Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-02-19
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT !?
"AL-DEN"
Listen, and then ask yourself
'What must / dO?"

Listen, and then ask yourself:
"What must | dOw
The fields and hills from here to
Lake Superior are covered with the
repeated SHOWS of winter as never be-
fore The thaws of coming spring
are filling the streams and lakes to
overflowing. The dams are holding in
check what threatens to become an
angry, raging torrent, and rolling
down, engulf and sweep away the
homes and cities of our happy, peace
full people You, and yours, hear the
dread rumors; anxiously you scan
the reports of the rising tide of the
river. Your all, and your hopes, and
those of your children and children's
children, are centered here. Never
was there calamity so threatening
with no possibility of evading by get
ting away-the only hope and prayer
is that the dams will hold, that the
flood may check and the waters fall.
You cannot understand how the muir
muring, ripping streams and the
beautiful lakes known, communed
with and enjoyed, could have turned
into so great a menace and danger, and
there rises within you the silent SER
ious prayer that the good God may
save these peace loving people from
the devastations of threatened dis
aster.
Then the dread words come: Three
of the dams in the North have gone,
a fourth is going; others are impend-
ing. Between the city of your home
and those you hold most dear there
are dams still holding, but strained
to limit--the people of those COM
munities are bending with every effort
doing just one thing to hold and
stem the food With every, ounce of |
their energy they are building the |
dams higher-some of their lands are
flooded and laid waste-some of their |
homes are crumbling into ruins, some, |
rs beloved as you, are sacrificing their |
lives that others may be shielded and |
live. You scan the heavens, watch |
the swelling tide-and? Well what? |
Calls come for help! If those dams |
will hold-if the flow of the flood |
can be controlled, you and yours win
be safe. But the people in the North |
need help. They have borne the /
brunt-till now they have held back
the deluge. They cannot continue |
aIone-some weary are giving up
and their cry and need is for assist
ance and help to stem the tide.
If the dams still there will hold,
you and yours are safe, but help is
needed. Many must go-they must
be backed up by all the assistance
those who remain can give-their
loved ones must be cared fol-, and
the materials needed to strengthen
the defenses and stem the tide must
be gotten out. We must man our
udulS anu Dullu IHtul nlSuSI anu
stronger that those beyond us too may
be safe It's time of anxiety and
trial such as this community has
never experienced What are you GO
ing to do about it!
Are you going to help? Are you
going to go and give yourself? Are
you going to put aside your own pri-
vate interests and convenience, and
do your share in service and encour-
agement? Or are you going to shirk, {
complain and criticize? Are you 60
ing to assume the attitude that those
dams, those homes and lands, and
those people are not yours? That
even if the dams break, the flood may
not reach you? You don't believe the
danger is so great. You've seen those
rivers in the North, you've rested on
the bosom of those peaceful lakes
you see them as they were and you
are certain that no danger ever lurked
in them-how could they so change?
Anyway, you never believed in those