Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 308, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1920 — FLIGHT OF EUROPE'S CHILDREN STAGGERS [ARTICLE]

FLIGHT OF EUROPE'S CHILDREN STAGGERS

3£00,000 Fating Starvation Can Only Bo Saved by America's Response to Joint Appeal It Is utterly impossible for one who has not actually aesa the misery of the early Autumn In Europe to visualise what the children of tho Eastern sad Central portions of the ceatiaeat face this winter. Te say that 8,500,000 children have ae alternative to starvation or death from disease except Americas aid, la startling, but Independent ebservan by the score sad careful scientific surveys of the eceaemls and crop conditions overseas brand the figure as conservative. In Poland, for Instance, where lJNfir •00 youngsters last year subsisted Almost entirely en the one free American meal a day that they received, conditions as winter closes down, are worse than ever before. Tlie Bolshevik Invasion stripped large pirtlens of the country es all grain. Professor E. D. Durand. Food Advisor ts the Polish government, after an exhaustive survey, has reported that only forty por cent Is avallabl# of tho food necessary to carry tho population through tho winter. In thh city es Vienna teats conducted in the American Relief Administration feed kitchens showed that 88 per cant of the children between the ages es 8 and 14 were ’’seriously under-nourish-ed.” Thirty-three per cent were markedly undernourished, 11 per cent were slightly subnormal and only 4 per coat approached the state of s normal American child. The Amerl -an Relief Administration Is feeding 800,000 Austrian children every day. now, aad there is no chance es dlmualtlon es need before box harvest! The spectacle of the medical needs es Europe’s children is equally appalling. Estimates reaching the American Red Cross *s te needs for medical service In the destitute areas this winter include: Old Austria-Hungary, 780,000; new Poland, 1,600,t%/0; OsecheSlovakia, 200,000; Serbia, 150,000, and ReumanLa, 100,000. In the Is cal year es 1918-20 the Red Cress has reached with the veritable gift es IBs 1,500,000 children la the affected areas. Tuberculesls Is prevalent to a terrlfik degree. Five children eat es seven in the city of Warsaw, far instance, have been feund te he tubercular. Typhus Is widespread; rickets, the right-hand of under-nourishment Is almos+ universal, aad cholera lifts Its grim head constantly la one place and another. The European Relief Council, cempsistag tho American Relief Administration, the American Red Cress, the Amerlsaa Friends’ Service Committee (Quakers), the Jewish Joint Distributtea 0< mmittee, the Federal Council of the Churches es Christ In America, He Ralghts of Columhas, the V. M. G A aad He T. W. G A., seeks $83,OOt.Mt with which te meet the situstlen. It has estimated Hat at least stt,ttt,9oo must be had for food and UMoqooo for medical service to Avert •femNUto disaster amor % the threa ened dbßdtea. Checks may he sent to yeur local committee or to Franklin K. Lane, treasurer European Relief Council, 42 Broadway, New York, or te the Child Feeding Fund, Lite-ary Digest, New York GUT.