Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 300, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1916 — $500,000,000 OFFER AS NEW PEACE AID [ARTICLE]

$500,000,000 OFFER AS NEW PEACE AID

War Sufferer Expert Suggests Distribution of Vast Sum In Effort To End War. Frederick C. Walcott, of New York, who recently investigated conditions in Poland and Belgium for the Rockefeller Foundation, told a number of senators and representatives of the Red Cross society that a fund of $500,000,000, collected in this country and offered for the relief of the noncombatants in Europe, wtould be a powerful peace influence at this time. He said that such an act would tend to create great popular demonstrations '■for peace among civilians populations of warring nations, because they would be anxious for the assistance in rehabilitating their home and restoring normal living conditions.

Mr. Wolcott suggested that a fund of that iize should be raised for combined contributions and congressional appropriation. Considering the wealth of the United States, he declared it was not an exhorbitant sum to give. Since 1914 the estimated aggregate income of the United State® has been eighty billion dollars and the comlbined offerings for war sufferers has amounted to $40,000,000, or one twentieth of one per cent of the income. With the forwarding Saturday of the notes of the central powers, the United States government performed its role of intermediary and took- the only immediate step contemplated by President Wilson. No further light has been shed on the purpose of the United States government. There is every indication, however, that the president now does not intend to make another move, at least until he is fully informed as to the reception accorded the Teutonic proposal.