Evening star., 1927-05-04
BUSINESS MEN HIT
UNTRUE REPORTS
New Orleans Says Pictures
of Heavy Rain Are Being
Used as Flood Illustrations.

TIE had enough to have a flood or
hurricane, or a mild earthquake, but
the business men of affected areas find
the reuorts of such episodes even more
harmful than the physical damage
done bv these acts of Providence.
Florida had its troubles and Cali
%arn;a is aCgressiyely combating the
innuendoes about earth tremors ana
now the business men of the Mlssis'
sinni Valley are faced with the same
4hing-misrepre and exag'
xeration of what has occurred.
New Orleans, for instance, nad a
heavy rainfall recently. but the PIC
tures taken of the damage done nave
been used to give the impression ,hai
fhe Mississippi a?od already had
reached that city. typical of the al
titude of business men in the vicinity
of New Orleans is this telegram from
lanes NJ. Thomson, publisher ot me
New Orleans Item-Tribune, VINO Is
The head Of a committee attempting
40 combat misleading pictures ana dis
patches.
Would Correct Impression.
Mr.. Thomson says:
s'Citizens' committee, representlfs
all of the business interests OIL view
orleans has asked me TO attempt W
cot before the news and picture edl-
80, throughout the United States a
correction of several unfortunate ana
damaging impressions that have beeh
created bv pictures and. publicity
which have gone out regarding New
Orleans during the past two weeks. On
Good Friday. two weeks ago, an uh-
precedented rainfall occurred IN the
I.ity of New Orleans. Fourteen lnches
of rain fell in one day. lightning
struck the wires of some Of our city
humping plants and put them out Oh
commission for several hours. Enter
orjsing photographers took pictures OF
the flooded streets and sent them 10
the newspapers of the country.
1.-TWO weeks ago the floods IN the
Mississippi River tributaries com
1nenced to attract the attention OF the
Nation. These floods were a thousand
miles away from New Orleans, but are
now advancing on down the river, do
ing great damage.
'The country received the appeal
from the Red Cross for flood sufferers,
but these pictures of some New
Orleans streets, flooded by rain, were
taken by newspaper men and picture
editors and printed in conjunction
with text relating to Mississippi River
floods and the Red Cross appeal for
flood sufferers"
Never Damaged by Floods.
The result is widespread impress
sion throughout the United States
that water from the Mississippi River
has overflowed into the City of New
Orleans. Now the fact is that in over
200 years. since New Orleans has been
established on the banks of the Mis-
sissippi River, it has never been dam
aged by flood waters from the Missis-
sippi River.
''The fact is that during the present
high water no water from the Missis-
sippi River has come into New Or
leans. and none of the Federal or State
engineers in New Orleans who are ex-
perts on this subject has expressed
for publication any apprehension re-
Igarding a break in the levees of the
city of New Orleans. If the city has
been damaged by this picture public
ity it Is just the victim of an unfor-
tunate condolences Rainfall in
southern Louisiana affects the flood
heights OF the Mississippi River only
very slightly, because none of the rain
which falls in southern Louisiana
drains into the Mississippi River. This
is a fact little known and under,
stood"
Gen. Jadwin, chief of the United
States Army Engineers. has concur
red in the foregoing view in his re-
ports here. In fact, Government OFF,
cials are being urged to issue more
frequent bulletins on the Mississippi
River situation, so as to allay the fears
Of people who are unfamiliar with the
exact situation. Inaccurate reports
sometimes cause business men to in
terrupt their selling campaigns In
areas which are not in the least af-
fected, and there are other ways in
which damage to commerce is done.