OCR Text |
Show HOOVER FACES TASK OF FEEDING STARVING NATIONS OF EUROPE i Backed by $100,000,000 Voted by Congress He Is Directing America's Part in the Work Trusted Aids Make Personal Inspections of Food Situation in Poland, Serbia and Austria Difficult Problems to Solve. i By LLOYD ALLEN, Western Newspaper Union Staff Correspondent. Cor-respondent. (Copyright, Western Newspaper Union.) Paris Backed by $100,000,000 voted by congress, Herbert Hoover is here directing America's big part in feeding feed-ing the famine-threatened nations of Europe. But it Is not the policy of Mr. Hoover's Hoov-er's commission to give food away to the peoples now so sorely pressed with reconstruction problems. They must pay at once, whenever possible. When they cannot pay, they are to be given credit, with security that will insure America against total loss. Any other policy would mean the pauperization of Europe, and Hoover has no intention whatever of conducting conduct-ing a commission that would quickly put the millions of Roumania, Poland, and Serbia, to say nothing of the enemy en-emy nations, into a mighty bread line. With this fundamental policy as the basis of conducting a .gigantic relief commission, Mr. Hoover first of all needed money and authority to start the machinery. He had come to Europe Eu-rope with $5,000,000 apportioned from President Wilson's contingent funds to finance euch immediate relief work as was found, upon Investigation, to be absolutely necessary for the salvation of Europe's new democracies, the Czecho-Slovaks, the Poles and Serbs, and also the Roumanians. Congress Votes $100,000,000. When Hoover had had a chance to look around, he discovered that $5,-000,000 $5,-000,000 was just about enough to finance food shipments for one of these nations, ne did not single out one nation, na-tion, however, but ordered cargoes aggregating ag-gregating $15,000,000 rushed from the United States at once. He trusted the American people to provide the capital needed. And when he got the first news of the final passage pas-sage of the $100,000,000 appropriation in congress, an expression of relief came into his face that had not been there for weeks. With a small staff, Mr. Hoover has headquarters in the Hotel de Crillon, In Paris, which has been turned into a combination oflice building and hotel for members of the American commission commis-sion to negotiate peace. Some of Mr. Hoover's most trusted aides are making personal inspections of the food situation in Poland, Serbia, and Austria. Dr. Alonzo Taylor's report from Vienna Vi-enna is very interesting. He found the output of coal and agricultural products In Austria-Hungary seriously reduced during 1917 as the result of the war, and still further lowered during dur-ing 1918. Austria-Hungary Badly Crippled. As a result of the war and the allied food blockade, the stocks of commodi- ties of all kinds, especially textiles, have been dangerously depleted and on account of the short production of coal the railways of the Austro-Hun-garlan states are badly crippled. Having Hav-ing efficient' railway transportation is an important factor in moving foods where they are most urgently needed. Anything for the Czechs must pass through what is left of Austria proper. Austria-Hungary has been divided into five separate political areas. Taylor Tay-lor believes that this action has for the time being greatly reduced the resources re-sources of all this territory. Each state sets up barriers against the others. oth-ers. He found the food distribution and supply which formerly was a matter mat-ter of exchange among the separate states almost at a standstill. One section sec-tion will have coal, another some sugar, su-gar, another some grain, but each unable un-able to "carry on" because of lack of what the others have. In such a situation, sit-uation, one state, inefficient, and with its financial system paralyzed, will have plenty of coal, but no food, while another having some food cannot distribute dis-tribute it because ltt railways have no coal. N All of which causes such general unemployment un-employment as to approach the danger dan-ger point. In the essentially Austrian lands, there is a condition of apathy. No one seeflis to have hope. The people wait and in Vienna make -an attempt at gaiety. 1 Of industry there Is none. In Jugo-Slavla and In Czecho-Slovakia there is an entirely different psychology. psychol-ogy. These liberated people have faith in the future and are reaching out and struggling to build up prosperous nations, while the German-Austrian peoples drift along in an apathetic state, and the Hungarians live in a daze of proud resignation. Galicia and eastern Hungary, that have been taken over by Roumania, have become voiceless. Doctor Taylor found the food shortage short-age most serious In German Austria, where, the people are on a very low dally ration with extremely short supplies sup-plies In stock, or in sight. In Czecho-Slovakia there was sufficient suffi-cient food to carry the nation through the worst of the winter, but a shortage short-age before the new harvest was inevitable. inevi-table. Austria-Hungary with fatalistic attitude at-titude seemed unable to start reconstruction recon-struction ; not knowing and scarcely caring what became of them. Political Polit-ical bitterness and financial paralysis completed the picture. Out of this chaos, as director general gener-al of the supreme council of supply and relief, Hoover must find some method for distributing American foodstuffs. food-stuffs. Feed Him Before He Faints. For the new nations, the Czechoslovaks Czecho-slovaks and the Poles and Jugo-Slavs, that have no money, the scheme for selling American foods on credit is simpler. Should any emergency, arise in these countries demanding the prompt distribution dis-tribution of food, It will be distributed on the principle of "feed him before he faints." The communities or nations must pay. Where they have no money and the new democracies have little or no money worth anything outside their own borders the food commission will take over some commodity produced in the nation. Some time must elapse before the Americans can trade with Austria even on the basis of getting money or its equivalent for every pound of American-bought food that Is distributed, he-cause he-cause Austria was one of the nations against which America declared war. Until the blockade Is lifted American interests cannot trade with the Aus-trians Aus-trians unless perchance the situation develops to a point where red tape must he cut to save the lives that otherwise oth-erwise would be lost on account of I lie inroads of famine. While the pence conference was building up a machine to settle problems prob-lems arising from a war-torn Europe, Poland, one of the new democracies, was suffering from lack of foods that could only be supplied from America. Saved From Starvation." Hoover sent Dr. Vernon Kellogg to investigate the situation. Kellogg reported re-ported "Poland must have Immediate assistance from the outside world (which meant America) If the poorer inhabitants of the large cities and the unemployed workmen and children in the industrial centers were saved from starvation." Under normal conditions, Poland is self-supporting, as regards food, but four and a half years of war had brought the nation to desperate straits. German looters stripped all machines of copper and belting. Scores of machines ma-chines were wantonly destroyed. Tons of stuff were carried away by the Germans. Ger-mans. In all Poland, with its 4,000,000 people, peo-ple, the danger of starvation was a daily menace from December, when the peace conference started, until food from America arrived. Take Security. It Is with such nations as Poland that Hoover has to' deal. There won only one way to obtain some kind of compensation for American foods distributed. dis-tributed. This "one way" entailed considerable con-siderable risk when one thought in terms of millions of dollars. But millions mil-lions in the old war game were mere pawns in the gigantic enterprise of war. And In the first reconstruction days they had to be viewed from the same standpoint. The one just method, meth-od, according to the Hoover policy, was to take some kind of security from the nations benefited by American supplies. sup-plies. Each nation had a different security, se-curity, Roumania had oil fields which formed a basis of credit, If the world (America) sent food In time. The world needed oil, and Roumania needed need-ed food. In Warsaw there was another kind of security ; the woolen mills, which in peace times were nmong the finest in the world. Factories could not reopen, re-open, however, until the employees were fed. The population was weakened weak-ened from hunger. "Feed the people; they in turn will feed the securities," was the Hoover policy. The first need has been met by a gift ship from America, Amer-ica, but it is only a drop in the bucket. |