Evening star., 1936-07-15
SHOWERS RELIEVE
PART Of MIDWEST
Temperature Again Scars
in NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Toll Is Over 3,400.
Ey tht Associated Press.

CHICAGO, July 15.-Scattered
thundershowers scored local triumphs
over the drought in the central part
of the Middle West and a mass of
cool air enveloped the States from the
Great Lakes eastward today, but
Weather Forecaster J. r. Lloyd said
the victory over the 12-day heat wave
was far from complete.
Added deaths in the affected areas
sent the list for the period over the
3,400 mark.
In the Northwest States Of Mon
tana, Wyoming. Nebraska and the
Dakotas. visited early this week by
rains, temperatures again scared, with
no indication Of additional showers.
This together with failure of the
drought relief generally TO materialize,
brought new outbursts of buying in
the grain pits of the Chicago Board
of Trade Corn jumped up more than
cents a bushel at times and wheat
as much as "A cents a bushel. and
the limit Of S cents in Kansas City.
Rye and oats also moved upward.
Death Toll Heavy.
Local storms drove down the tenn
perature in four States where the loss
Of life was the heaviest, but tabula-
ton in these States showed the fol-
lowing deaths:
Minnesota, TOT: Michigan. sos; Illi-
nois, 40l. and Wisconsin, 1863.
These States furnished more than
half of the Nations total.
Hot weather continued over the
lower Missouri Valley, the middle and
upper Mississippi and Ohio Valleys
and the southwest portion of the Great
Lakes region.
Maximum temperatures of 100 or
higher were general in the Middle
West yesterday. Highest recordings
were at Davenport, Iowa, with 1l2 de-
grees, and Peoria, Ill; Springfield, Ill:
Dubuque, Iowa, and Terre Haute, Ind,
all with ITO degrees.
Rains totaling 0.88 Of an inch fell
at Springfield, ILL.,. breaking the heat
wave there, at Green Bay, Wis, and
in New York City.
Rain Falls in Wisconsin.
An inch of rain fell in the Fox River
Valley and the door peninsula in Wis
consin, and half an inch fell in the
North Central portion of the State.
Light rains fell in the Western part.
To the list of a half dozen cities in
which the price paid farmers for milk
was boosted because of drought and
a,,f cIn +Dla
added Pittsburgh. with a 1-cent-a-
quart retail price increase expected
to follow.
The heat and drought continued to
dry up rivers and streams. The flow
of the Ohio River was reduced to a
comparative trickle. Its volume was
scarcely one-seventieth Of that at flood
stage four months ago.
Agriculture officials said privately
that $35 100000 to $4,000, 900 prob
ably would not be an excessive esti-
mate of the damage to Illinois crops.
Yesterday the total damage to the
country as a result of the heat wave
was estimated at more than one billion
dollars.
corn crop lmperneu.
At Washington the Weather Bureau
said that more or less irreparable
damage" had been done to the corn
crop as a whole, but that the bulk Of
the crop would recover if rain and
cooler weather come soon. Most of
the crop in Iowa was said to be still
in fair condition.
The greatest harm to the corn crop
SO far has occurred in Missouri, Kan
sas and Oklahoma, the bulletin said.
En- route to Bismarck, N. Dak., to
direct a cleanup Of tine drought
wreckage in the States where the
aridity was most costly to crops and
live sock, Resettlement Administrator
Rexford G. Tugwell and four aides
boarded a train at Chicago.
He said he planned to make a per-
sonal study Of drought conditions in
the Dakotas and to get the resettle-
ment Offices in strategic points func-
tioning properly"
AS heat relief impended or arrived
last night, the Nation counted a stag
gering total of more than 1000 fatali-
ties, directly or indirectly attributable
to high temperatures, in single day.
For time yesterday, before rain
drove down the mercury, harassed
police and medical authorities Of
Minneapolis were forced to handle
heat death cases at the rate Of three
every minute, comparable to condi-
tions in the influenza epidemic Of
World War days. The same compar-
ison was made by morgue attendants