The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1920-06-03
How EUROPE CAN
ESCAPE COLLAPSE
I'VE Must Aid by Extending
Credit" Says Dawson.
GRAVE MENACE TO U. S. 4.
European Ruin Would Involve
America..Starvation and
Disease Rampant.

peS MOineS. IOWa.-Speaklns before
the general conference of the Metho-
dist Episcopal church. Henry P. Davi-
son, chairman of the board OF gov
ernorS of the League Of Red Cross
societieS, said:
As chairman Of the convention OF
Red Cross societies. composed OF
representatives Of - nations that met
recently in Geneva. l am custodian of
authoritative reports recording appall-
Ing conditions among millions Of Neo-
PIE living 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 Rack and Adriatic seas.
THIS area includ,> the new Baltic
s.a.e>-Fo!and, Czecho-Slovakia. Tx
raiDe, Austria, Hungary. R"umania.
Montenegro. Albania and Serbia.
The reports which come TO us make
il clear that in these warravaged
lands civilization has broken down.
Disease. bereavement and suffering
are present in practically every house
hold. while food and clothing are in
sufficient 10 make life 1olerahle.
Men women and children are dying
b. thousands and over vast once-civil-
lied areas there are to be found
neither medical appliances nor medi-
cal skill sufficient to cope with the
devastating plaques.
Wholesale starvation is threatened
in Poland this summer unless she can
procure food supplies in large quanti-
ties There are now approximately
100000 cases of typhus in Poland and
in the area occupied by Polish troops.
Worst Typhus Epidemic in History.
This is already one of the worst
typhus epdencs in the worlds his
tory. In Galicia, whole towns are
crippled and business suspended. In
some districts there is but one doctor
to each 10000 people.
In the Ukraine, we were told.
typhus and Influenza have affected
most Of the people.
A report from Vienna dated Febru-
arv II said: There are rations for
three weeks. Death stalks through
the streets of Vienna and takes un-
hindered toll
Budapest, according to our informa-
ton. is one vast city of misery and
suffering The number of deaths is
double that of births Of 100000
children in the schools 100000 are
dependent on public charity. There
are 10000 workers idle.
Typhus and smallpox have invaded
the four countries composing Czecho-
Slovakia, and there is lack of medi-
cines. soap and physicians.
In Serbia typhus 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 100000.
Returning to the United States a
few weeks ago with all these horrors
ringing in my ears, / found myself
once more in land whose granaries
were overhowing where wealth and
plenty abOunded and where life and
activity and eager enterprise were in
the full flood.
| asked myself, what if this plague
and famine were here in the great
territory between the Atlantic sea-
board and the Mississippi valley,
which roughly parallels the extent OF
these ravaged countries and that 3d.
100000 of our own people condemned
TO idleness by lack Of raw material
and whose fields had been devaSta ted
BY invasion and rapne. were rackod
by starvation and pestilence, and if
we had lifted up our voices and in
voked the attention Of our brothers ir
happier Europe to our own deer
niseries and our cries had fallen or
deaf ears, would we not in oul
despair exclaim against their heart
lessness!"
Only Three Ways to Help Europe.
There are only three ways b.
which these stricken lands can secur
supplies from the outside world. On
Is by payment, one by credit, and tn
third is by exchange Of commodities
If these peoples tried to buy ma
terials and supplies in America at tn
present market value Of their curren
cies Austria would have to pay fort
times the original cost, Germany thil
teen times, Greece just double
CzechO-Slovakia fourteen times, an
Poland fifty times. These figures ar
official and are a true index Of tn
economic plight of these countries.
1t is clear, therefore, that they car
not give us gold for the things the
must have, nor have they either proc
ucts or securities to offer in retur
for credit. If only they could obtai
raw material which these idle million
of theirs could convert into manufa
tured products they would have som
thing to tender the world in retul
for It's raw material, food and med
cine. But if they have neither none
nor credit how are they to take tn
first great step towards redemption
One half the world may not e.