REPORTS OF MISSISSIPPI FLOODS UNMAGNIFIED

The following article was written to the Crimson ry J. R. Hamlen 04, Chair man of the Harvard Fund Council, who has just returned from the district afflicted by the Mississippi floods, wher he attended the Memphis Convention a Harvard Clubs. Mr. Hamlen travelle extensively through the inundated area after the convention.

Newspaper accounts in no way magnify the seriousness of the flood situation in the South. I have just come from Arkansas which has had to combat not only the overflow from the Mississippi river but floods from five rivers which flow across the State and empty into the Mississippi. For four days the city of Little Rock, of over 100,000 inhabitants, was completely cut off from the outside world except by telegraph and aeroplane. Similar conditions now exist in most of the towns and cities along the Mississippi. When the levee broke near Greenville, Mississippi, which is a prosperous city of 10,000 people, the water rose to a height of fifteen feet. Those with means were able to retreat to other places but there were many negro families who were obliged to take refuge on the tops of the levees, where they are now living without proper shelter, sanitation, drinking water, and other necessities of life. The same situation applies to many other places along the Mississippi, and as far inland as fifty miles from it.

While the suffering is now acute, the re-habilitation, after the water recedes, of thousands whose houses have washed away and their livestock drowned presents even a more serious problem. The Red Cross is doing admirable work everywhere. Its personnel and organization are entirely adequate to meet each crisis. What is most needed now is additional money to make its efficiency completed.