FORERUNNERS OF FAMINE 



By Frederic C. Walcott 



Of the U. S. Food Administration : Author of ''Devastated Poland" 



SEVERAL years ago Bloch, a well- 

 known Russian banker and econo- 

 mist, said that the next great war 

 would be won not by fighting, but by 

 famine. There is already much evidence 

 to prove the truth of this prediction. 



A brief review of the cost of this war 

 in innocent victims shows that famine 

 and starvation, or food shortage, has 

 proved one of Germany's most potent 

 weapons of conquest, and has actually 

 caused as many deaths as has all the 

 fighting in Europe during the last three 

 and one-half years, and far greater suf- 

 fering. 



Moreover, it includes among its vic- 

 tims a large percentage of children and 

 women of the next generation and the 

 mothers of a nation. But, in consequence 

 of the lowered vitality of all the working 

 classes, the decreased resistance to dis- 

 ease, and the decline in the birth rate, the 

 loss suffered in this war by the nations 

 short of food is actually far greater than 

 the loss of those killed in battle. 



GERMANY USES FAMINE AS A WEAPON 



Furthermore, food shortage has cre- 

 ated in those countries conquered by the 

 Central Powers a condition which Ger- 

 many has used to her great advantage. 

 By the power of famine she has enforced 

 the deportation of the industrial peoples, 

 the backbone of a nation, from their na- 

 tive countries into Germany, thus forcibly 

 breaking down the family unit, causing 

 indescribable terror and mental an- 

 guish, which will be reflected in the off- 

 spring of these devitalized people for 

 generations. 



Russia's shortage of food, due to the 

 breaking down of transportation in the 

 Empire, proved one of the prime factors 

 and one of the inducing causes of the 

 Russian revolution. The bolshevik, which 

 has been the outgrowth of these disturb- 

 ances, now dominates a majority of the 

 Russian people. 



It is representative of their social or- 

 ganizations and of their secret societies. 

 It has taken on a spiritual character, cre- 

 ating in the minds of its followers the 

 spirit of a new crusade, as in the early 

 days of Christianity and of Mohamme- 

 danism, and associating spiritual ideas 

 with political ideals, as in the French 

 Revolution. 



A DANGEROUS AND CONTAGIOUS DOCTRINE 



This new and dangerous political doc- 

 trine, if it can be called that — in reality 

 it is unbridled anarchy — teaches the peo- 

 ple to believe that no government is 

 needed, that law is unnecessary, that the 

 will of the individual is all-sufficient, and 

 that property and land are common to 

 all. In its early stages this "go-as-you- 

 please" bolshevism — Russian for "want- 

 ing much" — is popular with the Socialists 

 and working people all over the world. 



It is very contagious, and now threat- 

 ens to spread to Germany, England, and 

 possibly the United States. Six months 

 or a year's trial of it will probably bring 

 about in Russia a financial debacle, plung- 

 ing the people, industrial concerns, and 

 banks of Russia into absolute bankruptcy. 

 In the end, it may prove of benefit 

 through its collapse, thus demonstrating 

 that extreme socialism, of which it is the 

 embodiment, is a disastrous thing. It is 

 clearly our duty to build up a wall against 

 attack from this source — an attack which 

 might lead to our ultimate national down- 

 fall. 



Russia is apparently out of the war, so 

 far as any effective fighting is concerned, 

 and until she can reorganize her body 

 politic and railroad transportation, she 

 will not be a material factor in the 

 world's food supply; she will be barely 

 self-supporting during her reconstruction 

 period, unless reorganized by Germany. 



But if Germany has access to the port 

 of Odessa, and thus, via the Black Sea, 

 to the grain and meat supplies of south- 



336 



