The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-04-06
.AFL Solicits Funds
 For Relief In China
Civilians Victims of Japanese Oppression -Indescrib-
 able Suffering Evidenced in Far East

New York, April 6.-(SpeciaD.- Four million members of the Ameri- can Federation of Labor thus far are enlisted in the campaign be- ing formulated by labor's commit tee for civilian relief in China, Matthew Woll, chairman of the committed announced here today.
 MT. Woll, who announced initial organization of the committee sev- eral weeks ago, said that funds raised through activities sponsored by the committee would go for aid of the more than 30,000,000 Chinese civilians who have been victim!Zed by the Japanese invasion of North China.
 Honorary Chairman
 Serving with MT. Woll on the na- tional committee, of which William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, is honorary chairman, are more than 100 officers of national labor groups, he said.
 Organization of state committees also is well underway, according to MT. Woll, with twenty-five state chairmen actively engaged in form ing local committees within their states. Cities where these units of the national committee have been formed represent a population of more than 4O,00O,000 people, he re- Vealed.
 Sub- divisions of the national com- mittee also are being formed, &C., cording to MT. Woll, and these have been divided into the following classifications, newspaper publish CTS, fraternal and civic groups, writers divisions, speakers and ra- dio.
 Declaring that the response of newspaper editors to invitations to serve on this division of the com- mittee has been more than hearten- ing, MT. Woll announced that to date 625 editors of daily and week ly newspapers have signified their active support of the cause of Chi nese civilian victims of the Jap anese invasion by accepting mem bership on the committee. More than 100 radio stations also are lined up behind the committee, MT. Woll said, and seven heads of leading national fraternal and civic organ- izationS are represented on this Sub- committee.
 Destitute
 "The cause of the millions of Chi nese civilians who have been ren- dered homeless and destitute by the Japanese invasion of North China is one that strikes a sympathetic chord in the breast of every mem Der of the American Federation of Labor" MT. Woll declared.
 And the responses we have re- ceived from every one whom we have asked to serve with us makes me feel that all of our fellow Am erica1G are equally as sympathetic toward this camgaign on behalf of the more than 30,000,000 Chinese civilian victims of undeclared war.
 Authentic dispatches received at the New York headquarters of our committee report almost unbeliev- able horrors which the Chinese civil ian population in the path of the Japanese advance is undergoining.
 Eye witness correspondents re- port that the sight of men, women and children, maddened by the bangs of hunger, raking through refuse piles with the pitiful hope Of finding morsel of something edible is common sight. We learn also from reliable sources that the wounded lie side by side with the dead in fields, ditches and roads for days, while a dreadfully inadequate force of heroic doctors and nurses attempts to cope with needs un- equalled within memory of our mod ern civilization.
 Fearful Specter
 Meanwhile, the fearful specter of epidemics rears it's head. The most deadly form of typhus, similar to that which swept over Eastern Europe following the world war, is now prevalent in North China, Dr. Ludvik Majchman, director Of the League of Nations health organiza- tion, recently reported. Steps must be taken to combat the spread of cholera, bubonic plague and menen-