The Mahnomen Pioneer

Floods and Suds

Misfortune, it is said, brings out either the worst or the best in people. Confronted with sudden disaster, they reveal either their nobility or their utter selfishness. So it is unexpected to find in the reports of Red Cross disaster relief such an example of the human power to maintain the level of normalcy in trying conditions as this bit of news following a mid-western flood:

"Soap, washing powder, brooms mops, tubs these are the first requests of the flood sufferers, an examination of their requisition blanks reveals."

Bread and Blankets probably headed their lists, for the human body craves food and warmth. But that it craves the means to cleanliness almost as promptly is more surprising.

It is well that this more civilized want is felt. One of the imperative concerns of public health officials in any disaster is to set up sanitary safeguards at once, so that disease may be barred from entering the storm-swept area. Food must be kept pure, milk uncontaminated, the water supply working efficiently, drainage and plumbing made adequate to protect health. If their efforts are matched by those of householders, deprived of their furniture and choicest possessions, weary and discouraged and impoverished, who still insist on cleanly living conditions, some of the most serious consequences of storm and flood can be avoided. Cities can be built again by people who keep their health and their courage.

Perhaps there is, after all, more of heroism than of normalcy in this request. An optimist has been defined as a man who is handed a lemon and makes lemonade out of it.

Some more glowing words should be devised for the man who, when surrounded by a flood, calls for soap and makes suds.