AMERICAN CABLE NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 21 June 1927, Page 2

AMERICAN CABLE NEWS

[Australian & X.Z. Cnblo Association.]

AFTER THE FLOOD. WASHINGTON, June 19,

With the flood waters having reached a low stage of recession, Mr Hoover is leaving to-morroy to superintend the commencement of the rehabilitation work in the inundated Mississippi Valiev area.

The stupendous nature of the task can bo guessed by the fact that 11,500.000 acres are included in the zones that went under water in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana and that of a total of more than 600,000 persons are homeless refugees under the Red Cross care.

Mr Hoover has at his disposal fifteen million dollars for the preliminary work of rehabilitation, and it is expected that the coming session of Congress will appropriate tho bulk of the vast sum of money that will he required for the colossal undertaking.

Mr Hoover lias announced that the first thirty days will be devoted to a programme of sanitation. Medical experts from tlie Public Health Service, the State Health Sanitary Organisation. with Army and Navy doctors and civil technicians, will participate. The disposal of the carcases of thousands of dead animals, as well as the incineration of great quantities of dead vegetabio matter, all of which is a menace of the first magnitude to the great army of destitute farmers, now returning to the stricken areas, will he the first step. Mosquitoes are another big problem, and the infestation, according to the latest reports, lias assumed large proportions. Every precaution will be taken to minimise malaria, the danger of which is perhaps the most serious phase of the sanitation problem. Roads will then be rebuilt, and an arrangement lias already been made to finance the reconstruction of thousands of homes on long-term credits, at low interest, and to supply new furnishing for the farms. The industrial plants will then be rehabilitated and food control instituted.

It is contemplated to put everyone of the 120,000 families back on a productive footing. A Conference of State Governors will he held in July, the chief subject for consideration being the flood control.

Army engineers, co-operating with civilian engineers, all under the direction of General Jadwin, are already formulating a plan for future flood control' for submission to Congress in December. It is understood this plan involves new levees, with spillways, and probably reservoirs in the Upper Mississippi reaches and tributaries.

Mr Hoover said: “There is no minimising the size of the job facing those who are giving their time without remuneration or the hope of reward, except that of gratitude and the consciousness of duty well done, to tliis task, involving, as it does, the greatest peace-time calamity in the history of .our icounT'v. Personally il have no doubt wo are going to master the situation.”

WHEAT POOL. OTTAWA. June 19

Mr McLeod, Director of Publicity for the Canadian C’o-operative Wheat Producers, Limited, informed the piess that the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool has already secured enough contracts and renewals to carry on for another five years. This means that over 0,500.000 acres have signed with this pool for five years, beginning with the 192 S crop, and there is still over a year to go before the old contracts expire. The fact that the Saskatchewan Pool has already secured its quota, and that contracts are coming in very capably from tbe other two provinces, establishes beyond any question the functioning of the pool for at least another six years, and probably for all time, as part, if not the whole, of the grain marketing machinery of Western Canada.