Flood of 1907: Wheeling Daily News Article from March 16, Special Flood Edition

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- from Wheeling Daily News, March 16, 1907 (Flood Special Edition).
 

AN EXPLANATION

The News appears in strange form today, but we are fortunate to publish any sort of paper. The engines and presses of the plant stand in two feet of water as this edition goes to press. There is neither natural nor artificial gas and consequently the linotype machines are down and out.

As a result recourse was had to hand-setting, the way newspapers were gotten out in pre-historic times. A convenient job press on the second floor helped, too, and was operated with power obtained through courtesy of the Dillon company. It is a primitive way to print a newspaper but it can't be helped.

FLOODS AND TIMBER.

Again the Ohio River by its conduct forcibly reminds us of the folly of timber destruction. No other cause than the devastation of the forests could have given the Ohio Valley such a deluge following the fall of so comparatively slight a volume of water.

Twenty years ago two inches of rain would have done little else than make a big river. Today it caused the second largest flood in the history of the valley. The barren hillsides are responsible for it. There is nothing to hold the water back. The river have become little more than a sewer.

It is a story, however, that is familiar to Wheeling citizens. There is not much use of dwelling upon it because the answer is inevitable "what are you going to do about it?" The timber is gone; it cannot be replanted and re-grown within the life of the present generation — but for the sake of posterity some action should be taken. France has a law which requires the replanting of a tree for every one cut. If the United States had had such a law Wheeling would have been out of water today.

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