The Washington times. [volume], October 20, 1922, LATE FINANCIAL, Image 17

About The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939

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[Editorial Reprinted from THE LITERARY DIGEST, October 21sU
Draw Out Thy Soul to the Hungry,
and Satisfy the Afflicted"
y
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A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT OF
THE UNITED STATES:
THE WHITE HOUSE
Washington
October ?, Mt.
UentJemen: ,
Not since the great war has the whole civilised world been so shocked
and startled as during the past four weeks. The terrible sad appalling
tragedy which has been enacted In the Near East, leaving in Ita wake
hundreds of thoussnds of shelterless, famished men, women and children
makes a call to the hesrt of the American people which can not be Ignored.
From Eaat, North. South and West have come to me evidences of the deep
seated desire of our people that something be done to give them an oppor
tunity to crystallize their wide-spread sympathy into a life-saving service.
I am rejoiced to know that the great machinery of your organizations
has already been started into action to the end that this great body of suf
fering souls may be rescued promptly from the threatened starvation and
death which they face this winter.
As the people of America have given, and given generously In every
greet crisis that has occurred in China, Russia, India, and all parts of the
world, so they must give, snd give a great sum now,?millions of dollars,??
if the lives of these victims are to be saved. No appesi of resi aoed from
whatever part of the world has ever been made in vain to Amerio?.
Very truly yours.
WARREN 0. HARDING.
Judge John Barton Payne,
Chairman, American Red Cross.
I>r. Jsmes L. Barton.
Chairman, Near East Relief.
A LETTER FROM THE NEAR EAST
RELIEF:
New York, September 26. 1922.
Mr. R. J. Cuddlhy.
The Literary Digest,
New York City.
Dear Mr. Cuddlhy:
In the face of the unprecedented tragedy of Smyrna, we turn to yon
and the Literary Digest for help.
It is not for the thoussnds of desd that we plead; they are past our
aid. It Is for the living, crushed with despair of spirit and anguish ef body
that we turn to you and through you to the benevolent heart of humanity.
More than a half million absolutely foodless, shelterless, helpless and
hopeless refugees are landed upon the islands, or huddled along the shores
of the Aegean Sea in abject despair. Terror stricken groups are awaiting
death in Smyrna and other ports in Asia. Innocent, unprotected girls and
women and children by tens of thousands are being carried Into captivity.
Pestilence stalking among the living adds Its horror to starvation.
Many in the nightmare of their crucifixion seek relief In self-destruction,
while others find release In Insanity.
While baffled by the perplexing political situation we can be true to
our divine Instinct of sympathy. Our sympathy, however, will become
poison unless we transmute it into action.
The starving ask for bresd?shsll we respond with a heart of stone?
Sincerely yours,
JAMES L. BARTON.
Chairman.
A LETTER FROM THE AMERICAN
RED CROSS:
Washington, D. C, October 9, 102t.
My Dear Mr. Cuddlhy:
I have received from the President an earnest appeal to use the re
sources of the Americsn Red Cross In meeting the distress and suffering
resulting from tbe recent dissster in the Near East. I need not assure you
that the Red Cross, as always, will put its larga and influential membership
back of this sppeal. We, however, feel keenly the need of that type of
cooperation which the Literary Ingest is peculiarly able to give, and in be
half of th? American Red Cross I request you to do everything that you
can through your pages in placing the burden of this appeal before the
American public. *
Cordially yours.
JOHN BARTON PAYNE.
Chairman.
Mr. R. J. Cuddlhy.
The Literary Digest
354 Fourth Avenue.
New York City.
In immediate response the following editorial was
published in The Literary Digest, October 21st:
DRIVEN FROM THEIR HOMES by fire and
sword?beaten, trampled, robbed?more than
half a million men, women, and little children
are being swept along to starvation, madness, and
self-destruction in the Near East.
Herded in the streets, like cattle for the slaughter;
huddled on the brink of the sea, and casting them
selves, crazed by hunger and fear, into the dark
waters; dragged from the burning hell of Smyrna,
only to be thrust by their rescuers into the slower
hell of Mitylene, and Saloniki, and other havens of
"refuge," which now are crowded centers of starva
tion and breeding-grounds of pestilence?these who
are suffering such martyrdom have only one hope of
salvation from their nightmare of crucifixion. That
hope is YOU?Americans!
Thousands perished when Smyrna was bathed in
torrents of blood. Now the city is a vast sepulchre of
ashes. You can do nothing for the dead. But the lives
of half a million others are yours today for the pur
chase. They are stretching their hands to you now
out of the horrible pit. Lift them up to life I
The appeal in their behalf which comes to you
from the President of the United States is to be
heeded, because you are one of the great-hearted
Americans to whom his letter is written. The ap
peal from the Near East Relief and the American
Red Cross through their chairmen is to be heeded,
because your ears are open to such a call for help
in this terrible emergency. But stronger than the
call of President, or of Relief Committees, stronger
than any urgent words The Literary Digest can say
to you, knowing so well your unfailing tenderness
and quick generosity when the hunger, and sor
row, and gaunt suffering of mothers and babes cry
out to you to comfort, and to save them alive?
stronger than all written or spoken appeal is the
hot, eager demand of your own sympathetic heart
that cannot regard such bitter p*ain and need with
out straining to the utmost for their instant relief.
The picture is so full of, terror and anguish words
cannot portray it. Mark 0. Prentiss, for the Near
East Relief, cables: "I have seen terrible sights
until my senses are numb, but the sight of 200,000
people, mostly women and children, being penned
up and burning, and those escaping being driven
to a barren, devastated country for starvation, is
past all comprehension." That was in Smyrna.
Hundreds of thousands more, both Christians and
Jews, fleeing from persecution and the- sword, are
crowding the other ports of Asia and the near-by
islands of the sea awaiting rescue?or death. In
Saloniki a hundred thousand are herded in deplor
able confusion. The city has been in ruins since
the great fire of 1918 and affords little more shel
ter than Smyrna. In the island of Mitylene an
other hundred thousand penniless fugitives have
sought refuge only to find there a new danger of
pestilence and a more convenient harbor of starva
tion.
Panic has seized upon the frightened wanderers.
Many have even cast themselves into the flames of
their own homes. Food is gone, even water to drink
is at a premium. Families are broken up, while
parents in frenzy of despair seek their lost chil
dren. Hundreds of mothers have given premature
birth to infants in the midst of terror and death.
Half-fed babies, covered with scurvy, try in vain to
draw nourishment from their mothers' empty
breasts.
Quick compassion is needed; delay means death
for scores of thousands who might be saved. Some
' thing heroic in giving is needed. You are not there
in the midst of the terror and the frantic cries for
help. If you were, you would leap into the sea, if
need be, or brave the flames, the sword, the plague,
to snatch back from death some helpless woman or
little child. You would not see them perish in
agony before your eyes if you could save them,
even at the risk of your life. Here, in this smiling
land of comfort, where your home is safe, and your
loved ones dwell in peace, that same terror and
anguish of helpless women and children come to
you across the sea and call to all that is heroic and
generous in your heart.
"Whoso hath this world's good and seeth his
brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of
compassion from him"?ah, but the Master did not
mean you. Your heart is warm with compassion
and your hand will be open wide with help. Per
haps you will feel a moment of shuddering pity for
those shriveled souls, if there be any such in this
land of plenty, who revel in abundance and refuse
to share it, to whom the Master said, "Woe unto you
that are f?ll! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you
that laugh now! for ye shall weep." And then you
will seize gladly upon that other divine word of the
Christ and send it across the sea with your speedy
gifts to comfort and save, and your gifts will make
good the me?sage: "Blessed are ye that hunger now;
for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now;
for ye shall laugh!"
Th? Literary Digest well knows your good works:
it well knows that you are tireless and always ready
to save and to comfort You will now respond in
stantly to this call. What The Digest has done while
waiting to tell you the facts has been done in utter
faith in you and in your overwhelming response. The
great ship Clontarf has discharged its load of food,
and the starving fugitives have already eaten the
bread baked from the flour in that cargo. It is you
who did this, because when, on September 25th, *
committee of the Near East Relief, the Y. M. C. A.
and the Y. W. C. A. called upon The Literary Digest
to help in this awful emergency, and no funds were
then available, we discounted our faith in you and
borrowed the $176,000 and bought the entire food
cargo of the Clontarf. We told the committee to keep
on buying other shiploads of food until the pitiful need
was satisfied. "He gives twice who gives quickly,"
and we are confidently depending upon you to make
this act your own by a great outpouring of gifts to
pay for this first cargo of food and to follow it with
others. We appeal to all the churches in America
that have been the depositories of the sacred ideals
of our nation; we appeal to the thinking and work
ing classes of our broad land, to all the institutions
and organizations that have for their object the
safeguarding of human rights and human lives. As
God has blessed you, as He has given you happy
homes and laughing children, as He has been merci
ful to you, have mercy upon these, His people.
The Literary Digest, standing shoulder to shoulder
and heart to heart with you in this urgent task, will
start the fund with its own contribution of $10,000 to
help feed these starving fugitives. And now we
urge all who read these words to send a perfect
storm of checks to provide food, and shelter, and
medical care for the half million sufferers in this
awful inferno of the Near East.
They can never repay you?those homeless ones,
those tortured women and pitiful children. You will
never see them face to face, nor look into their eyes
shining with gratitude?never? Yes, perhaps you
will. But now, the blessed Christ bids you give, and
He will repay, for it was He who said, "Do good and
lend, hoping for nothing again, and your reward
shall be great, and ye shall be the Children of the
Highest."
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President Harding has appointed as a Special
Committee, with Will H. Hays as Chairman, the fol
lowing representatives of eight national organiza
tions who will co-operate in this great work of relief:
Dr. John R. Mott, of the Y. M. C. ?.; Mrs. John
French, of the Y. W. C. ?.; James A. Flaherty, of
the Knights of Columbus; Felix Warburg, of the
Jewish Joint Distribution Committee; Dr. Robert E.
Speer, of the Federal Council of the Churches of
Christ of America; Dr. James L. Barton, of the Near
East Relief; Herbert Hoover, of the American Relief
Administration; Judge John Barton Payne, of the
American Red Cross; and R. J. Cuddihy, of The
Literary Digest.
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Make au Checks, Money Orders, etc., Payable to "Near East Emergency Fund'
and Mail Them to Either of the Following Treasurers:
NEAR EAST RELIEF, Cleveland H. Dodge, Treasurer THE AMERICAN RED CROSS, Eliot Wadsworth, Treasurer
151 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. Washington, D. C.
This announcement dome nei cost the Near Eaat Relief, the Red Croes, or the contributors to thie Fund, one cent.?Publishers of Tho Literary Digest.