Evening star., 1940-01-28
Southern Cities Fiqhf
To Resume Routine
Despite Cold Wave
Welfare Agencies Toxed
As Mercury Remains
Below Freezing
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
ATLANTA, Jan. 27-Southerners
today took courage from forecasts
Of easing temperatures as they
fought to resume routine existence
interrupted earlier in the week by
the most severe cold wave in many
years.
Sub-zero readings were reported
In some sections again today
Tupelo, Miss, setting new record
for that State with IA below-but
for the South as whole the
Neatherman said moderation was in
sight. At Blairsville, Ga, an official
reading of II below was reported, a
new record for Georgia.
Business rocks along merrily in
Minneapolis, Montreal and Mil
waukee," the Atlanta Journal re-
minded its readers in a fun-page
advertisement. If their weather's
to be moved down here, it looks like
We can do business, too"
For the first time since February,
1899, ice packs on the Mississippi
had descended to Baton Rouge, La,
the State capital 100 miles above
New Orleans.
Suffering of a people unprepared
for such blasts was reflected in ap-
pea.s to welfare agencies. City
meeting places were heated and
opened to the transients and pow
stricken. City trucks were used
in Birmingham to expedite delivery
of the 100 to 200 pound sacks of coal
used in the heating of many Negro
homes.
Relief Agencies Taxed.
Relief agencies here and in other
parts OF the South were taxed by
persons suffering from the cold, but
officials of the Family Welfare So
ciety said 1t was mot disaster"
Henry B. Mays, director of the
Fulton County (Atlanta) Welfare
Department, said the demand for
direct relief in the Atlanta area was
up "at least so per cent"
Negroes are particularly hard hit
because they are inadequately
clothed and housed" he said. The
water situation is acute in Negro
areas where pipes are broken by the
cold and adequate supplies lacking .
In North Mississippi, where sub
freezing and near zero temperatures
have caused considerable suffering.
the Federal Surplus Commodity
Corp. sent several carloads of food.
Fires were kept burning in railroad
station stoves at Jackson, Miss, to
warm tlansients, and Mayor R. c.
Davis purchased a carload of coal
for suffering families at West Point,
Miss.
Cities Get Back to Normal.
Newspapers at Nashville, Tenn,
led a money-raising drive called the
winter Sufferers Relief Fund"
while the city resumed normal oper-
ations after hauling deep snow from
city streets.
The Salvation Army at Knoxville,
Tenn, turned its chapel into a home
for transients, Adjt. J. A. Shipp say
ing "Therell be no transients wan
dering half frozen in the streets if
we can help it,"
The Carolinas reported no special
hardships from the cold and snow
residents there being used to lower
temperatures than those farther
south, but in Richmond, Va, 16
inches of snow forced the closing of
nearly all stores and cigarette fac
tories earlier In the week. Business
was nearing normal again today.
Smudge pots remained lighted in
Florida citrus groves tonight and
airplanes, ordinarily used for insecti-
eide busting, were chartered by veg
etable growers to keep the air stirred
up over the rich vegetable belt.
No additional deaths directly at
tributable to the cold were reported
In the South.
NASSAU, Bahamas, Jan. 27 4'-
A biting breeze from the mainland
brought tropical Nassau its coolest
weather today since 1905. Shortly
before noon, the mercury dropped
to SIS. In mid-afternoon it rose
again to 61.