The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-18

BIRD mas any money. He has some s14,000.000 for this pur- pose. He can get more, much more. | Nansen has no money. The League has none. The supreme council has l none.
 | When these other agencies come | to Hoover with suggestions for CO., operation he listens politely and then l asks:
 What can you do?"
 | They answer that they can er-ah- hum 'co-operate."
 Would Help spend What it means, says my inform | ant, is that they are willing to help Hoover spend his money. Hoover will cooperate with anybody who has the goods, but sees no point in cutting one loaf of bread into too many small pieces.
 Meantime, one of the most graceful and practical things American char ity has done In Europe is the presen- | tation by the American Red Cross to the Austrian government of all l It's surplus stock of tobacco and cig- | arettes.
 What to do with this surplus has | long been a problem to the Red | Cross authorities at the Paris head 1 quarters. The army stocks of tobac-
 
 | the war surplus, to the French gov , ernment, and retailed through the | government to tobacco stores at a l low price. The French smoker, how | ever, did not take to American cig arettes, and while American residents | eagerly bought their favorite brands 1 by the carton, there were not enough | Americans to make the stock move quickly. Therefore, when the Red | Itx--, kl< thorities buy their stocks also, the French "regie' refused. Not only that, but 1t refused to | allow the Red Cross to sell them at all in France, unless the full tax were paid. This made the price so high that sale was impossible Other European governments were appealed to, but in vain, for everywhere the tax on tobacco is high.
 Find Happy Solution At last happy expedition was hit upon. The Red Cross commission in Vienna offered to give the tobacco, which cost the Red Cross $S0,000, to the Austrian government. on condi- tions that the latter sell it at a de- termined price. substantially equiva- lent to the retail price In America, and devote the proceeds to child re- lief, under Red Cross supervision.
 The stocks have just been shipped and are beginning to arrive in Vii enna. There are carloads of cigar cites and other carloads of "roll-your own" which the Austrian government will make up into cigarettes before selling, thus getting a higher price. Meanwhile, plans for applying the proceeds to the immediate relief of l Vienna's undernourished babies are well under way. The plan Jointly adopted by the government and the Red Cross provides for the purchase | of cows, which will be brought into the territory immediately surround | ing Vienna. The milk from these cows will go directly to the hospitals and to the various child health sta tions distributing relief to the babies of the poor.
 Expect to Raise S15O,OO0 | To expediate the work, the Aus | trian finance ministry has already agreed to advance part of the money expected to be realized from the sale of the American stocks. The total to be realized. according to Red Cross officials, will be not far from S1 5O. 900 as the inventory value of the oods is considerably below the retail value.
 Some idea of the dearth of milk in Vienna may be gained from the fact
 
 of the city is about 1000 900 gallons daily. It has dropped until it is now hardly 100000 gallons. Part of the cause of this is the fact that great dairy lands which formerly nourished the Austro- Hungarian capital have been annexed to Czecho Slovakia Another reason. however, is that the government has fixed the price of milk at low figure. in order to place 1t within reach of the poor. and the result Is that the dairy farmers claim they cannot produce at a profit. A short Ntime ago, in fact, the daily supply fell as low as 50.000 gallons, but doubled when a slight increase in price was allowed.
 Before the milk situation can inn prove. much further. there will have to he greater increases in price. In deed, one Red Cross report declares that control must be removed alto gclher and free competition restored if the farmers are to be expected to produce maximum yield
 At all events, the Viennese smoker may now increase his daily cigarett consumption with clear conscience. realizing that if. as some doctors as sert. it iss bad for his health. 1t is all the same good for the health of Vien- mas children