Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-04-20
Why Send Milk to Italy?

are careQ IOr Dy Cne central Euro
pean Relief. This, however, is not
the case, as Mr.. Hoover has himself
emphatically stated. The Central Eu-
ropean relief, as it's name indicates,
cares for the children of central Eu-
rope-Poland, Austria, Hungary and
adjacent states. 100000 children
of these countries have been rescued
this winter, but Italy too, needs help
and we must give, both, our sympa-
thy and our substance to her in this
her hour of need.
The question is often asked-"But
why is Italy not able to take care of
i1er children?" Under ordinary cir
cumstances, Italy could take care of
her children, but for the circum-
stances.
In Italy to-day a milk famine ex-
ists-due to the fact that many cat
tie had to be sacrificed the last year
of the war to feed the army. Later
the dread Mouth and Hoof disease
broke out and swept the country of
the. remaining milk-giving animals.
This has left them with no native
milk. -Four years of devastating war
had left the nation with enormous
war debts, a deprecated currency
and great scarcity of the necessities
of life. AS the currency went down,
the cost of living went up, and for
the poor conditions of existance be-.
came unbearable. Foods were so high
and so scarce that in November last
the Government found it necessary
again to issue food cards-more
stringent than during the war, and
much of Italy's unrest has been due
to the food situation.
Under these conditions, the Italian
mother, herself undernourished, has
not been able to nourish her baby
as formally she was abundantly able
to do-and in Italy the unpreceden-
ted has happened-Italian mothers
have had to feed their babies artifi-
cially. The artificial feeding of a ba-
by is not the best way, but it can be
successfully done if good milk is "a
vailable, but without milk it becomes
a question which scientists have not
yet been able to solve. There is no
substitute for milk-and the baby
under one year, deprived of it, can
not live. The little child over one
year may live but becomes an easy
prey to ricketts,, anemia and tuber-
culosis-the hunger diseases-and
with these the hospitals are filled.
Three hundred baby hospitals and
institutions for children in Italy.
are now being supplied with milk by
the American. free milk fund, and,
through its dispensaries and milk dis.
tributing centers 100000 babies
have been rescued, but many prov
incesI have not yet been reached, for
the relief can go only as far as the
milk goes. The institutions already
established must be maintained and
the work can be extended only
through larger shipments of milk.
The situation in Italy is briefly
this:
The people are burdened with tre-
mendous taxation necessary to pay
their war debts and the currency so
deprecated in consequence that they
cannot buy from us with the ruinous
exchange now existing. Few people
here realize that the Italian lira,
which to be equal to 20 cents in our
money, is now worth only S112 cents.
Five dollars used to be the equivalent
of 25 lire. Now it takes nearly 15O
lire to purchase five dollars worth of
American goods.
The milk that we are sending over
costs us here, wholesale. IL cents a
quart, but if sold to the poor Italian
he must pay nearly 6S cents a quart
for it in Italy.
Can Italian babies be properly fed
with our milk if we sell it to them?
Italy's suffering babies are the VIC
TINS of war-they are reaping the
results of Italy's great sacrifice in
"the cause" which was. "Our Cause"
Italy was our friend and ally. Shall
we be content to offer her no SYM
pathy, no aid? A cup of milk is all
that is asked in her name-that her
babies-the future hope of the ma
tion-may not be dwarfed and
stunted as result of malnutrition.
Send your contributions, large or
small to Miss Jane B. Evans, Flor