"I have requested": Simpson's statement and the subsequent account of and quotations from this meeting are all from detailed minutes of the meeting in executive committee minutes, July 25, 1927, CP.

"It is manifestly impossible": In addition to minutes of the meeting (July 25, 1927) in CP, see memo dictated by Monroe re his conversations with Wilkinson, June 3, 1927, M&LP.

The banks would continue: Executive committee minutes, June 29, 1927, CP.

"did not want to give": Orleans Levee Board minutes, July 20, 1927, and May 26, 1928, Orleans Levee Board.

it would give Butler $340,000: Orleans Levee Board minutes, May 26, 1928, Orleans Levee Board.

the railroad did not file: Executive committee minutes, August 3, 1927, CP.

"The City of New Orleans": SBV SBV, September 3, 1927.

"Orleans to Make": NOI NOI and and NOT NOT, September 4, 1927.

"New Orleans Makes Good": NOS NOS, September 4, 1927.

"City Keeps Faith": NOT-P NOT-P, September 4, 1927.

"shall be prima facie": Executive committee minutes, September 7 and 8, 1927, CP; see also memo dictated by Monroe re his earlier conversations with Wilkinson, June 3, 1927, M&LP.

"justly, fairly and fully": Executive committee minutes, September 7 and 8, 1927, CP; see also minutes of the Delacroix Corporation, formerly Acme Fur Company (thanks to Dorothy Benge, granddaughter of Manuel Molero, for opening them to me), November 11, 1927, to December 12, 1928; interview with Hugh Wilkinson, Jr., December 30, 1992; NOT, NOT-P NOT, NOT-P, September 7 through September 11, 1927.

"That statement": NOT, NOT-P NOT, NOT-P, September 8, 1927.

Molero's Acme Fur Company: Executive committee minutes, September 8-10, 1927, CP.

"The owner or lesse": SBV SBV, September 24, 1927, and July 7, 1928.

Those he did allow to be filed: Figures are from "Summary of Claims Filed, Dec. 31, 1928," M&LP; also Monroe to Levee Board, June 1929; both in ML. NOT-P NOT-P, December 30, 1928.

an average of $284 each: "Summary of Claims Filed," M&LP.

they were lucky to collect six: NOT NOT, January 14, 1929, and SBV SBV, January 14, 1929.

"a very good feature": Lou Wylie to a.s.sociation of Commerce, January 22 and 30, 1929, ACP.

"The disastrous floods": Monroe to Wylie, January 25, 1929, M&LP.

"We have viewed": Case 175,097, Mumphrey Bros. v. Orleans Levee Board Mumphrey Bros. v. Orleans Levee Board, transcript of argument and finding in M&LP.

"no cause of action": Test cases included Herman Burkhardt v. Board of Orleans Levee Commissioners Herman Burkhardt v. Board of Orleans Levee Commissioners, no. 178,420, Civil District Court, Division F; Charles Aduler v. Board of Levee Commissioners Charles Aduler v. Board of Levee Commissioners, no. 175,991, ODC; and John Williams v. Levee Board John Williams v. Levee Board, no. 175,463, ODC. Also, Alfred Oliver v. Board of Orleans Levee Commissioners Alfred Oliver v. Board of Orleans Levee Commissioners, no. 30,134, 169 La 438; Foret v. Board of Orleans Levee Commissioners Foret v. Board of Orleans Levee Commissioners, no. 30,063, La 427; and Fabre v. Levee Board Fabre v. Levee Board, no. 30,088, 170 La 210.

"'I am impressed'": See Monroe to Lou Wylie, January 25, 1929, M&LP; Burkhardt v. Board of Orleans Levee Commissioners; Oliver v. Board of Orleans Levee Commissioners; Foret v. Board of Orleans Levee Commissioners Burkhardt v. Board of Orleans Levee Commissioners; Oliver v. Board of Orleans Levee Commissioners; Foret v. Board of Orleans Levee Commissioners.

"irrelevant to this case": Burkhardt v. Board of Orleans Levee Commissioners Burkhardt v. Board of Orleans Levee Commissioners.

"the act of creating": See opinion, Foret v. Board of Orleans Levee Commissioners Foret v. Board of Orleans Levee Commissioners, M&LP.

"The judgment is affirmed": Ibid.

"due to the painstaking": Resolution of Orleans Levee Board, January 7, 1930, M&LP.

CHAPTER T THIRTY-ONE.

50 percent of all animals: "Economic Effects of the Mississippi Flood," Editorial Research Reports Editorial Research Reports, quoted in Arthur Frank, The Development of the Federal Program of Flood Control on the Mississippi River The Development of the Federal Program of Flood Control on the Mississippi River, p. 194.

"We shall weather": Stone to Crosby, September 1, 1927, RCP.

"Sometimes you find": LP to Judge D. H. Minor, May 31, 1927, PFP.

"Whether we are going": Percy Bell to Bessie Bell, May 12, 1927, courtesy of Charles Greenleaf Bell.

"[n]o real concerted effort": Memo from McCarty to Hoover and Fieser, September 1, 1927, RCP.

"Yesterday I went to Arkansas City": C. C. Neal to Mrs. Monroe, October 7, 1927, RRMP.

"The Boston Club was": LP to L. L. Myles, October 11, 1927, PFP.

"The civic authorities": Memo from McCarty to Robert Bondy, February 28, 1928, RCP.

"The public is insisting": See memo from Henry Baker to Fieser, May 2, 1927, RCP, box 741.

"organized": Ellis Hawley, Herbert Hoover as Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover as Secretary of Commerce, p. 65.

"We have before us": "Summary of Secretary Hoover's Statement at the First Meeting of the Louisiana Reconstruction Commission," May 23, 1927, HHPL.

"a blessing in disguise": NOS NOS, September 7, 1927.

He personally ordered the Red Cross: Robert Bondy to John Cremer, May 24, 1927, RCP.

home economists and agricultural extension agents: Robert Bondy to John Cremer, May 24, 1927, RCP; see also several reports by T. M. Campbell, an African-American agricultural extension worker, Department of Agriculture files, NA, RG 16, entry 17.

"definite program of agriculture": "Inter-office Memorandum," typed with Hoover's handwritten notes, June 10, 1927, HHPL.

"positively contrary": R. S. Wilson to C. W. Warburton, June 25, 1927, NA, RG 16, Secretary of Agriculture records, entry 17.

"undertake to loan money": Hoover to Christie Benet, June 13, 1927, HHPL; Benet to Hoover, June 14, 1927, HHPL; Hoover to DeWitt Smith, June 14, 1927, HHPL.

"Am more impressed than ever": Hoover to Meyer, May 8, 1927, HHPL.

Meyer immediately arranged: Wire from George Scott to Hoover, May 8, 1927, HHPL.

quadruple its capital: Hoover, "Memorandum for Credit Arrangement for Mississippi Flood Region," May 5, 1927, HHPL.

"You are not called upon to donate": JC-L JC-L, May 10 and 11, 1927.

"You are upon the firing line!": See handwritten notes by Hoover for June 13, 1927, meeting in Jackson, Mississippi, HHPL.

only 115: JC-L JC-L, May 19, 1927.

Less than half the quota: The final total raised in Mississippi was $315,000, including the $100,000 from Memphis. See Memorandum from John Cremer to H. Stuart Crawford, secretary to Coolidge, September 17, 1927, RCP.

In Arkansas, the numbers: Cremer to Hoover, September 17, 1927, RCP. Cremer states the total raised in Arkansas was $672,000, but this figure includes $100,000 from Memphis bankers and $500,000 from national sources. See below.

"If not": Oral history of Turner Catledge, HHPL. Note: Catledge incorrectly stated the amount. Hoover wired that the total was $200,000; see Hoover to Coolidge, May 24, 1927, HHPL.

"Have talked with Memphis": R. E. Kennington to Hoover, May 12, 1927, and undated reply handwritten by Hoover, HHPL.

By five o'clock: MC-A MC-A, May 27 and 30, 1927.

"This telegram for yourself": Pierson to Robert Ellis, May 26, 1927, HHPL.

"the business interests": Coolidge to Pierson, May 30, 1927, HHPL.

Pierson brought together: Ibid.

Hoover a.s.sured them: Hoover to W. H. Sullivan, May 30, 1927; Hoover to Crosby, May 30, 1927; both in HHPL.

"We cannot afford nationally": See Hoover to Pierson, May 28, 1927, HHPL.

"[L]arge planters who": Fieser to H. C. Couch, May 26, 1927, HHPL.

"warrant in": Quoted in Bruce Lohof, "Herbert Hoover and the 1927 Mississippi Flood Disaster," Ph.D. diss., p. 160.

"any economic or": Hoover, American Individualism American Individualism, p. 19.

"The most potent force": Ibid.

"in the midst": quoted in Joan Hoff Wilson, Herbert Hoover Herbert Hoover, p. 68.

government could "best serve": Quoted in William Appleman Williams, "What This Country Needs," New York Review of Books New York Review of Books, November 5, 1970, pp. 7-8.

"I made ninety-one": quoted in Lohof, "Herbert Hoover, Spokesman for Human Efficiency," p. 693.

"[Radio's] possibilities have": NYT NYT, May 15, 1927.

They were also given: DeWitt Smith memo, September 3, 1927, RCP.

a detailed nine-page inventory: Johnston to Robert Bondy, May 9, 1927, D&PLCP.

the total value of goods: DeWitt Smith memo, September 3, 1927, RCP.

a record surplus: a.s.sociated Press report, June 1, 1927, appearing in MC-A MC-A.

the War Department dunned the Red Cross: See, for example, C. P. Summerall, acting secretary of war, to John Barton Payne, July 12, 1927, Adjutant General files, NA, RG 94.

"The supplies and services": Hoover to John Barton Payne, forwarded to Gen. E. E. Booth, June 7, 1927, NA, RG 94.

"He felt that": "Lower Mississippi River Flood, May-July 1927," U.S. Department of Agriculture records, NA, RG 16, entry 16; memo from E. Douglas to Henry Baker, May 20, 1927, RCP.

"I feel warranted": Reed to Coolidge, May 14, 1927, Coolidge Papers, LC.

Coolidge illegally ordered: NOT-P NOT-P, June 23, 1927; memo from Lawrence Richey to Akerson, same date, HHPL.

"Fortunately, there are still": NYT NYT, May 31, 1927.

"Frequent demands": San Antonio Express San Antonio Express, June 5, 1927.

"The new spirit": Fall River Fall River (Ma.s.sachusetts) (Ma.s.sachusetts) Globe Globe, June 1, 1927.

"If the federal government": Enclosed in memo from John Barton Payne of Red Cross to Everett Sanders, May 4, 1927, Coolidge Papers, LC.

"The total amount": Ames Ames (Iowa) (Iowa) Tribune & Times Tribune & Times, May 31, 1927.

"[Hoover's plan] is good": Camden Courier Camden Courier, June 6, 1927.

"is a worthy one": Virginian Pilot Virginian Pilot (Norfolk), May 31, 1927. (Norfolk), May 31, 1927.

"The indifference of": Providence Tribune Providence Tribune, June 5, 1927.

"Why make a charity": JC-L JC-L, May 31, 1927.

"without delay": Sacramento Bee Sacramento Bee, May 19, 1927.

"Why should we ask": Houston Chronicle Houston Chronicle, May 31, 1927.

"It is hardly possible": Paducah Paducah (Kentucky) (Kentucky) News-Democrat News-Democrat, June 8, 1927.

"With due deference": Quoted in May 17 press summary, HHPL.

"At least four-fifths": Press summary, undated, also June 7 and June 17, 1927, HHPL.

"We regard as settled": AP story appearing in JC-L JC-L, May 19, 1927; see also two wires from Mississippi Senator Pat Harrison to Hoover, May 18, 1927, HHPL.

"send us collect": NYT NYT to John Klorer, May 20, 1927, NOCA. to John Klorer, May 20, 1927, NOCA.

"Since Senator Percy has": Crosby to Hoover, May 20, 1927, HHPL.

"[I] seem to have": Hoover to Coolidge, July 5, 1927, HHPL.