'A Practical Suggestion To the Fultor of the "Notra-Cuina Dairy News."
$i—I have been reading of the call for 300,000 outfits of clothing be made for the needy of the food regions as soon as possible and Jam moved to write to you on this subject why make these outfits before giving' them? Why not ive these people the material and! let them make their own outfits? With no cooking to do~for bread, their nly. food. is. given them ready to jeat—no sewing for clothing is given them ready to wear—how miserably Jong. and' simply depressing the sorrowful days) of." Uhese" poor refugees must be! Surely to help them to help themselves as much as possible is best! 1 know a place where ence upon a time when relief work had tobe done it seemed to the funds for that purpose were Suitable cloth and from local shops, preferabl small ones, it being recognized that these "shopkeepers though silent, were also among the sufferers, There, women from among those whose needs were to be relieved were hired, with relief funds, to make these' materials into garments and" bedding. Those who sewed were allowed the clothing they and their' families needed, and the rest of the ments were distributed as requir= Jed among those unable to sew. In way, not only the urgently needed clothing was provided, but that other thing also urgently need-fed that uplift of heart, and mind Which comes from having work and Wages at such a time was given, The wage was small, but it was a tittle money where there had been none at all, it put a little into cir feulation among a suddenly more {than ordinarily impoverished people, easily believe that even, that little relieved the feeling of being [destitute and room for hope to sprout! Also in this instance the materials for food were, given and necessary arrangement for its supervision and preparation supplifed but the needy ones themselves made the materials into food for their own use, It ought not to be forgotten or ignored that in, this present disaster—there are thou Sands and thousands of men and women who although they are now helpless victims of disaster are People of great*common sense and fable to manage small, sums most efficiently for the needs of their families and if these could be called out and consulted Tam sure their /advice wil be found worthwhile—the Poor are so accustomed to making dollar go such a long long way Jand know from experience just what materials would be most durable~ most needed and sufficient, that sug [gestions and advice if not from rong the zefogees, themselves east from those accustomed to small means will be valuable. They have sufficient, where people more for~ tunate financially would feel destitute. In'so many many little ways they are able to save where those able to give money would not know money could be saved. How many foreigners for instance who make or hire some one else to make an outfit fof clothing for these refugees would fuse native thread by the skein in-lof foreign thread by the spool jor reel? "And yet $1 spent for foreign thread does not buy very much thread these days, but a dollar will buy a big package of skeins of the native cotton thread which the poor and some well established 'Chinese. use. 'That package would probably be more than enough to supply, the thread for an average poor Chinese family for all their sewing for a year or ore! ust one thing more pi ile Tam writing, maybe if you should print this letter' somebody; might act on the idea for the benefit fof the needy here. It is this—while small daily allow. ted bread given the Rood refugees I have been remember ing-an article I once read of the suc-Jeessful effort, many years ago, of a woman in America who trought relief to hundreds and hundreds of nder-nourished children in her ity, she herself a working woman land very poor saw the needs of the febildren about her—and thought, as were of the crumbs that fall from the rich folks tables and wished she had them for the children, She realized as has always been the tease, that much good food is left lover and goes to waste in the homes fof. the. well-to-do—enough and to spare if taken care of to feed many others. Probably no one wants, waste food, many would gladly give the unwanted left overs, if there was a way to do so this woman Thought—eventually she succeeded getting the attention of those fable to help her. Receptacles were devised. with compartments for
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.