naire and pauper, Orville Wright and humble scrub-woman, stand
shoulder to shoulder in the bread-line that winds towards the relief
stations, all alike dependent for once on charity for the barest
sustenance.

THE SYMPATHY OF NATIONS

These are the tragedies that touch our hearts. These are the tragedies
that have brought messages of condolence from King George of England,
from the King of Italy, from the Shah of Persia and from other monarchs
of Europe. These are the tragedies that impelled a widow in a small town
in Massachusetts, in sending her mite for the relief of the unfortunate,
to write: "Just one year ago, when the ill-fated Titanic deprived me of
my all, the Red Cross Society lost not a moment in coming to my aid."

These are tragedies, too, that have prompted wage-earners all over the
country to contribute to the relief of the flood sufferers a part of
their own means of support that could ill be spared--soiled and worn
bills and silver pieces laid down with unspoken sympathy by men and
women and children, too, who wanted nothing said about it and turned and
went out to face the struggle for existence again. These people did not
think twice about whether they should help those in greater necessity
than their own. They had been helping one another all their lives, and
it seemed not so much a duty as a natural thing to do to respond to the
call from the West, where people had lost their lives and others were
homeless and suffering.

THE COURAGE OF THE STRICKEN

This spirit of helpfulness is a fine thing. But even finer was the
spirit of self-help. Secretary Garrison's telegram to President Wilson
from the flooded districts that the people in the towns and cities
affected had the situation well in hand and that very little emergency
assistance was needed, was a splendid testimonial to the courage and the
resourcefulness of the people of the Middle West and the admirable
cheerfulness which they exhibited during the trying days that followed
the beginning of the calamity. There was not a whimper, but on the
contrary there was a spirit of optimism that must prove to be most
stimulating to the rest of the country.

MEN THAT SHOWED THEMSELVES HEROES

But perhaps the finest thing of all is the memory of the heroes that
showed themselves. When death and disaster, in the form of flood and
fire, swept Dayton, John H. Patterson arose with the tide to the level
of events. Patterson is the man, more than any