Show RED CROSS ands AIDS DROUGHT suffel SUFFERERS LERs with expenditures in the drought stricken districts reaching the sum eum of at noon january 15 and demands tor for help mounting hourly the american red hed cross Is redoubling its efforts in the relief und fund campaign in which chapters are mobilized pitiful stories of suffering and want are related by red cross workers particularly in arkansas and kentucky in a single red hed cross chapters drought area in kentucky there are children la in desperate need of everything from food i to clothing health officers ot of kentucky report another county with normally school children of whom only forty uro are now in school and only three ot of whom had had bad lunches on the day of the health officers visit red ned cross workers found that some families had derived the bulk ot of their food from digging any edible roots and cooking chemor them or eating them raw one family usually in livable condition tiong was found existing in a cave because tho the drought had driven thern them from their farm and possessions many who are applying for help are of a class who have never asked assistance si from anyone before the workers state and some will not ask now despite their need and must be offered help which they cannot supply themselves I 1 prom from leo lee county arkansas comes the report verified by red cross headquarters in st louis that 41 per cent of the population Is facing actual starvation it if the red cross does not supply them with food one farmer died before red lied cross aid could reach him ile he had been thinking of 0 as asking for food tor for his family but arl pride e held him back and ho he thought he would wait a little longer when the tied red cross worker called on his fally consisting of a 0 widow an eleven year old son and a mailed daughter with two children childrel the baby tour four months old was found sleeping under a pile of old coats in a chair drawn up before an open fire the few sticks of wood burning on tho the hearth furnished the only hoat heat tor for two rooms ot of a frame shack with cracks in the siding wide enough to admit a finger A relief worker from this district reports the red cross has always been a welcome friend to these sections the people remember when the levees broke and high water covered many fertile square miles but there was something dramatic arresting in such a catastrophe one faced danger allger and survived it Is different to sit huddled around a little stove in a lonely farm house and face starvation without work plantation owner crop sharer tenant have nil all suffered form the same climatic conditions and economic depression and tho the sustaining systems ot of the past have all brolien broken down more families each day give up in despair from the point of view of those who are trying to help the drought sufferers the job has none of the adventure of other types of disaster it la Is a drab affair one worker says tilled filled with long hours of the day and night calling upon those who havo have applied tor for aid and hunting out those who are in dire need but reluctant to ask help it la is a stupendous task to administer relief relict to approximately halt half the population in an area of square miles will to aid red cross in drought relief campaign stating that hla his heart had been very deeply touched on his recent visit to hla his native state oklahoma by the plight of 0 his old neighbors will rogers rogera has offered his bis services to the red cross in raising funds tor for the dr drought 0 aught sufferers all the money I 1 raise for relief relict will be spent through the red cross rogers bogers said why theres no other organization in the world that can reach these people but the red cross it Is reported that rogers plans a tour of oklahoma arkansas and texas giving the proceeds of his entertainments tain ments to drought relief ne lie may also visit louisiana and mississippi |