The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-09-10
Frederic Haskin's Letter
q
Three-Cent Meals and Reconstruction.

7 ally cost price. while free shipmen,
has been offered by the German
state railways.
Among other forms of relief yorl
! among the students undertaken br
the Worlds Student Christian Fed.
Grafton the following are cited ss
characteristic:
Some Work Done.
Purchase and distribution of pa
tons of wood for student hostels IN
Vienna, to enable these hostAIs n
| have fires during the winter Ne5-
! ical examination and treatment n,
sick students at a clinic especiallv
| established in Prague. At this
clinic 205 students were examined
/ during the first two weeks of On
Grafton. of whom 40 were found m
be tubercular.
! The care of tubercular students
in sanatoria. In Poland 100 stn-
dents are each receiving a months
care this summer in such institu-
tons.
Management of special hostels IN
Budapest and Warsaw for homeless
students. In Warsaw a dormitorv
with ITO beds has been eQuippAd
by the Federation.
Assistance to employment In
reaus established by students them
selves in order that those financial
ly helpless may have as much Cd
portunity as possible of obtaining
part-time or vacation employment
Such employment bureaus are prov
ing especially effective in Germany.
The one in Prague has located 400
undergraduates in work which is
enabling them TO continue their ed
ucation.
Reduction of university fees for
particularly necessitous and wor-
thy students, on the basis that il
the various authorities will find
way to make this possible the Fed
GRAFTON will see that assistance is
given to those young men and
women to enable them to keep up
their studies.
In Budapest university students
have been found sleeping in rail-
way stations, toilets of public build
ings and under bridges. In Vienna
two students were found dead OF
starvation. In Germany educated
men have been discovered working
as street cleaners and women Of
refinement as charwomen, in order
to obtain money to enable them to
take their university degrees.
Pointing out that it is a rule Of
the Worlds Student Christian Fed
Grafton to employ only those who
have done their utmost to help
the report emphasizes
the fact that the promotion of self
help is In itself inadequate even to
the need. TuberculO-
sis is rife in the various UNIVERSE
ties, and physical debility resulting
from protracted hardships ana
under nourishment makes manual
work before and after college hours
dangerous for many Of
the students. The method of self
help, again, cannot be applied prop
erIy to meet the needs of most Of
the so-called foreign students" in
whose assistance the Federation is
actively engaged. These foreign
students, of whom thousands are
now scattered over central Europe,
are one result of the reformation
Of the map of Europe and the Rus
sian revolution. There are Hun
garians who have fed from prov
inces annexed to Rumania; Aus
TRANS who have fed from prov
inces annexed to Hungary; Ger
mans from provinces annexed TO
Poland; Georgians cut off from
home by the soviet occupation OF
their country, and everywhere Rus
sian student refugees. These men
and women were friendless, home
less and in many cases were pro-
gressively drifting nearer staTVa-
ion until the orga niZation of relief
work in. their behalf. Should this
relief work be discontinued now
hey would very shortly be in as
bad condition as ever.
The significance of the work is
Illustrated by quoting a letter from
Dr.. Friedrich Hertz of the Austrian
of state:
Thousands of young people are
1eing saved through your Work
rom extreme misery which other
wise would probably break their
mental and moral energy" he
writes. IF they succumb. this
would mean the disappearance OF
orces Indispensable for any recon
in our country. It would
cad to a tremendous breakdown OF
.ulture and civilization in Austria
which would react on other coun-
ries."