The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1913-12-09

ylelQ. Inc senator SuuStdHlialSu
this statement with the fact that the
largest yield of cotton in this country
has been 100000 bales, and that
delta land can easily produce a bail to-
the acre.
at is an empire that is asking for
protection" he continued. Thing of
the magnitude of the advantages that
would come from protecting this sec-
ton and then, on the other hand, think
of the magnitude of the disaster that
would shock the nation if this protec-
ton failed.
"a man falls overheard from a skiff
and browns and it is a question be-
tween him and his widow and the
world does not notice it; but a great
ocean craft strikes an iceberg and
goes down with thousands of souls
and the whole civilized world is shock
ed. A house burns down and the in
surance company either pays the in
surance or squabbles over the loss;
an earthquake jars San Francisco and
fire sweeps over it and the Congress
of the United States, shocked by the
magnitude of the disaster, pours out it's
millions of dollars in relief of the
stricken people. An acre of land is
flooded and it is nobody's concern but
the owners; an empire is devastated
by the angry waters of the Mississippi
river and the whole nation takes no.
tice of the horror and disaster attend
ant upon it,"
The Flood of 1912.
HI then took up the devastations of
the flood of 1912.
"The waters converted an erea of
10000 square miles, an area greater
that the states of Rhode Island, Con-
necticut and Massachusetts combined,
into vast inland sea and on the vel
low waters of that sea were borne
homes and accumulations of genera
lions and everywhere over that broad
expanse of water, in the open fields
and in the silent woods, men, women
and children struggled for their lives
and went down in the embrace of the
food.
zone hundred and fifty thousand
people, self-reliant, self-sustaining,
willing to earn their livelihood if
given the chance to do so, were put
upon the payroll of the government
and fed daily rations at ten cents per
head per day. The magnitude of it
alone differintiates it from any other
matter that is brought before this COM
mittee. This is not disaster that
has occurred and which you will never
face again, but unless intelligent &C
ton is taken to prevent it, it is one
that will rise up again and shock the
conscience of this nation in the future
as it has in the past"
Senator Percy declared the locali-
ties are wholly unable to protect tn m
selves further than they have done and
again startled the committee and fore.
ed home the seriousness of the pro-
position, with this statement:
IF word went back to the Mississip-
pi valley from this committee that the
federal government had found this
problem eithsr too great or outside of
it's scope and had said, Upon your own
efforts you in the valley must rely for
your salvation not only would the po-
/ tential development be destroyed but
that country, over seventy per cent OF
1t within ten years would revert to the
| jungle. Civilization there would be
blotted out This is not conjecture
| He called attention to the fact that
by local taxation the people in the at
/ fected sections have raised $4,000
900 for levees-more than the govern
ment Is asked to subscribe In the
f, Humphreys bill. He talked OF what
| had been done in the Yazoo delta.
I'm our efforts to protect ourselves
, by our own taxation, we had. in 1880,
! taxed out of the hands of individuals
and into the hands of the state, where
/ 1t yielded no revenue. more than one
half the total acreage of the delta.
The fight was over and we were whip.
ped. Then the government came along