The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1921-09-02

HS uGSpdGCA ID AAOA stan COf
respondent of The New York
Herald who is penetrating into
Russia and making personal in
vesigation of famine conditions.
The city of Samara, whence the
despatch comes, is 500 miles east of
Moscow.
Special CO to THE New York HERALD.
Copyright, j. 4, bD THE NEW YORK HERALD.
SAMARA, Russia, Aug. 80, via Lon
don. Sept. 1.-"Statistics cannot de-
scribe the famine situation in Rus
sia," said Gov. Vladimir Sokolsky,
describing to me the situation OBJ
tanning in his Government. he de-
clared that 100000 peasants did not
possess a single grain of food and
that by next month this number
would be increased to 100000.
The Government has a population
OF 100000 and an area three times
the size of Switzerland. 1t has a
large extent of fertile land, produc-
ing in normal times grain, potatoes
and tobacco in large quantity.
Gov. Sokolsky said he needed 49,
100000 pools (about 1,404,0 100000
pounds) of bread, and that by no
manner of calculating could the
Government itself muster more than
100000 pools.
Thanks to my suspicion of stats
tics. and Russian statistics in par
ticular, HIS words Influenced me lit
Tie. But now I have seen for my.
SELF There are villages in the fam
ire region where the people are dy-
ing of hunger. Entire communities
are living on grass and clay, and on
cats and dogs.
Dried Weeds Make Poison Bread.
The investigation which began in
congested centres like. the city of
into the rural regions eighty miles
from a railroad, where he saw the
dried weeds of which a green poison
Is being made and which dying man
kind in this region terms bread. It
is evident that the population of his
Government faces humiliation.
For several days the correspondent
was housed in a railway carriage on a
siding opposite the Samara station
There reached his ears an incessant
wailing of starving children at the car
rage door:
only a crust Of bread" "Only your
refused" Throw out more refused"
Shivering, unkempt girls bent over
a melon rind under the window, wiped
the rind with torn skirt and ate 1t
with relish that showed the extent Of
their distress. I have seen an elder
brother drape rotting sheepskin coat
around his little sister and feed her
the heads of dried fish which he had
found in the dust and dirt of the road.
I have seen five little collins in one
funeral procession through Samara
street.-the funeral of four children and
a babe--and hardly enough mourners
to bury them, while pedestrians did
not even stop to see the sight. it is
such usual one.
In the Samara railroad station at
night every square foot of floor Is COW
cred by q starving humanity. The bag
gage of the refugees Is piled into pyra-
mids, so that more room can be found
for the tired. worn out, starving fami-
lies. And outside on the cement plat
foym and in the freight cars and nearby
fields they arc camped in bivouacs like
ragged a nads.
Cobblcstones Their Only Beds.
On the Volga wharf there il another
hungry colony--men, women and chill
dren sleeping on bare cobblestones, lying
so tightly wedged together that passen-
gers from steamship can hardly pick
out path to cab stand.
Also Moscow goes hungry and there
Is no one there to meet the needs of the
etuass- While Government officials
dined well tor many months their ra-
tions are irregular now and they are
making sacrifices for the famine suf-
ferers.
However, the gaunt form OF the fam
Inc only begins TO be seen when one
reached Syrian, seventy miles south Of
Simbirsk. The Syrian railroad yards
are filled with refugees and moaning
infants
Samara Is a Syrian on larger scale
Saratoff, southwest OF Samara, and
Kazan. to the north. are like Samara
and in either district every volga steam
boat landing. up or down the river
shows the same degree OF suffering
Formerly these starving refugees all
lived In villages. Some of them were
workers. whose masters when the food
supplies were almost exhausted. told
them to leave. Many OF them had been
swept into the volga Valley by tho
war. They were natives OF Poland, or
OF Lithuania. and were driven away