Governors Of the League Red Cross
societies. said: AS chairman of the
convention of Red Cross societies,
composed of representatives of TWEEN
ty-seven nations that met recently in
Geneva, am custodian OF authorize
tive reports recording appalling con-
ditions among millions of people hy-
ing in Eastern Europe.
"One of the most terrible tragedies
in the history of the human race is
being enacted within the broad belt
of territory lying between the Baltic
and the Black and Adriatic seas.
''This area includes the new Baltic
states-Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, the
Ukraine, Austria, Hungary, Roumania,
Montenegro, Albania and Serbia.
1.-The reports which come to US make
it clear that in these war ravaged
lands civilization has broken down.
Disease, bereavement and suffering
are present in practically every house
hold, while food and clothing are in
sufficient to make life toIerable. Men,
women and children are dying by
thousands, and over vast once-ciV-
ilized areas there are to be found
neither medical appliances nor med
ical skill surfIcient to cope with the
devastating plaques. Wholesale star
walton is threatened in Poland this
summer unless she can procure food
supplies in large quantities. There are
now approximately 100000 cases of ty-
plus in Poland and in the area Occu-
pied by Polish troops
Worst Typhus Epidemic in History.
This is already one of the worst ty-
plus epidemics in the worlds history.
In Galicia whole towns are crippled
and business suspended. In some dis
tricts there is but one doctor to. each
10000 people.
I'm the Ukraine, we were told, ty-
plus and influenza have affected most
of the population. a report from Wen
ma, dated February 18th, said: There
are. rations for three weeks. death
stalks through the streets of Vienna
and takes unhindered toll
Budapest, according to our irforma-
ton, is one vast city of misery and
suffering. The number of deaths is
double that of births. Of the 10000
children in the schools, 100, 900 are de-
pendent on public charity. There are
10000 workers idle.
"Typhus and small pox have invaded
the four countries composing Czecho-
Slovakia and there is lack of medi-
cines. soap and physicians.
I'm Serbia typuns has broken out
again and there are but two hundred
physicians to minister to the needs
of that entire country.
''In Montenegro, where food is run
ming short. there are but five physi-
clans for a population of $1,000. Re
turning to the United States a few
weeks ago with all these horrors ring
ing in my ears, 1 found myself once
more in a land whose granaries were
overlooking, where health and plenty
abounded and where life and activity
and eager enterprise were in full flood.
"I asked myself: What if this
plague and famine were here in the
great territory between the Atlantic
seaboard and the Mississippi Valley.
which roughly parallels the extent of
these ravaged countries and that 65,-
900, 600 of our own people condemned
to idleness by lack of raw material
and whose fields had been devastated
by invasion and rapine were racked by
starvation and pestilence and if we
had lifted up our voices and invoked
the attention of our brothers in hap
pier Europe to our own deep miser-
les and our cries had fallen on deaf
ears, would we not in our despair
exclaim against their heartlessness'
Only Three Ways to Help Europe.
There are only three ways by which
these stricken lands can secure sup
plies from the outside world One is
by payment, one by credit, and the
third is by exchange of commodities.
If these peoples tried to buy materials
and supplies in America at the present
market value of their currencies, Au-
stria would have to pay forty times
the original cost, Germany thirteen
times, Greece just double, Czecho-Slo-
vakia fourteen times and Poland fifty
times. These CURES are official and
are true index Of the economic plight
of these countries.
ut is clear, therefore, that they can
not give US gold for the things they
muS( nave, uOE nave lUSy 01La6T prO0-
ucts or securities to offer in return
for credit. If only they could obtain
raw material which these idle millions
of theirs could convert into manufac-
tured products they would have
something to tender the world in re-
turn for its raw material, food and
medicine. But if they have neither
money nor credit how are they to take
this first great step towards redemp-
ton?
Zone half the world may not eat
while the other half starves. How
long do you believe the plague of
typhus that is taking hideous death
toll in Esthonia and Poland and the
Ukraine and eating along the fringes
OF Germany and Czecho-Slovakia viii
eonfine itself to these remote lands
''Only last Saturday our health com
missioner Of New York. Dr. Copeland,
sailed for the other side just TO meas
ure the danger and take precautioa
against such an invasion.
This is one menace at our threshold.
The other, more threatening, mere ter.
rible. is the menace Of the woNld's III