Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1922-10-07
One Year of A. r. A.
Work in Russia

w VI A IA 4Ou00xI
Moscow, Sept. 6-The first station
OF the American Relief Administra-
ton, to feed Russian children, was
opened in Petrograd one year ago
today. Three hundred children then
received their first American meal
Today more than 100000 Russians,
when they give thanks for their
daily bread, might well turn their
faces toward America. The story OF
the expansion Of this relief work is
worth telling again in brief form
Originally Herbert Hoover, in re-
spouse to an appeal from Maxim
Gorky and with the help Of the
American people. planned to feed
100000 Russian. children. The
work grew until in August Of this
year 4,171,441 children were receiv-
ing daily meals from the A. r. A..
and a daily corn ration, or its equiv
alent, was going to 6,257,95S adults,
total Of 10,429,399 individuals. The
original program had been multi
Piled tenfold.
The adult feeding, not included in
the original intentions, was made
possible by the appropriation by the
United States Congress of $20,000,000
for the purchase of corn in America.
This product began to arrive in Feb
ruary of 1922. From that time until
the last carload of corn was shipped
to the interior districts, the railroads
of Russia from the northern and
southern ports to the famine areas
We're taxed. to their capacity. The
delivery of the food BECAME the
greatest problem which the A. r. A.
was called upon to face. Ware
houses were filled and emptied and
filled again. Barges loaded to the
gunwales with corn were sent up and
down the Volga River and up the
Kama, Biela and Viatka Rivers
Horses and sledges, camels and wa
CONS, wheelbarrows and peasants
backs carried the grain from the
river ports and from the railroad
stations to the distant villages. By
August /, about five months after
the adult feeding began, 6,257.95S
men and women were having their
daily meal of American corn and up
to that date 266,407 tons of corn and
other products had been distributed
to the districts for adult feeding.
In the matter of distances alone,
and in view of the lack of sufficient
railroad connections. it is significant
that the child feeding and adult
feeding of the A. r. A., has not been
limited TO the easily accessible areas,
but covers in their entirety the fol-
lowing republics, governments, and
regions: kazan, Tartar Republic,
Simbirsk, Mahri, Samara, Votskaia
region, Saratov, German communes,
Tsaritzin, Uralsk, Kalmuck region,
Rostov-Don, kuban-Blac Sea re-
gion, Astrakhan zone. Ufa, Bashkir
Republic, Ekaterinburg, Cheliabinsk,
Orenburg. Kirghiz Republic. kus-
tanai, Petrograd (city), Moscow
(city), the Ukrainian Republic, the
Crimea, and parts of the govern
ments of Niatka, Perm, Pensa and
Mini Novgorod.
And even this list covers only a
part Of the work of the A. r. A., in
the Russian Socialistic Federated
Soviet Republic. There is also the
food remittance division and the
medical division, each of which has
handled something over $7,OO0,0OO
worth of supplies ince the beginning
OF their operations!
The medical division has distrib-
uted supplies consisting of medi-
cines, surgical instruments, bedding,
linen, bandages and cotton, rubber
goods, laboratory equipment and
other items too numerous to mention
to literally thousands of Russian
hospitals and institutions, besides
having carried on a campaign of
incubation against communicable
diseases on a scale never before at
tempted in the history Of preventive
medicine 1t has supplied serums
and vaccines sufficient to inoculate
not thousands but millions of per-
sons in districts where cholera and
ether epidemic diseases are raging.
The food remittance plan is one
by which the friends and relatives
of Russians who live in America or
elsewhere outside Of Russia are en-
abled to send them packages of food.
This is accomplished without the &C
tual transmission of the individual
packages, because the A r. A. has
depots of supplies all over Russia and
individual packages are made up
from these supplies on the spot in
accordance with the letter of remit
lance. These packages are in $40
units and multiples Of that amount.
Thousands of persons have taken adj
vantage Of this system and their
purchases to date amount to more
than 100000 Last month deliv-
cries were made at the rate Of 3,2lO
ten dollar packages daily. :