rapidly forgetting all about it. The job of rehabilitation now that® the flood has subsided is so enor- mous as to be unimaginable to one who has never lived along the levees. The task of simply clear- ing away the debris and making at least livable hundreds of thousands of damaged homes is by far the greatest task of its kind that ever has faced the country. And this doesn’t even begin to touch what is the most important problem-—that of long range planning and building to prevent such a disaster's occur- ring again. Salvation Army officials, the Red | Cross and other agencies have es- timated that in some places their work—which is more of an emer- gency nature than that of the gov- ernment—will keep on for two years. There were about a million per- sons chased from their homes by | the rising waters. They have to be | returned or resettled somewhere. | The layer of mud and refuse which | has settled over the entire area is rapidly being washed away by an | army of workers using mops, | brooms and hoses for weapons. Dur- ing the twelve highest days of the flood some 400,000 homes were dam- aged. It will take until the middle of the summer before all of those homes not beyond repair are even | given a thorough cleaning—at an | estimated cost of $250 a home. Washington Sees Necessity. The terrific cost of such a flood | dreds of photographs in the office of the soil erosion service. Vast fields now stand burned out, ugly and abandoned. Where the corn and beans were planted down the slopes instead of following the contours of the land there are now deep gul- lies. The topsoil has been eaten away down to the clay by too rapid drainage. Because as each new strata of soil worn away bared a new strata of less absorptive earth, the runoff became faster and fast- er. The unfertile lower strata re- its recurrence not be repeated. | Floods in the United States have they have made in 1935, 1936 and | 1937 is at last effecting a change in | the flood control agencies so that | they are beginning to think on long range construction lines, rather than planning simply to stop the | gaps here and there as they mani- | fest themselves. The real necessity for flood con- trol is nowhere made more appar- ent than in the records of the soil erosion service at Washington. An- nually, these records show, losses | of rich topsoil have in recent years | reached three billion tons, or | enough every year to fill a freight | train 925,000 miles long! Most of | this loss can be attributed to floods | resulting from careless or unintel- | ligent use of land ever since the | days when the first pioneers began | to work inland from the seacoasts | Bi in est need for reservoir protection more often lies in areas where farm lands are of high value, where the cities are built close to the rivers. And it is not very often that you control. Control 200 Years Old. seeking permanent relief by voirs. of streams they may be employed rate of flow. useful in the manufacture of elec- years ago. duced crops and soon the land was deserted. Great winds came and licked the sterile lands once protected by buf- falo grass or forest. They blew the dust from these lands in great storms to lay waste to better farm lands many miles distant. Then the floods came again, gaining greater momentum because the natural barriers were further worn as the years rolled on. high marks were in 1884, 1913 and 1927. Still the speed and the de- struction stage, but the floods were held back in those days by the heavy vegeta- tion along the stream. These for- ests and grasslands have since been rendered far less potent by cultiva- tion. Early records place the first levee at New Orleans in 1717. Within a year it had become a mile long and 18 feet wide. In these early days the king of France would grant riv- er lands only on the condition that the receiver of the grant agree to build levees. It was the custom tc require that all ] struction. By a t 1 rer a LAOuUisiana, along the en- lower Mississippi, levees Now most Queen City club in Cincinnati. When the topsoil is lost, the run- off from rains is very greatly in- creased, floods are speeded, human suffering increased and more rich farm lands lost. How Dust Storms Start. The cultivation of rural America extends roughly over three cen- turies. Within that time vast slopes once forested, with networks of in- terlocking roots that once retained a large share of any rainfall, have been denuded of their trees. The coming of the plow brought with it further careless destruction. Yet who can blame the early pioneers, scanning what seemed limitless horizons of verdant prairie, for fail- ing to grasp the effect their mis- cultivation was to have upon gen- erations of the future? They plowed downhill instead of around the slopes on lines nearly level. And billions of new gullies were added to speed the flood waters on their way. The cost of such short-sighted policies is to be seen in the hun- in the last three years the super- floods arrived. Annually, the cost of levees and dams rose, without effecting per- manent relief. The first federal gov- ernment flood control work started in 1824 after constitutional rights of the federal government along in- terstate rivers had been established. This early work was largely sup- plementary to improvements in navigation, such as dams with canals and locks. Soon the federal bureaus found themselves co-oper- ating with state and local agencies in flood control, and several billions of dollars have been spent. Yet as the levees were built high- er and higher, up to 60 feet and more near the larger cities, they failed to reduce the annual flood toll. Flood prevention turned to reservoirs, and in unusual cases a single great reservoir, such as that behind Boulder dam could be built to protect a gigantic aréa Reser- voirs like this one are usually out of the question, because the great- which contribute to it banked by them. The federal government was shy about mixing up in river and har- are Justice Marshall in 1824 cleared up the situation. Within a short time afterward, army ngineers were charged with most of the de- tails of flood control and have con- tinued to exercise authority over a large share of them ever since. Prevention Vs. Control. Great names were connected with them Abraham Lincoln, Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. Appropriations in that time bor- dered about $50,000, but occasional- ly ran into the millions. Despite all this early attention, it has been only in recent years that the government has been seriously thinking of laying the flood menace by preventing floods rather than at- tempting to control them. The year after the record flood of 1927, con- gress enacted a plan which had been submitted by Lieut. Gen Ed- gar B. Jadwin, chief of the army engineers. It called for an outlay of $325,000,000. Extensions and mod- ifications added another $313,000,- 000. Balances on hand left an ad- ditional $272,000,000. The full pro- gram extended the 1928 plan six years in the alluvial valley of the lower Mississippi, whare levees are being strengthened and raised, in some cases, as much as three feet. But these things are only a be- ginning of the prevention move- ment. Added to them must be the appropriations of the present con- gress and of other congresses to come, which may as well make up their minds that the ante for flood prevention has to be raised and kept up for some time to come. An important recent application of a device of considerable aid to both control and prevention is that of the floodway. Dramatic illustra- tion of this was the use of the New Madrid-Birds Point floodway, with its “fuse plug,” to save the city of Cairo, Ill © Western short space of an hour and a half? aiarmin the ship rolled over at an when, without any At the same time warning, the order below his When Charley got duties. The was under way, about their was to For, until she were already going The job now getting higher every minute, “There was a fireman perately to force it,” ing. we were in their grip one of those boilers, working des- “The ship kept pitching and heav- ~rive us steam.’ The gauges were show- Even 250 The steam was on the way up. doing their work. a deluge from above. VENTILATORS. The ship was broad- Now when we were nearing victory. The engines port engine room killing seven me boiler tubes. The lights go out. Water—tons of Steam hisses from strained gee And still those gallant where below decks Slice bars, hoes, every roll and toss of the ship. to get up steam. STEAM. room of the Memph the engine 118 every- There was bedlam with fires, the men were trying ESCAPING In another joints. “] yelled: ‘Abandon stations. room. Live steam was filling the “They were breathing it. Fran- At last I got it open He awoke TWO WEEKS later Now he am unworthy of it. THEY PAID WITH Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery was instituted by an act of congress for mustered out or honorably dis charged. The presentation of the commission warrant, letter of ap- pointment, certificate of discharge, or pension certificate, provided there were no dishonorable charges connected therewith, is sufficient evidence for interment. The Isle of Pines The Isle of Pines has an area of 1,180 square miles and a population of 5000. It is located about 50 miles south of Cuba. of which it is a part. The land is virtually all owned by Americans. The chief towns are Nueva, Gerona and Sante Fe. ‘The island produces citrus fruits, pineapples and potatoes. Cat- tle raising is the chief industry Facing the Masie The origin of the expression “fac. ing the music” isn't definitely known, though the expression ap- pears to have come from military sources. Three attempts at expla- natiorr—the first of them the most likely—attribute its origin to: (1) The drumming out of men dis- missed from the army; (2), the mustering of militiamen, who are drawn up in ranks facing the band: (3), the difficulty in training army horses to remain quiet when placed near a regimental band. Another suggestion is that the phrase is de- rived from the situation of the actor, who, when before the orchestra, is facing his critics also. “Spice,” Not Tree Name “Spice” is not a tree name. It is a classification name used to de. scribe one or more of a group of aromatic substances. Just as the word “vegetable” and “grain” are names of classifications, describing one or a number of things in a special class, MH gy Favorite Recipe Babe deison Athlete Plain Cake. 1 cuptul brown sugar 3 teaspoonfuls of boiling water 4 eggs 1 cupful of flour 1% teaspoonful of cinnamon Pinch of cloves Dash of allspice 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder Beat the yolks of the eggs and sugar well. Add spices, mixing Add boiling water. Sift flour Then add the flour and ery deli. | between the layers. Copyright. ~~ WHNU Bervice, Feathered Cosmeticians Woodpeckers are surgeons; with their strong, sharp beaks they cut down to the haunts of mischief-makers in the wood and extract them with barbed tongues. But there are other, smaller birds that haunt tree trunks in winter— chickadee, brown creeper, and nuthatch—whose beaks are not stout enough for the woodpecker's technique birds simply search crevices and cran- nies in the bar) ; and dig- ging out insects ar ill cocoons that may g there. They are skin spec meticians.—Science drastic These Dr. Pierce's Pleasant Pellets made of May Ap; accumu! le are effectiy ated Talent and Genius Talent is that which is In a man's power! Genius is that in whose power a man is.—Lowell. emt Remember This When You Need a Laxative It is better for you if your body keeps working as Nature intended. Food wastes after digestion should be eliminated every day. When you get constipated, take a dose or two of purely vegetable Black-Draught for prompt, refreshing relief. Thousands and thousands of men and women like Black-Draught and keep I always on hand, for use at the first sign of constipation. Have you tried 1° BLACK-DRAUGHT A GOOD LAXATIVE Happy Exactness Exactness in little duties is a wonderful source of cheerfulness. -F. W. Faber. Miss REE LEEF says: "CAPUDINE relieves HEADACHE quicker because it’s liquid... already dissolved’ NO MORE TELLTALE WRINKLES New Cream Smooths Skin. Use Magnesia to Bring Back Youthful Complexion — Look Years Younger. Name Ee Street Aros «..nuuceencncnnnnn City REE. ansnesBiole —-————-
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers