CATASTROPHE: Flood Aftermath

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Four months ago, in April, the ram-swollen Mississippi River began to leap from its bed. Result: "the greatest national calamity since the Civil War"—a crawling sheet of water that left few dry spots between southern Illinois and the Gulf of Mexico. Last week the American Red Cross announced that all was not yet dry in the Mississippi Valley. Some 170,000 acres are still under water; 130,000 in Louisiana, 21,000 in Mississippi, 10,000 in Arkansas, 8,500 in Illinois. The Red Cross is at present providing food, clothing and shelter for 130,000 destitute flood victims. It is estimated that a total of 12,000,000 acres were inundated. Of these, only 2,170,000 acres have been successfully replanted with crops.

Soon Secretary of Commerce Herbert C. Hoover will make another tour on the Mississippi Valley to obtain final information concerning flood relief and flood control legislation for submission to Congress.

Said U. S. Congressman William E. Hull of Peoria, 111., who last week visited President Coolidge at the Black Hills White House: "The late flood devastated more than enough property to furnish the funds to control the Mississippi River twice over."