The account of the conditions in the Pee Dee sections is equally
important:
On October 20th last I visited the City of Marion from which radiates the
principal business of the Pee Dee section. On my arrival I was met at
the depot by Mayor Miles, Associate Justice Woods, of the Supreme Court
of South Carolina; Congressman Ellerbee, and many other citizens of
prominence and distinction in South Carolina, and beyond her borders—an
evidence of their keen anxiety to put themselves in position to provide
relief for their unfortunate and crushed neighbors. Two meetings were
held that day—one in the morning, the other in the afternoon. The matter
was carefully discussed and weighed in every particular. Mayor Miles
presided at each meeting.
Hon. W. J. Montgomery, President of the Bank of Marion and Senator from
Marion County, spoke as follows:
“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.