Evening Star Newspaper, January 27, 1937, Page 4

A—4 *» LOWERING RIVER CHEERS CINCINNATI 30,000 Homeless Await Re- sumption of Domestic Life Hopefully. BY the Associated Press. CINCINNATI, Ohio, January 27.— Cincinnati saw the angry Ohio River sprawling over one-fifth of the city today and took new hope that its homes soon would be lighted, its water faucets responsive to the touch and fts 30,000 homeless happy again at their firesides. By fractions of an inch the de- structive stream receded from the high stages which blotted out most of the eity's lights, halted its power and water plants and spread fire, priva- tion and the threat of disease along {ts streets. W. C. Devereaux watched the river with tired eyes and held out hope that the crest of the flood waters was reached when his gauges read 79.99 feet yesteriay. There was & possi- bility that river conditions would bring € second crest exceeding 80 feet. For two nours last night the stage remained at 79.73 feet and then con- tinued its slow arop. Devereaux said “If it goes down a foot in the next 24 hours it will be doing fine.” Renewed Power Promised. D. S. Brown, power company of- ficial, cheered a populace weary of candlelight and lanterns with the word the generating plants would be ready to go within 48 hours after the river fell to a stage of 75 feet. There were some who thought this happy day might be reached within a week. Red Cross leaders and welfare offi- cials emphasized the campaign to ease discomfort and privation as the swollen Ohio showed signs of relax- m'gfhere still was no street car service. Passengers crowded three deep in the aisles of busses. Traffic cops in boots waved inquisitive motorists away from the flooded area. Men, women and children who left their homes through second-story windows in boats rested cheerfully in churches, schools and other public buildings. A baby was born to one homeless couple in the city hall at suburban Norwood. Hospitals and health authorities were ready for any emergency, but the Red Cross reported the city was in no danger of an epidemic. Serum for Ashland. Col. Frederick L. Martin, command- ing officer of the Army's Wright Field at Dayton, returned to Dayton from Indianapolis with typhoid anti-toxin serum and swid it would be flown to Ashland, Ky, and dropped on para- chutes to relief workers there. Col. Martin made all planes at Wright Field available for flood duty. Dr. F. H. Harder, acting health commissioner, looked over the health | situation and said “We're lucky.” “I don't know whether we're lucky,” he added, “or whether Providence is smiling on us. We are having less sickness than last year. There is only one-quarter as much diphtheria as last year.” Carrying palls, jars and bottles to wells, springs and ‘“water stations” established by the city, then return- ing home to boil it, Cincinnati’s flood- weary citizens cheerfully accepted the word of city officials that ample water for drinking and cooking soon wowld be available to all. Dishes were piled high in thou- sands of waterless kitchen sinks, and | waitresses set paper plates and cups without saucers before restaurant pa- trons without a smile as the word | went out to avold using water for washing dishes. Train Service Curtailed. Railroads continued to operate to- day under drastically curtailed sched- ules. The Chesapeake & Ohio expanded its special shuttle service between Cincinnati and the Northern Ken- tucky cities. The C. & O. is operating no other trains in and out of Cincinnati. The Louisville & Nashville and the Norfolk & Western have suspended service, The Baltimore & Ohio continued to operate about 20 of its 30 trains, but Columbus, Ohio, was the limit of di- rect service eastward. Virtually all| trains operating used suburban sta- tions. Busses operated on reduced sched- ule between Cincinnati and Colum- bus, Cleveland, Chicago, Indianapo- | lis and Detroit. Albert H. Morrill, chairman of the | Emergency Flood Control Committee, ordered that all unauthorized ship- ments of food into Cincinnati cease. Morrill said he had information that | 75 freight carloads of such food were beginning to arrive or on the way. HUNDREDS GIVEN SHELTER. Central and Lower Ohio Cities Meccas of Refugees. COLUMBUS, Ohio, January 27 {®)—Central and Lower Ohio cities became meccas of mercy last night as refugees streamed out of inundated communities along the flooded Ohio Valley. At Columbus, nearly 600 Ports< mouth residents, worn from days of struggle against the rising river which finally drove them from their homes, rested in emergency shelters. The American Red Cross, providing food and other supplies for the flood refugees, said arrangements had been made to provide similar quarters in more than half a dozen other cities if the need became acute. Portsmouth victims arrived here on & special train. A second special car- ried more than 300 refugees from Portsmouth to Chillicothe. Red Cross officials considered to- night the removal of at least 1,000 residents of Pomeroy and Middleport to Athens. The Masonic Temple and a church in Columbus were filled with the homeless from Portsmouth—many of them small children. More than 20 persons were under hospital treat- ment. Portsmouth’s homeless enjoyed the luxury of regular warm meals, clean,-comfortable beds and as many baths as they wished. Red Cross nurses washed and dressed the chil- dren as exhausted mothers regained strength. Woman Elected Speaker. PHOENIX, Ariz., January 27 (#).— The Arizona House of Representa- tives elected a woman speaker pro tem yesterday for the first time in his- tory. She is Mrs. Bridgie Porter, vet- eran of four regular and five special sessions. Her husband is a Phoenix fireman. 3 THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, the Capitol in the background. of that day, who is now 86 years of age and lives was made on Pennsylvania avenue between Ninth horse-drawn vehicles plowing through the water. < D. C. Man Resurrects Pictures He Took of °89 Capital F lood‘ Pictures of the fidwestern flood today prompted an 86-year-old former photographer to dig through old papers and res- urrect some in- teresting photo- graphs he took of W shington's own “high water” of 1889. That was the | year of the great Johnstown flood and, according to T. W. S. Phelps, veteran camera- man, the year of the Capital's big- gest flood —and he produced the |photozgraphs to | prove it. Two of his “shots” are re- produced herewith. Phelps had a public studio at 927 Pennsylvania avenue in those days and the water came right up to his doorstep. “Boats rowed right past my place on the Avenue” the octogenarian | recalled in an interview. “Water was everywhere and business was sus- pended until the flood receded.” T. W. 8. Phelps. | He exhibited photographs, remark- ably well preserved, of a vast ex- | panse of water on the Mall, of horse | cars plowing through the flood on {'Water street, of deep water around the old Pennsylvania station on Pennsylvania avenue and of heavy | currents surging under the old wooden Aqueduct Bridge, In Georgetown. In excellent health despite his ad- vanced age, Phelps recalled attending the inaugurations of James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln and of selling i35 | extra editions of The Star during the | Civil War period. | The son of a Methodist minister, he was born in Cumberland. Md., while his father had a pastorate there, but § | bas spent more than half a century {in Washington or immediate vicinity. the Two views of Washington’s big flood of 1889, made by T. W. S. Phelps, an expert photographer at 105 Wine street, Hyattsville, Md. The upper and Tenth streets and shows horse cars and Lower is a scene in the Mall at Third street, with durability of the face of the shoe | factory. Big Building Saved. Flame leaped across the water, flicked the brick front, and blackened it. But the big building did not catch fire. Flame darted from the other side of the block, toward a great stretch of old street car barns, but again the fire did not catch. An hour later the red glare died, the walls crashed in, and the gravest single moment Louis- ville has faced since the terror started was over. Through all this went on the tireless, staggering work of relief. Calls from the sick rang through the air as one | local broadcasting station poured out a continual tale of tragedy, of thou- | sands still waiting evacuation in water- soaked houses, of the increasing num- | ber of desperately ill needing quick attention and removal to hospitals. | 1t is estimated that close to 20,000 still | He was a photographer in the su-! | pervising architect’s office of the| Treasury in the early 80s, but opened up a commercal studio on Pennsylvania avenue in 1886. Later he was employed at the Bureau of Engravng and Printing and in the| District Water Department, in 1931. | He resides with friends at 105 Wine | street, Hyattsville, Md. retiring Louisville (Continued From First Page.) | answering the call of Mayor Neville Miller for police assistance, rushed | ravaged as never before by the crush- | ing force of the Ohio. Relief Workers Back in Fight. Thousands of relief workers, doctors, | nurses, police, National Guardsmen, | boat men who haven't slept for days, staggered back into the fight, holding on by nerve alone until reln!orce-‘ ments could come up. The scope of the disaster broadened rather than lessened with the com- parative pause in the rise of waters sonville and New Albany, Ind., just across the river, inflicting property admit must total $100,000,000 in a 10-mile area, And as doctors battled a rising tide of disease attributed to the flood, watched fearfully for signs of typhoid, malaria, and counted in the thousands cases of pneumonia due to lightless, heatless, foodless homes and exposure, the danger of official squabbling mar- ring the splendid, gigantic work of re- lief disappeared after & three-hour early morning conference between Federal Army and civil authorities. Out on Bowman Field, where all day yesterday 47 huge air liners and tiny planes swooped to swashy landings with desperately needed medical sup- plies, 200 of the 600 regular soldiers | from Fort Benjamin Harrison, Ind, in camp throughout the night, were ordered to take over the city’s police duties at 7 am. They will alternate | policing the city in 24-hour shifts with Louisville officers. Louisville police were told to go home | and sleep 24 hours. As provost mar- shal, the Mayor will command both troops and police. Mayor’s Plea for Aid. The Mayor, exhausted by his own three-day sleepless drive, indicated that military officers had insisted the soldiers be used only for certain types of duty. In a radio speech last night he said: Y disease and epidemic. * * * Electric service is completely out of commis- sion. * * * It would be impossible to cope with a major fire. * * * From constant duty for the past four days, departments of the city are experienc- ing a physical breakdown. * * * There is a shortage of police engineering, and medical services. * * * Although over 600 Federal troops have arrived, mile itary regulations do not appear to permit the Federal Army to-be used for policing. * * * In effect the Federal troops are available to us only in the event of actual riot or insurrection. * * * In view of the most desperate and immediate need for 500 trained men, will the Mayors of other Amer- ican cities send me by airplane at once as many uniformed policemen as can be spared?” As exhausted, breaking Louisville waited prayerfully aid, it looked State and city officers into a section | that have all but swept away Jeffer- | “There is the constant threat of | back upon a night of horror such as few cities ever have experienced. the night and saw all three burn them- | selves down to comparative “control” without human hindrance. First came the Louisville Varnish ‘Works, a huge structure packed with inflammable materials, at Fourteenth water front district. Fire started there during the day, roared up, subsided. roared up again through the night as firemen, unable to get their apparatus through water that stood 10 feet deep, raged at their impotence, hoped only that flaming liquids would not sweep over the water to ignite the entire sec- tion. Damage was estimated at $500,- 000. Fire Fighting Hazardous. ‘The only chance firemen have to water is not too deep for their pumpers | to get within working distance, al- though deep enough to be drawn into hoses and poured on the flames. But each time fire broke out the burning structures were beyond reach. ‘There was an explosion, then a fire that burned itself out quickly in & garage, and finally the awesome spec- tacle of am entire block of the old Illi- nols Central Railroad, sheds lighting the night with flame as again firemen were held blocks away by water a dozen feet deep near that section of Main and Rowan streets. Frantic rescuers in leaking, battered rowboats, buffeted by three days of evacuating thousands from upper stories of flooded sections, rallied to the call and started removing residents of the poorer dwellings that mnestled just back of the flames, but out of the direction of a harsh, biting easterly wind. Against a background of fire dozens of those who had stuck to their houses could be seen clinging to the slanting roof tops, hoplessly watching the crimson tongues leap higher and higher, caught between the flaming devil and the Ohio’s deep brown seas. Across one street from the roaring block, but separated by 10 feet of water, was the building of the Union Shoe Co., a big structure, partly filled now with mattress-making materials. For perhaps two hours the fate of all that section of Louisville, perhaps the entire city, seemed to hang on the At the mercy of any major fire, the | drawn citizens saw three start during | | fight & blaze is in a district where the | damage that the most conservative| are sticking to their homes in inun- | dated sections. ‘The calls come to the radio Station ‘WHAS, now operating weakly the city, by the partly functioning telephone lines, via messengers, over- taxed workers, Death Toll Uncertain, “There is no possibility of any ac- curate estimate of the flood death toll until the water goes down, inas- much as more than a dozen bodies have been found floating in the sub- merged west end alone in the past | 24 hours” Dr. Leavell, officer, said. “Many other persons may have been trapped in their homes in that section and drowned inside the dwellings. Other bodies may have been swept down the Ohio River. “The diseases we fear most—ma- laria, meningitis, scarlet fever, typhoid —take several days to develop. What's | going to happen next week is what and Maple streets, deep in the flooded we're afraid of.” Dr. Leavell has been on duty for three days, almost without rest. So | great has been the pressure on his assistants that two of them became hysterical last night and were put to bed. All the city’s 600 physicians, along with 100 junior and senior medical students, 170 nurses and all avail- able dentists, have been drafted into relief service. In isolated communi- ties, Dr. Leavell said, nurses were in charge of all medical activities. A survey of the city's hospitals and five emergency hospitals set up in schools and churches, traveling by boat and truck, revealed an excess of 2,300 patients above.the normal in the regulation hospitals and thousands recelving emergency treatment. St. Joseph’s Infirmary and St. Mary and Elizabeth Hospitals, with a total of 600 beds, are treating 1,100 | patients. Increase in Pneumonia, “There has been a tremendous in- crease in pneumonia deaths in the past three days” Dr. Leavell said. “Normally we have only a dozen in that time. “You can see the situation from the fact that the City Hospital, with a maximum capacity of 423, admitted 256 patients in one night. Capacity there has been increased to 800 by using an uncompleted dispensary annex. “There must be several hundred seriously i1l persons on whom we have had no report, “The force is so inadequate to the need that when a person like an alderman had his finger cut off it was not possible to send him medical aid. We are still trying to get help to Sheriff Watson Lindsey of Jefferson County. We heard he had a broken leg, but we can't get to him.” Dr. Leavell said that so great is the number of sick that several times & day he receives calls from small emergency stations he did not know had been set up. Torn o TEA Today/ "SALADA' TEA @0 The lowrt Priced Fine T’Ywm Buy on | emergency batteries, from all parts of | D. C, WEDNESDAY, 10 CLEAN UPCGITY Portsmouth Will Get Rehabil- itation Moving at Earliest Opportunity. By the Associated Press. PORTSMOUTH, Ohio, January 27.— With its worst flood in history almost at crest stage, Portsmouth dug in today for the task of caring for refugees and preparing for a quick “clean-up.” City Council appropriated $200,000 to get rehabilitation work under way as soon as the flood waters of the Ohlo and Scioto Rivers, which rose past 74.18 feet at 9 a.m., started to recede. Cold weather throughout the valley slowed the rise of the Ohio. Here it was rising only .02 of a foot an hour and indications were a crest would be reached Thursday. Under nearly cloudless skies—one of the brightest days in nearly a month—a third relief train was being prepared to take 500 more flood vic- tims to a haven in Columbus. Sanitation Problem Critical, Relief officials said It was necessary to evacuate nearly 5,000 of the 35,000 | homeless in Greater Portsmouth be- cause of & critical sanitation problem. More than 1500 already have been moved from the city. More than 600 colored refugees were taken to Columbus today only after the Red Cross promised them, in writing, that they would be returned | to this watery, desolate city after the flood tide of the Ohio has receded. ‘The refugees, taken from Lincoln School, where 1,600 of them have hud- dled for five days, held an “indignation meeting” progress, and said they were afraid they might be left stranded in Colum- bus after the emergency was past. The Red Cross promise and an ex- hortation by City Manager Frank Sheehan finally prevailed. Many on Hilltops. About 2,000 refugees already have | been removed to Columbus and Chilli- cothe. 35,000 others still huddled in hilltop refuges here, the technique of rescue and relief is becoming more skillful with days of practice, Police Chief Harry Sheets clamped & rigid restriction on the number of boats plying the flooded 75 per cent of the city. Orin Graves, in com- mand of the rescue fleet, said about 13,000 persons still were in the flooded | sections and refused to leave, | At Ironton, Ohio, 25 miles up the | river, serious flood conditions prompt- | ed Gov. Martin L. Davey to hurry %o the city, While Col. Harry D. Jack. ‘son, National Guard officer in charge, appealed for two more companies of | Guardsmen, more medicine and food. Communication is by radio only. | All telephone service has failed. State Highway Patrolman W. L. | Zink, leaving Ironton to report to the Governor's party, said an entire city block burned yesterday before the fire could be extinguished. Evacuation (Continued From First Page.) | cars to move the population along the lower Mississippi to higher ground. Secretary Woodring, after arranging | details with the Army high command, said headquarters for the mass evacu- ation would be established at Jackson, Miss. He had before him & report from Army engineers saying the new levees erected along the lower Mississippi and hitherto untested by severe floods were | capable of handling 2.400,000 cubic ;reec of water per second, while the angry Ohio, swollen to the greatest | the healthy proportions in history, was expected | | to dump & minimum of 3,000,000 cubic | feet into the Mississippi when the flood | crest reaches there. Reports from Army engineers said concern was felt over the danger of greatly-increased floods along the Mis- sissippi should any swollen tributaries | begin emptying their flood crests into the “Father of Waters.” Thousands to Be Evacuated. ‘Thousands of persons, including whole towns as well as isolated planta- tions and farms are included in the strip blocked out on either side of the stream for mandatory evacuation. “Evacuation is the Army's primary mission now if the flood cannot be held by the levees,” a War Depart- ment spokesman sald. Instructions to the corp area com- manders, with headquarters at At- lanta, Omaha, Nebr., and San Anto- nio, Tex., ordered them to have com- plete evacuation plans in readiness by 6 pm. Friday and authorized them to call in the aid not only of their own troops of the Regular Army, but members of the Civilian Conservation ized Reserve and the Red Cross. ‘The general instructions said the lower Mississippi levees, particularly might be severely strained, although the water in sight can be controlled. of levees, including both sides of the river, from Cairo to New Orleans. The largest population is located on the west bank of the stream. Sixteen cities and towns in the area subject to evacuation should the ulation of 866,169 persons. Other per- sons living in the region, it is be- lieved, would bring the total popula- tion affected well over 1,000,000. The cities and towns believed to be in the threatened area are Cairo, IIl.; Newport, Helena, Pine Bluff and Arkansas City, Ark.; Memphis, Tenn,; Rosedale, Grenada, Greenwood, Green- ville, Yazoo City, Vicksburg and Natchez, Miss, and Morganza, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, La. With the army of homeless swelled ““TAREYTON " Thores SOMETHING aboul lhem you'll like JANUARY 27, 1937. Shocking Experience Told by Refugees From Flood Areas By the Associated Press. INDIANAPOLIS, January 27.— Terrified and tired refugees came into the State capital, bringing stories of shocking experiences. Dr. H. R. Wilbur, Clark County Hospital chief, arrived with a trainload of patients. Pointing to two tiny girls, Mary Margaret and Dorothy Sullivan, he ex- plained, “They walked into the hospital with notes attached to them saying, ‘Our name is Sulli- van. Please take care of us.’ We think their mother is the wife of an Arthur Sulllvan in Jeffer- sonville, but of that we are not sure.” to 750,000, the toll of known dead by drowning reached 137—hundreds more were missing—and estimates of prop- | erty damage soared far beyond the | $300,000,000 mark, completely over- shadowing the havoc of the 1927 Mis- sissippi River disaster. Snow, hunger and pestilence wrote | & black picture of human misery. At Louisville, Ky., Health Commissioner Dr. Hugh R. Leavell said at least 200 victims had died of diseases attributed directly to flood conditions. B Twenty more bodies, found floating in the streets of Louisville, lay in the morgue today. “Many others have been trapped in their homes and drowned inside the | dwellings,” said Dr. Leavell. “Other bodles may Lave been swept down the | river.” Raise Seawall at Cairo. while the removal was in | Although there are 30,000 to | Corp, the National Guard, the Organ- | in the Memphis engineering district, | engineers now eéxpress the belief that | ‘There are approximately 2,000 miles | necessity arise have a combined pop- | As the flood waters momentarily | Paused in their four-day rise to rec- ord-breaking heights in the Ohio| | River Valley, Army Engineers at Cairo, Ill—the dike-walled island city where the Ohio pours into the | Mississippi—directed the labors of ,000 volunteers hastily throwing 3-foot earthen bulwark on top of | the 60-foot seawall against the on- | coming assault of the Ohio's crest. Below Cairo, in the line of ap- proach, residents of Tiptonville, Tenn., | and New Madrid, Mo, were told to| | evacuate the riverside region at once. | “The levees are sure to break,” | warned George Myer, Red Cross na- tional director. “Those people will drown like rats in a trap unless they get out now—while there is still time.” ‘The urgency of his appeal met a counter-assurance from Lieut. Col. | Eugene Reybold, district chief of United States Army Engineers in the area below Cairo. Major Levees Holding. | Col. Reybold, who yesterday pre- dicted a “superflood,” declared con- fidently: ! | “All major levees are holding firm | and in good condition, and we ex- pect to keep them in that condition. The water is producing no serious | strain below the Cairo area.” Col. Reybold ordere¢ immadiate delivery of 5,000,000 gunnysacks for the erection of sandbag bulwarks, 15 cars of lumber, 210 outboard motor- boats. 300 small boats, 300 life jarkets and 1,500 lanterns in preparation for the coming emergency. | At Calro itself, the flood stage re- mained stationary at 58.5 feet—just 1.5 from topping the 60-foot seawall that guards the city on three si Far below, at Memphis, the Missis~ sippi rose to 43 feet on the gauge, within two feet of an all-time high. Acting under martial law, troops invaded Eastern Arkansas’ new flood | crisis zone today to evacuate thou- sands of lowlanders imperiled by the Mississippi River's threatened sweep through its levees at Mellwood. Engineers reported the crumbling protecting wall may hold for several days. They said a break would send flood waters over more than 100,000 acres of fertile delta country. Rushing a resolution through the Legislature authorizing Gov. Carl E. Bailey to invoke his military authority over the threatened area, Senator Luther Wilkes, Helena, asserted more than 50,000 residents behind the Mell- vood levee would have to leave im- mediately. Bailey clamped martial law over portions of Phillips and Desha Coun- ties, surrounding Mellwood and im- mediately adjacent to the confluence | of the White and Mississippi Rivers | in Southeast Arkansas. He ordered | five units of State militia into the | Tegion. (Continued From First Page.) | which said the levee system on the | lower Mississippi would not be able to withstand the present flood when it | reaches its crest, probably the mter; | | | Woodring had reports from engineers | | | | part of this week. | The vast Birds Point spillway in | Missouri probably will be filled by to- morrow. Then, engineers expect a | | new rise on the Ohio here which will | | send it to 61 feet, & foot over the sea wall, atop which an army of 1,000 | men labored to build a bulkhead | against the water. | Predict 61-foot Crest. River forecasters here adhered to their original prediction of a 61-foot | crest, despite the fact the river went | many feet higher than that at Cin- | cinnati and Louisville. The transfer of flood refugees of | Paducah, Ky., into Golconda, Ill, be- ' | gan today, although Golconda itself | was partially flooded. Barges carried the refugees to @ Government dredge, | tied up at Golconda, from which they made their way across a pontoon | bridge ramp to safety. Down in the Birds Point spinway.i | purposely sacrificed to the flood to | ease tension at Cairo, the Mississippi | flowed over 85 per cent of the low- land area today. Should the War De- | partment's $21,000,000 floodway fail | to accomplish its purpose, water would sweep over the setback levee to inun- | date miles of farmland which have not been flooded since 1927. | Under the direction of Army engi- | CIGARETTES | Seventeenth and K streets neers, 2,500 W. P. A. workers labored on the setback levee. The number was 1,000 more than worked there yester- day. New Madrid Fearful. At New Madrid, already partly de- serted by alarmed citizens, there was fear a levee at the foot of the spillway would go out and loose the flood over the town. The Red Cross yesterday advised residents of communities from New Madrid to Blytheville, Ark, to evacuate their homes. In throwing open the spillway—its first test since completion in 1931, at a cost of $21,000,000—Army Engineers | used more than a ton of explosives. Three persons—among those who remained at their homes, despite warn- ings—were known to have lost their lives and several others disrppeared as the waters poured over the area. Red Cross officials said last night between 100 and 200 were still in the flood basin. Several hundred were rescued or left the area vesterday. 12,000 Homeless Aided. More than 12,00" homeless persons, some from Tenn ssee, were aided in Southeast Missouri. “flood babies’ were born among the refugees. The Southern Illinois flood situation made a dark picture. At least a dozen | PRESIDENT ENDS POWER POOL TALKS Takes Action Because 19 Companies Obtained In- junction Against T.V.A, By the Associated Press. President Roosevelt shaped a tenta- tive course today toward expanded public ownership of electric power by breaking off negotiations to pool Gov- ernment and private power in the Tennessee Valley. He took the action, he said, because 19 utility companies obtained a “sweeping preliminary injunction™ against the Tennessee Valley Author- ity. Explaining this precluded a trans- mission agreement, he wrote 14 Gov- ernment and private conferees yester- day that meetings would be disgon- | tinued. Shawneetown, Brookport and Mau- nie were buried in water, while Har- | risburg, 22 miles from the Ohio River, prepared for inundation of 85 per cent of the city as backwater from the flood continued to move higher. One $1,000,000 coal mine was considered a total loss, as water filled the workings, | and other mines were threatened New Haven, isolated for days, was badly in need of food. A detachment of engineers prepared to build a pon- toon bridge over flooded sections of highway into Golconda to keep that city from isolation. Mounds, 10 miles north of Cairo, was almost completely evacuated, as back- water flowed into the town following & break in a nearby levee. Refugees crowded stations all along the Illinois Central Railroad, which goes through the State from Cairo, LA FOLLETTE PROBER WILL SPEAK FRIDAY Ralph Winsted to Be One of Three Addressing Women's Trade Union League. Ralph Winsted, former investigator with the La Follette committee of the Senate, will be one of three speakers to address the Women's Trade Union League at a meeting Friday at 8:15 pm. at the Y. W. C. A. Building, will speak on “Civil Libe: Other speakers will be Mrs. William F. Kittle, president of the League of Women Voters of the District, who will discuss the bill for a 40-hour work week for women, and Lois Babcock, executive secretary of the Govern- | ment Workers' Council. Winsted | The Commonwealth & Southern Utility Co. protested the action. Wen- dell Willkie, its president, said in New York: “I am unable to understand how the temporary injunction precludes either the pooling of transmission, the study- ing of the various problems arising out of the T. V. A. operations or the working out of a permanent solution. “The dismissal of the law suit or the dissolution of the injunction would place our property at the mercy of the uncontrolled discretion of the T. V. A.” Mr. Roosevelt said at a press con- ference the decision to end the power Ppool conferences would not affect ne- gotiations to renew the Common- wealth & Southern contract te buy Government power from the Tennes- see Valley Authority. The contract | expires next Wednesday. One administration mented: “There's no reason why the Gov- ernment should sacrifice this sizable | revenue.” { Under that agreement, the private utility buys power at wholesale from | the Government and retails it to several communities including Chat- tanooga, Tenn. In the background of the entire situation is the fencing between Chairman Arthur E. Morgan of T. V. A. and Directed David Lilienthal for leadership of the administration's first regional planning experiment. Most observers agreed Morgan could take little comfort from the Presi- dent's decision, coming within two weeks of the former educator’s pro- posal for a Nation-wide truce with private utiiities Lilienthal has contended there was no common ground for negotiations as long as T. V. A. and private com- panies are firing away at each other | in court rooms. leader com- FLORSHEIM SHOES EVEN DRESS STYLES ARE ALSO INCLUDED —at timely reductions for you to wear at the President’s Ball. E very shoe is a genuine Florsheim, with nothing changed but the price. same fine leathers, the The same fine lasts, the same smart styles are all offered at real savings to you . . . HAHN MEN’S SHOPS—14th SOME STYLES $848 GG e TthG K e 3212 14th