i soon came to have the curious feeling about the silent stone fronts of the houses that if i could but look through them i should see women sorting garments, women making patterns for lace, women ladling soup, painting toys, washing babies. up and down the stairs of these inconvenient buildings they are running all day long, back and forth, day after day, seeking through a heroic cheerfulness, a courageous smile, to hold back tears.
and chiefly i was overwhelmed by the enormous quantities of food they are handling. the whole city seems turned into a kitchen—and there follows the in[62]evitable question: “where does it all come from?” the women who are doing the work connect directly with the local belgian organizations, by the great system of decentralization, which is the keynote of the c. r. b. just these three magic letters spell the answer to the inevitable question.
at the c. r. b. bureau i had seen the charts lining the corridors. they seemed alive, changing every day, marking the ships on the ocean, the number of tons of rice, wheat, maize or sugar expected; and how these tons count up! in the two years that have passed, 1,000,000 tons each year, meaning practically one ship every weekday in the month; 90,000 tons at one time on the atlantic! other charts show the transit of goods already unloaded at rotterdam. over 200 lighters are in constant movement on their way down the canals to the various c. r. b. warehouses, which means about [63]50,000 tons afloat all the time. i had seen, too, the reports of the enormous quantities of clothing brought in—4,000,000 dollars worth, almost all of it the free gift of the united states.
in the director’s room were other maps showing the territory in charge of each american. back of every cantine and its power to work stands this american, the living guaranty to england that the germans are not getting the food, the guaranty to germany of an equal neutrality, and to the belgians themselves the guaranty that the gifts of the world to her, and those of herself to her own people, would be brought in as wheat through the steel ring that had cut her off. one had only to think of the c. r. b. door in the steel ring as closed, to realize the position of this neutral commission. the total result of their daily and hourly co-ordination of all this organization inside belgium, their solitude for each class of [64]the population, their dull and dry calculations of protein, fat and carbohydrates, bills of lading, cars, canal boats, mills and what not, is the replenishing of the life-stream of a nation’s blood.
thus, the food dispensed by the women is part of the constantly entering mass, and between its purchase, or its receipt as gift by the c. r. b., and its appearance as soup for adults, or pudding for children, is the whole intricate structure of the relief organization. the audible music of this creation is the clatter of hundreds of typewriters, the tooting of tugs and shrieks of locomotives, but the undertones are the harmonies of devotion.
everybody who can pay for his food must do so—it is sold at a fair profit, and it is this profit, gained from those who still have money, that goes over to the women in charge of the cantines for the purchase of supplies for the destitute. [65]they often supplement this subsidy through a house-to-house appeal to the people. for instance, in brussels, the “little bees” are untiring in their canvass. basket on arm, continually they solicit an egg, a bunch of carrots, a bit of meat, or a money gift. they have been able to count on about 5,000 eggs and about 2,500 francs a week, besides various other things. naturally, the people in the poorer sections can contribute but small amounts, but it is here that one finds the most touching examples of generosity—the old story of those who have suffered and understood. one woman who earns just a franc a day and on it has to support herself and her family, carefully wraps her weekly two-centime piece (two-fifths of a cent) and has it ready when one of the “little bees” calls for it.
[66]
our american young men
monsieur ..., a committee leader in the hainaut, once said to me, “madame, one of the big things belgium will win in this war is a true appreciation of the character and capacity (quite aside from their idealism) of american young men.
“i’ll confess,” he continued, “that when that initial group of young americans came rushing in with those first heaven-sent cargoes of wheat, we were not strongly reassured. we knew that for the moment we were saved, but it was difficult to see how these youths, however zealous and clear-eyed, were going to meet the disaster as we knew it.
“we organized, as you know, our local committees, and headed them by our belgians of widest experience; our lawyers of fifty or sixty, our bankers, our leaders of industry. we could set all the machinery, but nothing would work unless the [67]americans would stand with us. the instructions read: ‘the american and your belgian chairmen will jointly manage the relief.’
“and who came to stand with us? who came to stand with me, for instance? you see,” and he pointed to splendid broad-shouldered c. ahead of us, “that lad—not a day over twenty-eight—just about the age of my boys in the trenches, and who, heaven knows, is now almost as dear to us as they!
“but in the beginning i couldn’t see it; i simply couldn’t believe c. was going to be able to handle his end of our terrific problem. but day by day i watched this lad quietly getting a sense of the situation, then plunging into it, getting under it, developing an instinct for diplomacy along with his natural genius for directness and practicality that bewildered me. it has amazed us all.
[68]
“we soon learned that we need not fear to trust ourselves to that type of character, to its adaptability and capacity, no matter how young it seemed.”
of course there have been older americans who have brought to their belgian co-workers equal years as well as experience, but one of the pictures i like best to remember is this of monsieur ..., a belgian of fifty-five or sixty, in counsel with his eager american délégué of twenty-eight. to the partnership, friendship, confidence, the belgian added something paternal, and the american responded with a devotion one feels is lifelong.
between the visits to mills and docks, and the grinding over accounts, orders of canal boats and warehouses, there are hours for other things. i remember one restful one spent at this same monsieur’s table—he is an excellent latin scholar and a wise philosopher—when he and his young american friend for a time [69]forgot the wheat and fat in their delight to get back to virgil and horace.
young d., a yale graduate, furnished another example of these qualities monsieur stressed. if he had been a westerner, his particular achievement would have been less surprizing, but he came from the east.
he reached belgium at the time of a milk crisis. we were attempting, and, in fact, had practically arranged, the plan to establish c. r. b. herds adjacent to towns, to insure a positive supply for tiny babies. the local committees went at it, but one after another came in with discouraging reports. even their own people were often preventing success by fearing and sometimes by flatly refusing to turn their precious cows into a community herd. then one day d., who, so far as i know, had never in his career been within speaking distance of a cow, put on something that looked like a sombrero and [70]swung out across his province. we had hardly had time to speculate about what he might accomplish, before he returned to announce that he had rounded up a magnificent herd, and that his district was ready to guarantee so much pure milk from that time on!
“what had he done, where we had failed?” asked monsieur. “he had called a meeting of farmers in each commune, and said: ‘we, the americans, want from this commune five or ten cows for the babies of your cities. we give ourselves to belgium, you give your cows to us. we will give them back when the war is over—if they are alive!’ and he got them!” they would have given this cheerful beggar anything—these stolid old flemish peasants.
