Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1920-05-22
WE MUST AID BY EXTEND
ING CREDITS, SAYS
DAWSON.
GRAVE MENACE TO U. S. A.
European Ruin Would Involve
America - Starvation and
Disease Rampant.

VIaon. chairman of the board of goy.
ernors of the League of Red Cross So
cleties, said AS chairman OF the con.
vention OF Red Cross societies. com.
posed OF representatives Of p nations
that met recently in Geneva, am Gus.
lodian OF authoritative reports record
ing appalling conditions among mil.
lions of people living in eastern Flu.
rope
one OF the most terrible tragedies
in the history of the human race is be.
ing enacted within the broad OF terri
tory lying between the Balic and the
Black and Adriatic seas
This area includes the new Baltic
states Holland, Czecho Slovaki. the
Ukraine, Austria. Hungary. Roumania,
Montenegro Albania and Serbia.
THE reports which come to US
make ii clear that in these war-rav.
aged lands civilization has broken
down. Disease, bereavement and suf-
fering are present in practically every
household, while food and clothing
are insufficient to make life tolerable.
Men, women and children are dying
by thousands, and over vast once civ.
lll2ed areas there are 10 be found
neither medicinal appliances nor med,
leal skill sufficient to cope with the
devastating plaques.
wholesale starving is threatened in
Poland this summer unless she can
procure food supplies in large auan.
Titles. There are now approximately
100000 cases of typhus in Holland and
in the area occupied by Polish troops.
This is already one of the worst
typhus epdemics in the worlds his
tory. In Gaiicia whole towns are Grip
pied and business suspended. In some
districts there is but one doctor to
each 10000 people
In the Ukraine, we are told, typhus
and influenza have affected most of
the people
"A report from Vienna, dated Feb.
Il, states: There are rations for three
weeks. Death stalks through the
streets of Vienna and takes unhin,
dered toll.
Budapest, according to our infor-
nation, is one vast city Of misery and
suffering. The number Of deaths IL
double that of births. OF the 100 600
children in the schools, 100000 are de-
pendent on public charity. There are
100000 workers idle
"Typhus and smallpox have invaded
the four countries composing Czecho-
Sioyaki and there is lack of medi-
cines, soap and physicians
I'm Serbia typhus has broken out
again and there are but 200 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 Il population Of 100000
Returning to the United States a
few weeks ago with all these horrors
ringing in my ears. found myself
once more in a land where granaries
were oyerhowing, where health and
plenty abounded and where life and
activities and eager enterprise were
in the fun food.
81 asked myself. What if this
plague and famine were here and the
great territory between the Atlantic
seaboard and the Mississippi valley.
which roughly parallels the extent of
these rayaeed countries. and that 65,-
100000 Of our people. condemned to
idleness by lack OF raw material and
whose fields had been devastated by
invasion and rapidly were racked by
starvation. and if We had lifted up our
voices and invoked the attention OF
our brothers in happier Europe to our
own deep miseries and our cries had
fallen on deaf ears. would We not in
our despair exclaim against their
hcartlessness|
There are only three ways By
which these stricken lands can secure
supplies from the outside world. one
is by payment, one by credit. ana the
third is by exchange Of commodities
II these peoples tried to buy materials
and supplies IN America at the pres
ent market value OF their cdrrencies
Austria would have to pay forty times
nv VI iEtilhi Gust wv many liiil tern
times. Greece just double. Czecho
slovald fourteen and Poland fifty
times.
81 IS clear, therefore, that they can
nor give us gold ipr tlfe things they
must have. nor have they either prod
ucts or sources TO offer in return for
credit II only they could obtain raw
material which these Idle millions Of
theirs could convert into manufactuf-
Ing products, they would have some
thing 10 tend the world in return for
ds raw material. food and medicine
But II they have neither money nor
credit how are they to take this first
great step towards redemption?
"Onehalf the world may not eat
while the other half staves. How
long DO you believe the plague and
typhus that is taking a hldeous death
toll in Estonia and Poland aud The
',.,aine, ana eating along the frnees
at Germany and Czecho Slo'aH. wiz
cnn1ne itself 10 these remote lands?