Feeding the Hungry, P. C. Hiebert, 1929

d, and give it to a committee of men? There is something distasteful about it. We were keenly aware of that. But—pursuant to our contract with the Soviet government—it was our purpose to distribute the clothes to the “most needy” without discrimination in our field of operation. How that “most needy” haunted us! Every one wanted—every one was in need. And how or why should we say: You shall not have anything, nor you, nor you! There were no fewer than 14 organizations—half of them American—dispensing aid throughout Russia. Some of these—like the Mennonites, Lutherans, Baptists, and Jews, had a special incentive to give aid in the fact that CLOTHING DISTRIBUTION IN RUSSIA 263 co-religionists or even direct relatives were suffering, and without arguing the question whether that makes for the purest kind of charity—they naturally were anxious to reach these. But these colonists were scattered from the Crimea on the Black Sea in the south throughout the Ukraine and to Siberia far in the northeast. With trans- portation broken down this was a great handicap. But there were compensations. The Mennonites, for example, were well educated in German and Russian and thus in a position quickly to gather and to transmit to the A.M.R. data on the need. For kitchen feeding much of this had been done by correspondence even before food arrived; and while clothing was gathered in America the relief workers in Russia, through their local committees, num- bering possibly 1000 persons, gathered the statistics on clothing supplies and needs. Shortage of a supply of clothes in a wardrobe is not as apparent as shortage of food in the cupboard. It is easier, in other words, to deceive the eye than to deceive the stomach, as you shall presently see. It was no small task to gather these sta- tistics. We had blanks made up with 45 columns enumer- ating all manner of wearing apparel and bedding, from handkerchiefs to fur coats. Something like 70,000 names were entered on these blanks and the whole wardrobe of each individual by families was entered. Parents or guardians had to sign and vouch for the accuracy of the entries. Here are a few of the regulations: (1) The chairman or the secretary of our village committee should personally assist in making the entries. (2) The A.M.R. requests all those, who are in the fortunate position that they for the present have anywhere near the clothing they need, or can make arrangements to get what they need, to withdraw in favor of those who are in direct need, and voluntarily to state to the village 264 FEEDING THE HUNGRY committee that they will not ask for any clothes at all this time. This will be a very definite assistance in the relief work, and we wish in advance to thank all such most heartily for support of the work. (3) The answer that a person has “No clothes” should be taken by the committee as an indication that further investigation is necessary, for no