The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-02-04
BLO0D,PEST|lENCE
AND FAMINE

All the world has direct and vital
| interest in the terrible national dis
| aster which has overtaken the fruit
full vallies of France. Apart from all
| sentiment, historical and artistic, the
calamity is of a magnitude to rank
with the earthquake at Messina, while
| the direct and collateral loss may be
far greater. Amy great destruction
of the worlds wealth, under our mod
ern system of exchange, affects more
or less all communities, and this
severe blow to the richest country in
the old world will be universally felt.
Nothing like the floods at present
devastating France has been seen In
Europe in over century and before
the worst is over it may be necessary
to go back to the earlier part of the
eighteenth century for parallel. We
do not believe that one-fourth of
France can possibly be under water,
but it is plain that the wide valleys
Of the great rivers, the most fruitful
parts of the country. can easily be
flooded to an extent indicating almost
incalculable damage. France is
fat and fertile country. The hilly
districts lie mainly in the French
Alps, the vosges, theCevennes, or
southerly along the lower slope of the
Pyrenees. But the main area is that
fat country which lies along the
banks of the great rivers. the Rhone.
the Loire, the Seine, the Saone and
the Garfonne. Here the damage to
agriculture may well be enormous, al
though great deal may be saved be-
fore spring cultivation commences.
Fortunately the vineyards, in which
so much of the French wealth lies.
are along the slopes of higher ground.
and are likely to have been more af-
fected by the unprecedented rains
than by direct damage from flooding.
The ruin of the villages in direct
track of the flood is terrible to con-
template In places the houses are
under water to the second story.
Where they do not collapse entirely,
they will be rendered dangerous or
uninhabitable by sewerage and silt.
Livestock must have suffered greatly,
while the distress, present and pros
pective, among the people, is dread
full to imagine
In the capital itself the damage will
run into millions of dollars. Under
ground conduits for sewerage, gas,
water and electricity have all served
to spread the waters Of the bursting
Seine far into the city, and to this end
the subway has proved terrible in
instrument. The secondary results
are equally serious There is already
fuel and food famine, and many
thousands are starving. The bursting
of the sewerage in a great city
into the cellars Of the houses is one
of those calamitfes to which the ur-
ban growth of the past half century
peculiarly lays us open. What the
doctors bill for typhadd and kindred
diseases will be it is impossible to es-
innate. 'Az-t
Setting aside the possibilities Of
subsequent political disturbances.
there is sti11 great hope In the wond-
erful resources OF the French people,
their thrift, intelligence and practi-
cal adoption OF the methods of science
aid discipline. Even with these PAL
liatives the injury to the country's
purchasing powor and the destruction
of the means Of production must nee
essarily be reflected In this and other
Observation-Disclosures American.