Arizona republican., 1918-01-13
IS
 WORST IN 50 YEARS
Republican A. p. Leased WireJ

Republican A. p. Leased Wirel
 CHICAGO, Jan. 12-From the Rocky Mountains to the AIleghenes and from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson Bay, the most terrible storm in more than fifty years today paralyzed transportation and cut off entire cities and states from all communication with the outside world.
 With temperatures far below zero prevailing over most of this section, relief work was made impossible by high winds and drifting snow while untold thousands battIed with the grim specter of famine with no relief in sight for days.
 Railways early abandoned the battle with the storm and devoted their en- tire efforts to the relief of scores of passenger trains marooned in snow drifts. In most cases their efforts were rendered futile by driving gale which sifted snow over the tracks as fast as it could be removed.
 In Chicago all business virtually was suspended early in the day. The big department stores closed at 3 p. m. All schools were closed for week and the 60,0o0 children were urged to help clear the streets to avert the danger of com flagration and permit the delivery of fuel and food. Nine deaths were re- ported as result of the blizzard.
 Arctic temperatures accompanied the storm, ranging from 37 below zero at O'Neill, Neb., to 12 above at San An tonic. In Kansas and Missouri tenn peratures of 20 below were common and central Illinois points reported from 10 to 26 below. Minnesota report ~I ctA
 Slowly rising temperatures at St. were the only hint at relief from the blizzard which was sweeping eastward.
 Storm Sums Chicago CHICAGO, Jan. 12.-Chicago took over sector of the Arctic circle today Its commercial and industrial blood was frozen in its veins. The city had fifty per cent recovered from the bliz- gard of last Sunday when the new storm arrived with the added cruelty of a mercury drop to fl below zero. No storm so far-reaching in it's eff fects ever before afflicted the city. Fire Marshal O'Connor, speaking of snow buried hydrants and impossible streets. issued a statement calling on the public for aid and asserted that the menace of conflagration was the greatest since 1871. Fine snow fell all last night and all today, and while the column in the official thermometer rose slowly to zero as the day wore one, the industrial mercury sank.
 Most statements of the situation be- i gin with the word "No". No trains, no taxicabs, no coal, no produce market, no milk, no cattle, hogs or sheep re- ceipts at the stock yards, no schools next week, no department stores since 8 o'clock this afternoon and innum- erable minor noes. There was even no further work of the citys snow shovelers, for it was regarded as mere ly humane in the bitter cold to send them to their homes to thaw out.
 Department stores, which were not doing any business anyway, closed at 3 D. m. to conserve fuel. President Davis of the board of education an nounced that the public schools would be closed all next week and instructed the 60,000 school boys to report to their | principals as usual next Monday morn ing with shovels to attack the snow blockade.
 There were virtually no trains, su- burban or otherwise. Tens of thousands of men and women, boys and girls. were unable to reach their places of employment. So many trains were stalled last night that railroads quit sending them out. The first train from western suburbs did not crawl in until noon, and it took a snowplow and three engines to haul it. Those who came in on it were chagrined later to learn that no attempt would be made to make the evening journey back. One of the few through trains to arrive was a Pennsylvania special which ar rived IS hours late with eight loco- motives hauling it. At 2 o'clock this
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