The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-12-17
IN
DROUGHT AREA
FACE FAMINE
Hundreds of Families in
Arkansas Are Starving,
Senators Told.
PLEAD FOR FEDERAL AID
Many Can Not SubSist for
80 Days More,
Appeals Say.
By United Press

By United Press
WASHINGTON, Dec 17.-Actual
has started in Arkansas.
worst hit of the twenty-one drought
states, according to letters received
by senators.
MY family is on starvation, "said
one handwritten letter from a
Cash (Ark) man, received by Sen
ator T. H. Caraway Dem, Ark.
Il have eight children and I can
not get a days work to do. I kneed
help and kneed it now. II YOU
can do anything for me I sure
would appreciate it.
If the government can furnish
twenty-five million dollars to a
chain of banks, it looks as thoueli>.
they could help the starving people
of Arkansas"
Il understand from the superin-
tendent of our public schools
wrote an England (Ark) LAWYER
that at least 200 grammar school
children are on a slow starvation
diet" '''-
Thousands of our people," this
man said, will not be able To sub-
Slst for another thirty days His
letter was dated Dec. o.
Red Cross Not Helping
THE Red Cross has done r.othine
and proposes to keep OH doing So"
TINS man said, quoting a Red Cross
chairman for five counties. The
owners of large plantations. he said
are mortgaged to the limit and have
no cash to help.
Inc morale of our rural popula-
ton Is breaking down every day."
wrote a woman from Fitzhugh. Ark
we await the papers eagerly every
oay 10 see what action congress has
taken to relieve the unemployment
situation. The rural problem is of
such magnitude that only the feder-
al government can cope with it.
Several of my own tenants. as
we'll as my neighbors, were lodged
IN jail last week for bootlegging.
petit larceny and other offenses. We
nope congress will act without the
usual prolonged debate"
At End of His Hopes
Il was 70 last week, my sight has
failed, and I'm feeling my way
around" wrote one man personally
to Caraway, who said he used to be
well-to-do and sober farmer. -
i have reached the end Of my
days unless some help is in sight"
CaraWay sent him check from his
own savings.
Many of the letters are signed by
bankers, officials and other leading
citizens. One said:
Some of our people are without
the necessities of life and no work
is to be had. Something must be
done to help them immediately"
A Round Pond (Ark.) grocer,
wrote: Conditions are rapidly
getting more serious. Stores and
banks are being robbed; COWS and
other animals are being killed for
food by thieves, and the only way
to stop it is for, the farmer to get
money through federal aid, because
We have no security, and give the
men work to do.
Crops are all harvested and the
money is all spent. Fifty per cent
of the farmers are without food,
feed and clothing"
Many Are Starving
Never in the past, to our knoWl-
edge, has Columbia county ever
asked for assistance" wrote several
bankers of Waldo, Ark. but we are
experiencing at this time a critical
people starving and I'M
able TO secure employment.
Coupled with our crop failure and
the low price of cotton. the tenn
porary suspension of forty banks in
our state (even though some have
reopened), has had most demora-
lizing effect"
I'VE find two-thirds of the farm
ers of this vicinity Of Prairie county
without funds to have a crop for
next year, unless some assistance is
offered by outside help. We, as
find we can not go on,
said letter from Devall's Bluff,
Ark.
Eleven hundred families in Grant
county will suffer before spring If
outside aid does not come, wrote a
judge from Sheridan, Ark.
1.-THE Joint Stock Land bank is
helping here by foreclosing mort
cages" said a wire from Mariana,
Ark.
Available figures indicate Arkan-
sas is the worst hit Of the twenty
ona drought states.
Red Cross statistics are cited by
Caraway. showing 209, 900 families in
fifteen Of these are destitute and in
need Of help-probably 100000 in
all