84 EDWARD T. DEVINE 



were supplied from the federal post at Fort Leavenworth, and 

 for the similar but smaller camp on the Missouri side, for 

 residents of Kansas City who had been driven from their homes 

 by the flood, tents were supplied by the state militia; and in 

 both cities detachments of the national guard were called upon 

 for patrol duty. One of the principal reasons for such a mili- 

 tary patrol is the temporary disorganization of the community. 

 The local constabulary is likely to be demoralized and excited, 

 and the presence of state militia gives confidence and security 

 to people who need temporary moral support. 



While soldiers may profitably be employed in the manner 

 that has been indicated, it will not ordinarily be found ad- 

 vantageous to place upon them responsibility for relief or for 

 remedial measures. Military discipline has its limitations as 

 well as its advantages, and it would unfit the average soldier 

 or petty officer to exercise that discriminating judgment and 

 personal influence which are so essential in dealing with people 

 who have suddenly lost their possessions and require aid and 

 counsel in readjusting their affairs and regaining a foothold in 

 the industrial system. At the earliest practicable moment 

 the ordinary municipal authority should be established and 

 the necessity for military patrol overcome. 



At Johnstown one of the most interesting chapters in the 

 history of the few months succeeding the flood is that which 

 deals with the restoration of municipal borough authorities 

 to the full exercise of their functions. In some of the boroughs 

 affected by the flood there was left no building in which a meet- 

 ing of the borough council could be held. Self constituted 

 committees had temporarily managed police, health, and fire 

 departments, and later such duties had been in part assumed 

 by state authorities. Gradually, however, the adjutant gen- 

 eral, representing the state government, sought out those who 

 had been duly chosen to perform such duties, arranged suitable 

 meeting places for councils and public boards, and transferred 

 to them the duties which it had again become possible for them 

 to perform. No legal or other controversies arose in connec- 

 tion with these ultra constitutional arrangements, and no act 

 of the legislature was thought necessary to legaUze what had 

 been done in the interval during which ordinary mimicipal 



