The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1922-06-08
SENTENCED TO DIE
Editorial From The Literary d.
gest of April 18th.


No hurly criminal stood there to re-
ceive punishment for his crimes
only little child, begging for life.
Her sin was hunger and nakedness.
She trembled, and almost fell, as
she stretched out thin, bare arms in
supplication.
Hunger! Bread" were the only
words she spoke.
A long time passed, while those
men fought to es'ape the verdict they
must render. But then the words
came:
eve have not found anyone who
will give you bread, little girl. We
kave told great many people about
you, bat they have given to so many
other boys and girls that they are
tired OF giving. There is not enough
bread, now, to go around-no, not
even {: crust. We are very sorry,
dear little girl, but we must let
you die"
A cruel jest? No! A cruel fact,
multiplied thousands upon thousands
Of times! If only one such pleading
child were condemned to die because
we are 'tired of giving" it would be
enough to blanch the cheeks of every
man ard woman who reads this page.
But upon many thousands of boys and
girls the sentence of death has just
teen passed.
In Armenia Christian race is be-
ing bottled out-while the world looks
on. In Armenia peace did not come
when the rest of the world stopped
fightin... Last year 140 villages were
destroyed; thousands of mothers and
grown daughters were violated and
slain; fathers were herded into build
ings and burned; multitudes of or
phaned children were driven into the
wilderness to wander and die, unless
perchance, they might be gathered
like lost lambs, into folds of safety
by the Near East Relief. Conditions
ere worse than at any time since the
armistice. Frantic appeals for more
food to save the children, for more
clothing to cover their naked bodies,
for more hospitals and orphanages to
give them refuge come surging over
the cables to "kird, generous Amer
ica," tie hoped-for savior of Armenia.
And in the moment of this crisis,
when the question Of life or death for
unnumbered thousands of children
must be answered, the tender charity
Of American mothers and fathers has
tegrn to fail. Their answer to the
multitude OF little orphans whose
cnly sin is hunger, and nakedness,
end imneasurabie grief, has been,-
in December and January and Feb
luary and March-not more money,
and more clothing, and more food,
sbdt less. And so cruel order has
gone forth from the offices of the
Near East Relief to reduce all ex-
penditsres twenty-five per cent.
twenty-five children from every hun
6red now receiving care must be
turned away. Among the many
thousands whose walls of hunger, and
sickness, and cold have not yet been
answered, not one can be satisfied.
And now the cries of terror and dis
>raay are reaching America:
Cablegrar1, via Paris: Thousands
Of deportees filling Near East thres-
hold, receiving crust of bread, hoping
for summer peace. Shall we push
them off our doorstep? Order of
twenty-five per cent. reduction neces-
states closing March first all general
relief"
Cablegram, Corstantincple: cap
palling increase of need for general
relief throughout Anatolia Caucaus.
Reruction m already inadequate ap-
propriaeions cuts off multitudes who
are hopeless without American aid"
Cablegram, from American Wom-
ems Hospital, Erivan: We have eight
hundred and fifty-two cases in the
hospital, and children dying in all
comers of Erivan. All day long We
6esr the walls and groans Of lit
Children outside the office build
sings ht;ping we can and will pick them
UP. If the sun shines little while
they quiet down; when it rains they
begin again. One day when the rain
uturned to snow it was awful to listen
: to them. The note of terror that
came into the general wall was plain
ly perceptible upstairs, and l had the
windows closed. They well know
what night in the snow would mean
to ther. We are picking them up as
fast as possible, but it is fatal to
crowd them to such point that we