Dorothy Thompson

El Paso Herald/February 12, 1921

With Passing of Two Generations Entire Population Will Have Gone to Grave, Observer Says; Young People Marry, But Avoid Childbirth; Tuberculosis and Rickets Claim Thousands; Relief Given Not Adequate

VIENNA, Austria, Feb. 12.—Frau Emmy Freundlich, outgoing food controller of Austria, head of the largest cooperative enterprise in the country, probably one of the ablest women in European affairs, has a grim solution for the problem of what to do with Vienna. “Let Vienna go on, just as it Is doing,” says Frau Freundlich, “and in two generations your problem will have been solved. The entire population will have been wiped out.”

Frau Freundlich’s statement is supported by the facts. The death rate in Vienna is gaining such headway over the birth rate that it will only take two generations for the whole population to perish. In 1913 there was a surplus of 13,000 births over deaths. In 1919 there was a surplus of 8,000 deaths over birth. In spite of the accelerator activities of all of the relief committees operating in Austria, the conditions for the first six months of 1920 are even worse. Beyond question, the access of deaths over births this year will amount to 15,000.

Thousands of Deaths

Thousands of these deaths are among children and adolescents who do not live to populate the world with even a degenerate posterity. Half of all the children in Vienna between six and twelve years of age, Frau Freundlich said, have tubercular infection— either of the bones, joints or lungs. Thirty per cent of all of the babies under six have tubercular infection. Ninety per cent of all children have at least symptoms of rickets.

These people are passing. They are among the most intelligent people in the world, among whom there is no illiteracy; a people who have contributed to science and to the arts. With them is going their city, which even in its decline is one of the most beautiful, dignified and hospitable capitals of the world. With them is going their art and their science.

Indeed, their intelligence is contributing to their death as a people. Young people are marrying, but they are too intelligent to have children. They know that their children’s chances of survival are minute, and their chances for a happy, normal childhood are absolutely nil. The Slavs or south Latins would go on under those conditions producing a degenerate race, but not the Austrians.

Crowded In Houses

Young people are marrying, but no new homes are being established. In Vienna, the problem is not of the mother-in-law, but of the daughter-in-law. Where to put her! No young man who marries can possibly furnish a home for his wife. The cost of a dining room table or a kitchen stove would exceed his wages for a year. Hence, families live with families, and the crowding is terrific. This in spite of the decreased population, because no new houses have been built since the war, nor has there been any repairing of old ones because of the shortage of materials.

The people are dying in spite of the activities of the relief committees. The report of the American relief committee in Vienna shows that in the past six months America has spent two and a half billion kronen in Vienna for child welfare alone. I was unable to gather figures on the amount spent in this period by the joint distribution committee, the American Red Cross, the Quakers and the various European missions, but these figures too must run up into billions.

The work of these committees is magnificent. The organization of the American relief committee alone is a historic feat of social engineering. But it is not availing against the steady decline of the population. It is impossible to keep a nation alive artificially, and that is exactly what is being attempted.

Lines of Children

When I went to see the children being fed at the palaces of Austria’s former emperors, there was a question in my mind whether the kinder plan would not have been to let them die—quickly. They stood in line, hundreds of them, each with his tincup and spoon. No one jostled his neighbor, no one pushed. The author of the “Elsie” books would find Austria a Utopia, because there are no naughty children here. They haven’t spirit enough to be naughty. They have bent legs and protruding abdomens and large heads and pasty skins. They are alive and that is all one can say.

They will not be restored to real health until Austria is restored and the way to restore Austria must be with more than charity. At present Austria is not being helped with the coal and credits which she must have if she is to live, nor is she left free to form her own allowance and save herself.