A Polish Windmill. The wide-winged windmill is as common in Poland as in Holland. Wherever one travels in this land of plains and levels, somewhere on the landscape he sees the great arms of the mill, swinging majestically around, or standing even more majestically quiet. According to reports from American Red Cross relief workers in the devastated regions of Eastern Poland, where hunger and disease have followed on the heels of destruction, the damage done to the windmills has constituted one of the most serious losses to the country, for it was in these mills that all the grain of the district was ground. Even when the ruined farm land is restored and crops are again harvested, the mills will still be missing

On the Polish steppes. For the first time in six years the plow has passed through this ground, preparing it for the 1920 crop. In the background is one of the faliliar turnable windmills that dot the landscape of northern Poland. It is used to pump water and is so constructed that the building revolves permitted in the blades of the wheel to catch wind from any direction. This is the kind of country into which much American relief is now going, the Red Cross have several medical and relief units working among these farm-people, keeping up their courage and health until the 1920 crop can be harvested

A Maker of Rainbows. The famous rainbow woollens of Poland are known all over Europe for their beauty of coloring and quality of texture. On Sundays the rural roads of Poland are bright with the gay costumes of the peasants, and they are seen even in the cities, on market days. It is on such simple machines as this that the rainbow wool is spun by the barefooted peasant women, whose industry and thrift are proverbial, and who, despite hardship and misery, never give up nor cease to believe in the rainbow of the future. It is because the war has worked some of its worst havoc in the large agricultural areas of Poland that the country is now undergoing such a strain of want and distress. The coming of the American Red Cross into these ruined country districts has been the only source of relief the people have known

Large factory near Dubno by artillery fire. The area around Dubno, one of the strongest fortressess on the old Russian line of defense, was the Russo-Austrian front for nine months during 1915, and most of the buildings were destroyed and the fields covered with trenches and wire entanglements. The Interallied Medical Commission sent by the League of Red Cross Societies to study the typhus situation in Poland found typhus, relapsing fever and disentry prevalent in this area. The situation is complicated by the over crowding of the inhabitants due to the destruction of a majority of the dwellings. Drugs, clothing and hospital equipment are almost entirely lacking, and outside assistance is needed by the local authorities to deal effectively with the situation

Poland's tribute to America. This is the first of the delegation of 20,000 Polish children who marched in Warsaw on July 4 in honor of America, whose Independence Day has been made a national holiday by Poland. One by one the schools marched into the square before the Opera until the entire plaza was filled with enthusiastic youngsters shouting and singing before the replica of the Statue of Liberty which was erected in the high balcony of the opera, which constituted the reviewing stand for American Red Cross workers and other citizens of the nation being honored

Manpower. Veteran boring mill worker. Seventy-five-year-old George Shoemaker points to the only change ever made in the seventy-seven-year-old vertical boring mill on which he has worked for the past fifty-four years. The groove was cut to accomodate huge castings of lighthouse settings many years ago. The old machine was serving during the Civil and Spanish-American wars and World War I. It works seventy-six hours a week in this war, boring castings up to eleven feet square

American trucks for Poland. The American Red Cross has a fleet of ten-ton motor lorries operating in Poland in its struggle against the typhus scourge which is making headway in this unhappy country. These trucks carried food and medicines to the isolated villages to the east, cut off for several years from the regular channels of transportation. Poland's terrible roads had no terror for these powerful machines

A Polish Windmill. The wide-winged windmill is as common in Poland as in Holland. Wherever one travels in this land of plains and levels, somewhere on the landscape he sees the great arms of the mill, swinging majestically around, or standing even more majestically quiet. According to reports from American Red Cross relief workers in the devastated regions of Eastern Poland, where hunger and disease have followed on the heels of destruction, the damage done to the windmills has constituted one of the most serious losses to the country, for it was in these mills that all the grain of the district was ground. Even when the ruined farm land is restored and crops are again harvested, the mills will still be missing

description

Summary

Title, date and notes from Red Cross caption card.
Photographer name or source of original from caption card or negative sleeve: ARC Paris Office.
Data: T.T. & C.
Group title: General, Poland.
Gift; American National Red Cross 1944 and 1952.
General information about the American National Red Cross photograph collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.anrc
Temp note: Batch 24

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