Norwich bulletin., 1922-12-30
WHAT AMERICAN RELIEF HAS DONE FOR RUSSIA.

WHAT AMERICAN RELIEF !
 The New Year will dawn in. Russia with d viston of new hope. A year ago | this country was in the grip of fam inc, desperately facing 8 crisis which i to sweep away a great pro- | portion of it's population and the ul- innate consequences of which seem | ed beyond the power of mortals to forecast. That these consequences were in large measure averted was due chiefly to an American enterprise in philanthropy beside which all other philanthropic achievements in history pale into insigniffcance..
 Never before in the worlds his tory have more, than ten million per- sons been. regularly and continuous fy fed under the direction of q single charitable organization. Never before
 has famine so extensive as that which overwhelmed Russia last win ter, been so promptly and effective
 ly checked. ...-,. -..... There is still hunger In Russia. There may be actual cases of death from
 starvation before the winter is over,
 but in, contrast, with last New Years day Russia might we'll be described as a land flowing with milk and honey.
 And the fact that the milk is con
 densed and the honey does not flow but is in the form of ordinary gran ufated sugar of commerce does not de- tract. from it's value in Russian eyes: 1 To Americans condensed milk can when emptted is fit only for the gar bage dump but there are peasant 8 cottages in Russia where it finds a place beside the sacred ikens or am
 ong the portraits of the family heroes ! who have laid down their lives in war. 1 Last year Russia. starving and des- perate, looked upon aid from Amerf-
 ca chiefly as promise. Today thanks Ito the Accomplishment of the: Ameri- can Relief Administration during the past twelve months, 1t is a hope full i filled.
 | The American Relief Administration 1 in August 1921 had undertaken to feed
 a million Russion children a program which, within year.. was multiplied
 ten-fold; on New Years day, 1922, the ] American Relief had not reached the further boundaries of the famine area on, its errand of mercy. Cases of can | nibalism were just beginning to be treperted and refugees were fleeing ir panic from the districts where food was insufficient to supply the need and men, maddened by hunger, were sinking into unfathomed depths o1
 beastiality. Kitchens for the feeding of children had been established ir many centers, warehouses; had beer opened, ships had braved the dangers of the Northern seas and frozen har- bors, to bear, the precious foodstuffs to the stricken country.
 Even then the American Relief Ad- nfrfsNdtino ffad more than carried
 out it's original program: Instead. oi | one million children, one million tTo hundred thousand were receiving theiI daily ration at the A, R. A. kitchens But the famine was spreading. Not d tenth of the need had been met, and
 the harvest was still many rnonthf
 away.
 The American Relief Administra- tion extended it's work as rapidly al the crippled railroads in Russia were
 able to handle it's supplies. Kitchens
 were opened by the hundred, by the thousand and by the tens of thou. sands. t..
 r A gift of s2o.ooo, 900 for the purchast
 of corn for the feeding of adults wal
 made by the American congress, Pres.
 ident Harding signing the bill late il
 December. Within 55 days from tn, signing of the appropriation the grail was purchased, shipped to Russia, un ] loaded, carried on the s1pposedl! 'i broken down railroads and distribu tion in the famine districts aetuall, begun .....-. The number of children fed steadil, increased, The rationing, of adults wa extended. By. a large contribution 0 ] the JeWish joint distribution commit tee it became, possible to include tn I famine area of the Ukraine and exten siye feeding was begun there under tn [ direction of the A. R. A., and on tn : same broad non sectarfan basis tha ) has always marked the operations c
 Mr-Hoover's organizations. F Soon after the famine fight was be : gun fn Russia it was realized tha mere feeding. would not. suffice. Fh :. famine had so affected the peopl n that their physical resistance to di = sease was low Epidemics were ram ; pant and the hospitals. so disorgau - ized and so hampered by lack of ey tJ en the cohmonest drugs and the mo. v elemental hospital necessities that the Il were utterly unable to cope with tt . crisis that faced them. There wel | hospitals which had only one clinic; : Thermometer for hundreds of patient C hospitals without a single hot wat, : bottle, hospitals without sheets ar i. hospitals without soap. In one a sig ,. was prominently displayed. "Patien s who would have their wound dresst ? must bring their own bandages.,' si The gift of nearly three and one ha
 million dollars worth of Red Gro
 supplies to the American Relief Al v ministratfon for distribution in Ru -e sif did not begin to meet the necess 1t tics of the case Early in the ye l. Congress supplemented this gift T. turning over to the A. R: A $3, 7s9, 0 1t worth of surplus army medical SUI s. plies.
 y From these two sources i,44s fio of pitais and other institutions were su piled. To combat the cholera and ot CT infectious diseases 26,500.eo0 ui1