The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-03-28

Four members of the Richmond Re
lief Committee, together with the
Mayor Zimmerman, and about forty
others went to the stricken city of
Dayton yesterday. The members of the
relief committee and the mayor went
for the special purpose to make sur
yey. as far as possible, of the condi-
tons and get into communication with
the constituted authorities so Rich
mond people could act intelligently in
the relief work. We found that the peo-
pie of Dayton are SO separated by the
raging torrent through the center OF
their city that the relief work has not
been very we'll organized. The people
on the north side have perhaps the
best organization, as that section con-
stitutes a large part of the residence
of the well to do people. There are 9th
err organizations on the East side and
some of the west side, but as there is
no possible way of communicating
with one another there can be no unit
ed action which is very essential In
such conditions. There is a possibility
that the waters will subside sufficient
ly within another day to re-establish
communication. A good strong organ1-
cation must be instituted and the
town put under martial law or the
conditions will become indescribable.
We feel sure that there Is plenty OF
provisions and clothing coming from
every direction to take care Of those
hot hrn IN a
ground, but there are thousands still
living in the upper stories of the hous.
es and public building and business
blocks throughout the city that will
have to be provided with food. We do
not believe that clothing will be quite
SO essential as food supplies. II we
contemplate the situation that all the
business district of the entire city was
under water, from 5 to 80 feet, for
about week it must be realized that
every store whether wholesale or re-
tail in that vast district will have their
entire stock of supplies destroyed or
rendered unfit for food and all the To-
cal available food stuffs must come
from the small corner groceries in the
outer edges of the city 1t can be read
lily seen how utterly inadequate this
will be, not only for those in the flood
ed districts but every resident Of the
city. This can best be illustrated by
the experience of two members of the
committee, who went to the home of a
wealthy relative of one of the men,
bers expecting a dinner. They found
the people without fire and subsisting
on few cold beans. They said moth
ing about dinner. 1t seemed yesterday
that some Of the members of the north
side committee, though high grade bus
mess men. had not fully considered
this side of the food supply. When ap.
preached about what further help we
could give them they replied, I'VE
need no money, we raised right here
about FIVE thousand dollars to take
care of this locality" But money is not
good to eat With the wholesale dis
trict under water, they realized that
food must come from the outside and
they became much concerned about
supplies and asked US to send what
ever we could of food stuffs, except
baked beans. There is located in the
dry territory a bean canning factory
and they have taken over the entire
stock. Cooked foods and bread will be
in great demand for some days, as
baking and cooking are possible only