The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1909-10-28
EARTHQUAKES and Cities.

Quake stops sleep in Contra
Illinois. Shock aN akens the Resi-
dents of many Cities in Region from
Peoria South to the Ohio"
This headline 10 the Chicago Even
ing Post of September 9th, 1909,
announced an event that few regard.
I'd as more iLau casuu u,pUl Lalc.
because !. Z idea is rooted in the
public mind that no danger is to be
| feared from E srthq lah es in the Mis-
sissppi Valley. They overlook tie
fact that only abont IL hundred years
ago the New Madrid Earthquake
occurred in almost the Same identical
section OF the Mississippi Valley and
caused the sinking OF large area OF
country on the line between Missouri
and Arkansas. These lands were
sunken to such an extent that boats
could be sailed over the tops of the
trees that had previously grown on
dry land. These sunken lands are
now largely comprised in what is
knswn as the ST. Francis Basin. and
vast drainage schemes are being
planned and carried out to reclaim
them.
Should an earthquake no more
severe than the New Madrid Earth
Quake visit that section of the United
States to-day it would destroy every
city within the range of its center OF
disturbance. The menace OF such
| destruction at any time hangs over
every city in the Central Mississippi
Valley, even Chicago not being ex-
empt. The larger those cities are
built, the greater the danger OF an
appalling castasthrope when any
great CONFUSION OF Nature occurs.
The New Madrid Earthquake did
small damage because this Western
Country was then practically unin-
habited. A hundred years ago
Chicago was swamp on the edge OF
wilderness stretching Westward
to the Pacific Ocean. Fort Dear
born was rot built until 1903 and on
August IL, 1912 the Fort Dearborn
Indian Massacre took place. An
earthquake did no damage hundred
years ago in the Mississippi Valley
because there was nothing to destroy.
Today such cities as Kansas City,
St. Louis and Memphis, with their
teelning thousands AID hundreds of
thousands of congested humanity in.
vite the destruction that would have
overtaken them if they had existed
at the time of the New Madrid
Earthquake.
The liability that an Earthq uake
as severe as the San Francisco
Earthquake may at any time occur
in any part of the Mississippi Valley
is merely an added reason why the
great cities of that Valley should not
be made any larger or more longest
ed than they now are. The less con-
gestion there is of property or popu-
lation the less danger of enormous
destruction aud loss of life from any
catastrophe like great earthquake
or fire. Every factory located in q
country town or small city minimizes
the danger of loss from such calami-
ties. The isolated factory, located
| in town or in the outskirts of a
small city thereby avoids many risks
that cons family hany over a factory
in congested city, Whatever the
catastrophe may be in a large city,
one destructive force creates another
and the secondary and resultant
dangers are often greater than the
primary one. In San Francisco, for
example, the Earthquake did com
para5ively little damage. 1t was
the fire that followed it that was the
great catastrophe which wiped SC
many millions of dollars worth Of
property that had been laboriously
created by human labor.
These facts are not appreciated as
much as they ought to be by those
who are locating the many new fact.
cries that are being built through
out the United States and concert
ed effort should be made by the in.
dustrial associations of all the towns
and small cities to bring before the
minds of manufacturers she many
arguments in favor OF locating fact
cries away from large citles. The
fact that factory workers in cities
degenerate and become industrially
inefficient is too slow working g
cause to have the weight it should
have as a purely business PROPOSE
ton, ~" it is reason enough Why
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