Evening star., 1927-05-29
Are Product of Sorrow.

hiC AOuuCt Vi SUIIUNs
''These great camps are the prod
uct of destruction and sorrow, but
thousands of children quickly recov.
cred to the joyous chatter of play
rand there is the satisfaction that at
least months rest has come to many
a woman who has never known rest
before. Scores of thousands of these
folk have been reclothed. Sanitation
and health have been safeguarded.
Hundreds of thousands of them have
been vaccinated and hundreds of thou.
sands more have been inoculated for
typhoid. Outbreaks of contagious dis
eases have been stamped out. Ills of
which this mass of people would have
been ignorant have been attended to
by camp physicians. l can state un-
hesltantly that we shall return these
people home more sound in body and
in mind than when they came"
In praising the Red Cross and CO.
operating organizations and local
volunteers, Mr.. Hoover declared mo
one has gone hungry, no one has gone
unclothed. no one has gone unpro-
tected from the ravages of disease"
Burden Is Carried.
Theirs has been the first line of
battle" he added.
They have carried the burden of
administering of the camps and ra-
tions to the people in villages often
miles within the flood. A month ago
l stated that the Red Cross was your
hand carrying out the will of your
great heart. 1t is faithfully perform.
ing that duty and that inspiration"
The secretary said the flood is in its
last lap of its race to the Gulf and
there is only one more levee that
could break which he believes will
hold.
The final stage of reconstruction is
now uppermost as the flood passes by,
Mr.. Hoover declared. In Illinois.
Missouri. Kentucky and Tennessee
the waters have drained from most
OF the land and the State of Arkansas
is rapidly emerging from the water,
he added. In Mississippi and north.
ern Louisiana, he said, the flood also
is beginning to recede, but as vet but
Few have been able to return to their
homes in that area.
Will Fold Tents.
"But in another two weeks we will
have folded the tents in all our camps
except in the southern part of Louisi.
ana. where the people will he exiled
for month yet," he continued.
Unfortunately. our problem does
not end when the waters have re-
ceded. These people must be returned
to their farms and villages. They
are returning to what is left Of homes
and farms to take up life again in
the face of heart-breaking discourage.
ment and loss, but with resolution
and with courage. Thousands have
had their homes washed away or DAM
aged; businesses have been prostrat.
ed; the crops have been destroyed;
hundreds of thousands of animals
have perished; their resources of food
and forage are gone. Often enough
there is but the bare land to wei.
come them back.
Points to Duty.
at is our duty as citizens of
great and prosperous country to place
all these people back onto the load Of
self-support. The majority are farm.
ers, and, therefore, the road to the
ma jority means that we must enable
them to replant their fields. 1t must
be done at once before it is too late
to make this years crop. If cur
help is sufficient and our organization
effective, they can accomplish this in
most of the territory in Mississippi
and north Louisiana, Arkansas and
the States above, but southern Louisi-
ana will be more difficult, as the
flood will be on for a month yet.
I'VE cannot hope to make good all
the losses of these people, but we must
put them safely on the road to self.
support" he added.
Mr.. Hoover described the machine
for this reconstruction as a commits
sion in each Of the three States and
| Il finance corporation to make loans
to the victims on liberal terms, formed
by the bankers.
Machinery Explained.
The capital of the three corporations
totals $1,500,000, which, with redis-
| count privileges by the Federal Inter-
| mediate Credit Bank of Four.to- One,
| increases their financial strength to
| $5.000,000, in turn is to be increased
| by the subscriptions from the North
| ern bankers and indstries to eight
TO ten million dollars. In each inun-
| dated county, a committee of leading
citizens to examine the condition of
| the flooded people in single cases has
been formed.
''All this is the emergency stage Of
reconstruction" he said. Beyond
this we must help to rebuild the homes
and supply further household goods,
animals and implements. We must
assure safety against disease by wide
spread measures of sanitation, lasting
over months. In many ways recon
struction is more difficult than the
other stages.
THE excitement and appeal of the
human life in jeopardy of women and
children in distress, stirs the SYM
pathies and energies of all decent men
and women. This is now passing and
the public loses its interest. Yet, let
us not forget: we must return this
one.half million of our fellow citizens