Louis Alfred Wiltz

“ By the system adopted the donations of the charitable are sure to do the most good to those who are made destitute by the flood. Wise precaution is taken to avoid the encouragement of idleness by strictly withholding relief from such as find work on lands not overflowed, and who refuse to labor; a precaution which I commend and approve. Careful, systematic economy is employed in all relief measures.
At their request and yours, I have examined your accounts as Treasurer of the relief fund and the accounts and vouchers of the committees, finding all correct and in order. ”

“ The great inundation will subside not faster than one or two inches each day, uncovering the land by degrees so slow and tedious as to weary the hopes and sicken the hearts of the owners and tillers of the soil. ”

“ The levees could not withstand the Mississippi in its mighty and ruthless violence, and they gave way in numerous crevasses, varying from one hundred to five thousand feet in width, aggregating fully six miles. Through these great chasms the flood has been pouring since the 15th April, in a stream seven feet in average depth and at the rate of more than seven miles an hour. More water is even now flowing from the great river over the farms and plantations of Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana, than falls over Niagara. ”

“ Nothing less than $1,000,000 in supplies will enable these people to re-commence and continue to labor where they are, until the earliest products of the soil can give subsistence, and if not sustained to that extent who shall say what crimes may not be committed, if crime it could be called, in the desperation of these starving thousands, thrown upon communities, now barely self-supporting? ”

“ J. M. Sandidge, of our Relief Committee, who hears or reads the appeals of the distressed and who is well acquainted with the overflowed region and the situation of the inhabitants.
The few mules, horses and cattle preserved from the flood will be unfit for any immediate service, and must continue to live, if they live at all, upon the leaves, moss and cane tops, until such time as the grass can grow again.
The people, with nothing now, will have no more when the water subsides; and cannot have until the land can be made to yield its fruits. ”

“ However generous the people of the country, and of the cities and towns might be, adequate relief from such quarters, could not be depended on; there can be no sufficient aid extended, except through the bounty of the General Government. ”

“ By a well organized system everything received is properly accounted for and promptly applied. I am pleased to say that you and the members of your committees have shown much executive and administrative ability, and that the disposition of contributions has been so careful and so judicious as to merit entire confidence. ”