FACING CLIMAX.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 188, 11 August 1930, Page 7

FACING CLIMAX.

RECORD DEVASTATION

Fires, Crop Losses and Disease In of Drought.

AMERICA GASPING FOR RAIN,

(United P.A.—Electric Telegraph— Copyright)

(Received 0.30 a.m.)

NEW YOKE, August 10,

Reports .to hand last evening from 48 States shoAV that nowhere is there any* appreciable rainfall, and the nation is battling , with the -worst drought in its history—one which economically will compare with last winter's industrial and' financial deflation in the seriousness of its after effects..

The President, Mr. .Hoover, is at. his summer camp in the Virginia mountains, only a few miles from where volunteers arc combating a large forest fire. '

Twelve middle-western States—lllinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, AVest Virginia, Ohio, Kansas, Tennessee, lowa, Indiana, Ohio and Arkansas—have reached the point where nothing short of national aid will cany through a large proportion of marginal producers who otherwise will be ruined.

Mr. Hoover on Friday ordered the Governors of these twelve States to confer and decide Upon methods for the relief of the sufferers. , The weather reports arc still poor, and no rain is indicated at present.

The President's week-end holiday has been turned into an emergency reliefplanning campaign. He has summoned ether Federal .officials for advice on immediate measures such as those adopted on the occasion of the Mississippi floods for the relief of those suffering, and permanent measures for their rehabilitation'.

One-twelfth of the livestock and 1,000,000 families have been .found to be badly affected. Epidemics of typhoid and other diseases are feared.

In several areas the temperatures continue to be high. Washington on Friday suffered its tenth day of heat over '100 degrees, with high point at 10S degrees.

It was announced last evening , that the railways under Federal control will reduce freight rates on supplies for the afflicted fanners. « Red Cross Society The Red Cross Society announces tho mobilisation of all its national branches for tho administration of immediate aid. Tho, Department of Agriculture has issued a warning against jubilation over tho price of grain. It says: Only three States —Washington, Oregon and, California, which normally depend upon irrigation in tho summer—are ' not affected by protracted heat and lack of rain. This gives a fairly accurate conception of the extent of the damage.

From northern New . York to the Mississippi delta and to the northern tip of Idaho there are stagnant air, hot winds and blistering temperatures. Rivers, creeks and lakes are at record low levels. Large forest fires are raging in New England, Pennsylvania- and Virginia and sporadically throughout tho nation. . '

. There aro "baked? fruit orchards, the milk supply is dangerously diminished and maize fields are burning up at a rate of 3,000,000 bushels a day.

The pasturago in one-fourth of the country has been virtually destroyed. Kentucky's famous blue grass has turned white, and small garden pjroduco areas havo been wiped out...

Record devastation has been produced in six weeks of dry weather and no relief is ire. sight throughout the greater part of the country.

Paradoxically the cities'are probably the greatest sufferers. The water inipply in all the larger cities is seriously depleted and many communities are Employing sources believed to be contaminated. The health authorities are asking that this water shall be boiled before it is used. ,

In many cities in Virginia the authorities are using police patrols to see that water is used for household purposes only. Lack of milk has resulted in an increase in- the price, notably in New' York, where an added cent a quart means a burden of millions of dollars.

Fruit and vegetables are no longer freely available even fri New York, which has the best distributing system in the country. Prices have mounted and inferior foods are being freely dispensed. '

Although-30 per cent of the nation's population dwells in the 12 States which produce one-third of the country's food, and which aro the most seriously affected, the burden probably • will fail heavily upon the-50 per cent -of the population that dwells in the cities.

Whether the .situation will reach a stato of national calamity will be decided within the coming week. Much depends upon the rainfall necessary to save the remnants of many crops.