The New York herald., 1921-01-30
STARVING VIENNA IS
SAVED BY AMERICA
100000 Children Are I.
Daily by Kitchens in Aus
trian Capital.

Barry {. Smith. director of the Ma
tiona1 Information Bureau, who has re
Gently returned from a two months "trip
the purpose Of studying the work cf
American relief agencies. discussing con-
ditions In Austria and Poland. said
In Vienna there was little food in sight
to keep its two million people alive.
Nobody knew where money for more
food was to come from. The America
Relief Administration was feeding S0o.-
900 children every day. / talked with q
pale faced little girl Of apparently 6 or.
years at one Of its feeding stations.
The Kitchen mother told me she was
really II. Hundreds were in the hos
pitfalls suffering from frightfuI cases of
ricketts, and other hunger diseases.
"The famous stockyards OF Vienna,
model plant through which thousands OF
cattle passed every week. are now abso-
lutely empty except for small PAL
where an American relief agency Keeps
irs cars and supplies The average daily
milk supply reaching the city has bee:i
for n year about one-fifteenth OF normal
During the summer months. as much az
sixty per cent. Of even this meagre
quantity was sour.
"The average educated man in Vienna
is struggling manfuily TO support his
family on an income OF from three TO six
thousand crowns a month. six to twelve
dollars IN American money. Potatoes
cost 225 times their pre-war price. Boots
have gone UP one thousand per cent.
When put my shoes outside my door
at the Hotel Bristol to be shined the
porter warned rne Il was unsafe. A pair
OF whole good leather shoes is 30 rare IN
Vienna as to be an irresistible tenpts-
tion.
II had not been in the city twenty
four hours before the depression whicl
saw on face after face chilled me. IL
is Impossible to learn about Vienna ii
half an hour. Nor can you understand
the situation by strolling UP Kartner-
strasse and looking in the shops. with
their prosperous air, or by sitting In ths
lobby OF hotel. But a city without
coal, with hardly any food. with a paper
currency worth 1-15oth Of its normal
value, with O Government whose credit
is less than that OF n prosperous bus
ness man in New York, cannot hide is
distress
FIFTY girls nre working night and day
with the American friends service COM
mittee. without A penny OF compensation,
70 fight off the worst destitution ana
disease which threaten the children. rhc
American Relief Administration is ship
ping thousands or meters Of cloth into
the city and making it up into chiidren'a
clothing. II brings In huge supplies OF
food for the children. Major Bakernan
OF the Red Cross could not find words
10 express the pity his face showed as ne
tried to tell me what his workers were
trying 10 do FOR the sick. But tn
viennese 60 about their business viii
resigned despair in their faces.
"in Serbia there IL food in plenty. an
no need OF emergency relief but ~
situation OF the children is sorry oi
Few Of them arc In school; there
nothing left In tho schools. DesN
benches. blaokboards. stoves havo b
wrecked or carried off. There arc
teachers. Where teacher has ret,irt'4
10 work tho children sit on the flst
and learn what they can. Health o
child welfare work Is needed.
Poland II iTnmeaeurabiy worse
than Serbia. There. again. IL Is 4
children who show most terribly The
feet OF the war. I have been throul
orphanases. hospitals. soup kitchcr I
writes Miss Margaret Moffett. std I
worker OF The National Informal /
Bureau. until 7 see in my sleep PC 4
li.tie undernourished pathetic childr
A few OF the institutions are surpr I
inEiv good, but most OF them he |
sprung up during tho war and no 4
know from one month 20 the next W I
the money is coming from. Condit \
are unspeakablc.'
"r1vcrywherc the Russian, refuge
conpiicate the situation. There are
ieO.0 900 in Constantinople. 10000 In Ser
bia. hundreds of thousands in Poloud
They nre wretchcd. wherever they are,
and no plan for caring for them has
vet beon worked out. One committee Is
striving, with inadequate means. 10 re-
lieve thorn. Meanwhile they are dytug
literally, here, there and everywhere "
Eastern Europe"