“We are not so much concerned about the present, although there are some serious cases we are forced to handle now. The problem most difficult to solve, and which creates intense anxiety, is how these hundreds of dependents, unable to find employment to which they can adapt themselves, are to be fed during the coming winter. This can only be done with the kind permission of the Red Cross, to draw upon our share of the fund, which that worthy organization is endeavoring to swell through its urgent appeals to the people of the whole State for money donations, added to that furnished by local contributors. “Another point,” said Mr. Montgomery, “which I wish to make plain: The idea has gone abroad that the beneficiaries to this fund are only colored people. This is a grave error. Many deserving white people, some of whom were in comparatively easy circumstances previous to the flood, have now become miserably reduced through this visitation of God. Help is solicited for them because help is sorely needed. They ask bread; can we give them a stone? We propose to care for the sufferers of both races.” Mayor Miles also took a dismal view of the future unless help came. To the Red Cross they look for it. Mr. Davis, a large planter, spoke in a manly, yet pathetic vein. He stated that his losses had been immense, but that to the best of his ability he had been feeding from his scanty store his helpless, distressed, starving neighbors, white and colored, in their fearful poverty and want. He was willing, and intended to go as far as his circumstances permitted, aye, to make sacrifices in this humanitarian work. That is the spirit which pervades the neighborhood. The Citizens’ Relief Committee, composed of their first citizens, has the Honorable S. C. Miles, Mayor of Marion, as Chairman, and Mr. Albert G. Woods, as Treasurer. In conclusion, the emergency may be thus summed up: Our prospects are very discouraging. Money is superlatively required. It must be had if human lives are to be saved. The final analysis of the case reads thus: Food or starvation, life or death. Only with money can the evil be averted. It would be unreasonable to expect more from the Red Cross fund. Their provision has been bountiful. Our treasury, however, needs replenishment. After help already rendered, there remains in our treasury about $1,000. By January this amount will be materially reduced, as the committees require aid without delay, and must have it. This small sum is all we can count on to keep the wolf of hunger from the doors of one thousand human beings for six months, during the winter, the most trying season of the year. It does not take a skilled mathematician to tell how far this will go. How long will this last? Echo answers “how long?” Disasters of wider extent and affecting more people are on record. Yet without an attempt at exaggeration, I affirm that never has any been more severe. REPORT OF INVESTIGATION IN FLOODED DISTRICTS OF SOUTH CAROLINA