Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-02-07
GERMAN TOTS
SUFFER MOST
AS WAR RESULT
Story of Relief Work Among
Children of Europe Tells of
Real Calamity.

The children or Germany turn out 70
have been the greatest sufferers of all,
and the greatest calamity of the war, ror
Germany and for the whole world. is that
millions Of European children are be-
ing starved and stunted.
Kinderhilfsmission Of the American
Friends Service committee at Doro-
theenstrasses Berlin, which has direc-
ton Of the child-feeding work Of the
American Relief Administration in Ger
many, Is at present feeding 10000 chill
dren a day, and if the voluntary cOntri-
buttons On which this work depends
T permit, that number will be increased TO
one million this year.
In the first school visited. a parish or
government school, the children were eat
ing in the gymnasium. While older boys
Were going through exercises in the back
Of the room. children selected according
to their needs lined up for feeding at the
other end Each had a tin cup and spoon
and in turn received a big portion Of rice
and milk from the two teachers who
handled the work. The chilGyen all have
food cards. which they must show to the
teacher, who keeps a careful record Of
every meal given. An American worker
supervises the distribution and sees that
the food is eaten on the premises. not
wasted and Is given where the need IS
greatest In this school there were no
benches, so the little girls took their
bowls away, sitting in corners under
parallel bars or on horses" while the
boys grouped together and chartered vO-
ciferously in intervals of eating.
In another block of this huge brick
building was a Lyzeum Schulz or girls
high school where some feeding is also
carried on. Here the girls eat in a class
room seated at their desks. Girls in the
high school ranging from to Il in age
are better clad and in slightly better
physical condition. They come from up
per middle class families.
The next place visited was a Catholic
school, where the principal, a small ener-
getic man, eating his own lunch "a
brackbread sandw1ch) was supervising
the child feeding. The food had been
given out here in the entranace hall and
two little boys with long spoons were
busy scraping the last vestige Of rice
from the big container, a former army
Kettle. It was almost as clean as If Il
had been secured with hot water. In
the same district is a kinderheim, com
fortabIy housed in a little frame house.
There the little children had Just I'm
ished their meal and were marching
around the room IN pairs, singing songs.
They were from to years in age, and
during the feeding hour their mothers
- are invited to come in and share in the
not lunch.
POOR SECTION OF BERLIN
NOT sLUMS.
Another day was spent in a poorer dis
trict. The poor section Of Berlin could
never be called a slum. The streets are
wide and clean and the buildings well
constructed, in no way resembling the
EInmG M ant
closer inspection reveals the poverty and
misery Of the German working class to-
day. The women are hatless and with
the thermometer at zero have only shawls
10 wrap around their thin dresses. The
footwear is inadequate, woOden-soled
clogs and cheap carpet slippers being
general The faces seen on all sides are
pinched, worn, duH-gray or white In
color. The schools here, too, are housed
in good buildings, but the children who
line up for the daily feeding tell the
universal story Of chronic uudernOurish-
ment. On this day the bowls were filed
with hot mixture Of beans and rice and
much to their delight each child WIS
also handed a big sweet white roll. These
rolls are given four times a week. Pow
rty-stricken as it is, the German gov
eminent has undertaken to supply the
-four and sugar for the rolls during the
next six months.
Nearby two rooms have been taken and
\ fitted up for use as a dining room for
mothers. Every morning between 10
and u o'clock 128 Of them come for a
hot meal. They have the same food as
that given to the children, but larger
portions. All the women are either
nursing young babies or are expectant
mothers. They are chosen by a local
committee OF doctors in the same was
the school children are selected In
these rooms children up TO 6 years come
in the afternoon for food The feeding
Of mothers and very young children is
more difficult on account Of having no
central place in which food can be
served and no organization to work
through as in the schools At the
kitchen for this district, where 10000
meals day are prepared, is another
dining room for mothers, seating 25O
every afternoon.
A very interesting group Of children
was seen in another thickly populated
district Of working class families. Here
three big schools were grouped to-
gether in one complex the buildings
having distinct entrances on different
streets. There was a boys school. a
girls school and one for deaf and dumb
children Of both sexes. These latter
were In very bad physical condition,
many being tubercuIar. After finding
out by signs from their teachers thar
their visitors wore foreigners they asked
for postage stamps and it was PATHETIC
TO see the eagorness with which these
young collectors bounced on the mos.
common American or English stamps.
As the teacher said, Il indicates the lso-
latiOn into which Germany has been
plunged by the war The meal this time
was hot chocolate soup-a sort Of thin
cOrnstarch pudding. A generous BOW
Of this with the big white roll was a
meal TO be envied and It is probably the
most popular Of the six menus served
every week. The huge kitchen for this
district, all the equipment of which is
old army material, supplies $4,000 OF
these meals daily.
In every child feeding center through
out Germany is displayed a printed no
tice telling Of the regulations of the feed
Ing work OF the Society Of Friends. In
<the past, notably In Catholic Bavaria
there has been some objection to this by
Germans who feared that one motive Of
the campaign was to convert the children
to another religion, but by now it has
been thoroughly demonstrated that the
spirit behind the work is simply one Of
practical philanthropy, in which differ
enees Of creed play no part. Today when
a German urehin asks a playmate If be
has been "Quakerized" it is not a re-
HgiOus question, but simply an inquiry
as to whether or not he is lucky enough
10 be on the Friends feeding list The
money given for this work comes from
many sources, mostly in humble gifts,
and only a portion Of it is from the
Society Of Friends Nor are all the work
Of VIII nam