The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1913-12-26
Two Weeks to Christmas.
LEROY PERCY TELLS
NEEDS OF THE DELTA
Concludes Arguments for the Ransdell.
Humphreys Bill-Makes a Stirring
Speech.

Washington.-The appearance of for.
mer United States Senator Leroy Percy
OF Mississippi and Col. c. Med. Town
sent, president OF the Mississippi River
Commission, before the rivers and har
bors committee of the House concluded
the special hearings on the Ransdell-
Humphreys bill for government aid in
the construction of permanent levees on
the Lower Mississippi river.
Senator Percy made an able and stir.
ring presentation of the situation in the
Mississippi delta and the impelling rea-
sons for that great section appealing to
Congress for the extension Of federal
all in the prosecution OF a task too ire
mendous for the financial resources of
the delta states. The question of the
power of Congress to grant the relief
prayed for by the delta states having
been thoroughly discussed by Gen. Catch
ings and Gen. Wright, Senator Percy
devoted himself more to the portrayal
and elucidation of conditions that con-
stitute the first appeal to the lay mind.
his speech consumed several hours and
the interest of the members of the COM
mittee as manifested by questions that
gave the senator opportunity for broad.
ming scope and deepen the impression
of his argument was gratifyingly signif.
cant to the large audience of pleased
delegates.
The opinion is general that Senator
rercy's brilliant effor, before the com-
mittee perceptibly enhanced the pros
poets of favorable consideration of the
Ransdell-lIumphreys bill.
There was a distinct human note that
rang through Senator Percy's appeal. He
made it clear that the magnitude of the
havoc wrought by the flood waters OF
the Lower Mississippi was of itself suf-
ticient justification for federal aid in
assigning the recurrently afflicted states
OF the delta. He said Il was a nation
itself appealing to the government, not
an isolated community. If a skiff up
sets and one or two men are drowned,
the loss is personal to a few relatives
and friends, but when n great ocean
liner strikes an iceberg and hundreds
of people are lost, the disaster is a ma
tional shock. If a mans house is
burned he adjusts his loss with the in.
surance company and the community
soon forgets the incident, but when a
city like San Francisco is swept BY fire
and thousands of people are rendered
homeless the nation is appalled, and Con-
gress Immediately appropriates several
millions for the stricken city.
Last spring the delta was an inland
sea of 10000 square miles, greater than
the states of Rhode Island, Massachu-
sets and Connecticut, hundreds of hui
man beings lost their ives and millions
of dollars worth Of property was de-
stroyed. The national government placed
about 100000 people of the delta on the
payroll at 10 cents per day for food.
The national government has not vet
given the 100000 people of the delta the
coveted assurance of protection against
future destroying visitations."
Senator Percy showed that the people
of the delta, by taxing themselves, had
raised and spent for the construction of
levees the enormous sum of $67, 900, OGO. |
There now are in cultivation in the
delta $500, 900 acres of land which con
tributed this vast sum.