The systematic exploitation of human misery by the German authorities in Poland followed the general plan with which the reader has become only too familiar. In order to prove the identity of procedure it will be enough to present the detailed report specially written for this pamphlet by Mr. Frederic C. Walcott. A fuller and in some ways more touching treatment is given in his article, "Devastated Poland," in the _National Geographic Magazine_ for May, 1917. POLAND AND THE PRUSSIAN SYSTEM. SEPTEMBER, 1917. Poland--Russian Poland--is perishing. And the German high command, imbued with the Prussian system, is coolly reckoning on the necessities of a starving people to promote its imperial ends. West Poland, which has been Prussian territory more than a hundred years, is a disappointment to Germany; its people obstinately remain Poles. This time they propose swifter measures. In two or three years, by grace of starvation and frightfulness, they calculate East Poland will be thoroughly made over into a German province. [Sidenote: Devastation of Poland.] In the great Hindenburg drive one year ago, the country was completely devastated by the retreating Russian army and the oncoming Germans. A million people were driven from their homes. Half of them perished by the roadside. For miles and miles, when I saw the country, the way was littered with mudsoaked garments and bones picked clean by the crows--though the larger bones had been gathered by the thrifty Germans to be ground into fertilizer. Wicker baskets--the little basket in which the baby swings from the rafters in every peasant home--were scattered along the way, hundreds and hundreds, until one could not count them, each one telling a death. Warsaw, which had not been destroyed--once a proud city of a million people--was utterly stricken. Poor folks by thousands lined the streets, leaning against the buildings, shivering in snow and rain, too weak to lift a hand, dying of cold and hunger. Though the rich gave all they had, and the poor shared their last crust, they were starving there in the streets in droves. In the stricken city, the German governor of Warsaw issued a proclamation. All able-bodied Poles were bidden to go to Germany to work. If any refused, let no other Pole give him to eat, not so much as a mouthful, under penalty of German military law. [Sidenote: The policy of starvation.] It was more than the mind could grasp. To the husband and father of broken families, the high command gave this decree: Leave your families to starve; if you stay, we shall see that you do starve--this to a high-strung, sensitive, highly organized people, this from the authorities of a nation professing civilization and religion to millions of fellow Christians captive and starving. [Sidenote: Country to be restocked with Germans.] General von Kries, the governor, was kind enough to explain.