The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1922-05-20
RELIEF FOR FLOOD
SUFFERERS SOUGHT
Committee Canvasses Town and Raises
Fund for Overflow Victims
More Needed.

There has been so much talk about
the reports of the suffering in the over
flowed district along the Mississippi
river being exaggerated that Mr.. ]. W.
McGrath. Chairman of the Lincoln
County Chapter. A. r. c., wrote to a
prominent citizen in Vicksburg to get
the facts. The reply is as follows:-
Il do not believe that reports you
hear on conditions In the overfowed re-
gion are exaggerated. On the contrary
you have not heard half. A large ter
ritory, embracing nearly million acres
in the section between Vicksburg, Gren-
vile and Yazoo City has been flooded
by back-water from two to sixteen feet
deep for more than a month. In this
territory there are some thirty thous-
and destitute people, mostly negroes,
whom the Red Cross is undertaking to
supply with food, giving them a ration
which costs zoe a week for a grown
person-small children half ration.
But for the timely aid of the Red
Cross the suffering and destitution
would have been infinitely worse than
it is.
In a large portion of this territory
weeks yet and it will be too late to
plant cotton. Corn planted after on ov-
erfiow is usually destroyed by the cut
worm as it comes up.
The farmers in this section, by reason
of the reverses of several years past,
are themselves heavily in debt and ut
terly unable to feed these negroes. With
kind regards.
Yours truly,
W. H. Fitz-Hugh."
Messrs. Louis Cohn. W. D. Davis and
]. w. McGrath have been canyassing
the city for the past few days and have
succeeded in raising $5O0.S9. This will
not be sent away until next Friday so
as to give any others who wish to con-
tribute to this good cause a chance to
do their charitable duty. Please do not
get the idea in your heads that luck.
or some miracle will operate to furnish
the food to keep alive these 10000 hun
cry, homeless refugees. 1t will require
100000 to ration them at the rate of
20 cents per week for each adult.
National headquarters A. r: c. have
already sent $4,000 besides furnishing
doctors and numerous workers, and as
this is Mississippi case right at our
own doors it seems that we should
shoulder the burden.
Mr.. McGrath, states that quite a few
silly arguments have been advanced:
one is that the planter himself should
feed his negro and white laborers. Those
who offer this solution of the problem
forget the fact that the planters home
and his corn crib, and his smoke house.
and everything else he has is under
water and he is practically busted and
cannot make crop this year. Others
have made the statement that planters
residing at the edge of the crevasse
have been sending their negroes to the
Red Cross camps to be fed and cared
for. Would 1t not look foolish for a
planter to send his negroes away dur
ing the month of May when they are so
badly needed to carry on the work of
the farm, and is it not preposterous to
suppose that such wrong practices could
continue and not be exposed by neigh
bors in those vicinities.
II mention these objections" contin-
nes Mr. McGrath, because they 4are
some of the proofs advanced by certain
Brookhavenites who do not care to-as
they term it-feed the negroes. Negroes
are human beings and no doubt the Man
of Galilee would say they are our nei-
ghbors."