Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/157

 would have liked poor Frank to come out instead of her, that he would get well in the country. She has a good heart and told me that sometimes she could hardly eat dumplings and cake and milk, when she thought that we had black, unsweetened coffee and corn bread at home.”

Conditions have not improved by the overthrow of Austrian rule and today life is still as hard and death as common in the Czechoslovak Republic as it was under the Hapsburgs. There is not one-third of the necessary food in the country, for crops were poor by reason of lack of cattle and lack of fertilizers and a great deal of the insufficient crops was taken by the last requisitions of the Austrian government in September and October. From the very day of the revolution on October 28, 1918, the principal business of the new Czechoslovak authorities was to increase the rations of the people and get food from the outside. But not till March did the first few carloads arrive, principally from America, and while several train loads with meats, flour, and fats come each day from Trieste and more is expected to come on barges from Hamburg, it is all far from enough. People are still dying of hunger in Prague, and in the industrial cities of northern Bohemia the mortality of children under five years is more than 50 per cent.

An appeal has been made recently by the “Czech Heart” to the Czechoslovaks in the United States for quick and substantial relief and now this appeal is reinforced by a call issued by Dr. Alice Masaryk, daughter of the President of the Czechoslovak Republic. Alice Masaryk is the woman who three years ago was in danger of execution by the Austrian government and who was saved by a mighty protest of American women to the Austrian ambassador. Today Alice Masaryk who spent some years in Chicago as a settlement worker is head of the Czechoslovak Red Cross. In her letter to her countrymen in America she says:

“We still have hundreds of children dying of hunger; there are hundreds of children dressed in rags, there are entire districts where the children are almost all dead. Did you realize how many sighs each minute are given out in Prague, do you ever see the pitiable smiles of emaciated children, living skeletons? Austria sucked out our blood, you must nurse us back to life. You must have faith and you must get to work. Awaken your fellow-citizens, whether they are of Czechoslovak origin or Anglo-Saxon. Send food, under wear, clothing and shoes for children, new things or second-hand. Send money also, for our needs are immense.” Much money has been collected during the war by the Czechoslovak people in this country; they alone maintained for four years the revolutionary campaign for the disruption of Austria and the liberation of Bohemia, the campaign led by Masaryk, so gloriously successful in the end. Now they are turning all their efforts toward collecting millions in food, clothing and money for the relief of the awful misery among their brothers and sisters in the Czechoslovak Republic. The work is done through the Czechoslovak Relief Committee, 436 West 23rd street, New York City. The immediate plan is to send out a ship in June which will be loaded partly with food and clothing bought from money collected, partly by old clothing which the American Red Cross will allot to the needy in Czechovakia, and partly by packages of clothing and food sent by Czechoslovak immigrants here to their needy relations and friends.

Up to this time no attempt was made by the Czechoslovaks in America to enlist the charity of others. The entire work of libration was paid for by their own gifts; they took care of their own soldiers and their families. But now they feel in view of the desperate conditions in the old country and the urgent appeals of the Czech Heart and the Czechoslovak Red Cross that they must tell the American people what great sufferings are still borne by those Czechoslovaks who have merited so well of the Allies. Will America which so gen erously gave its admiration to the brave Czechoslovak soldiers give also of its wealth for the saving of Czechoslovak children?

A Czechoslovak commission will visit the United States in May to study American methods in industry, social welfare, and sanitation.

The United States Government has sold to the Czechoslovak military authorities airplanes and air plane equipment to the value of $1,000 ,000. The number of machines embraced in the consignment was not made public, but they were listed as valued at $319,000.