erties eeu BON Bau Lol Beta N 21 
Death of the Sweet Waters by Donald E. Carr. W. W. Norton Co. 257 pages, 
1966. $5.95. 
A research chemist, Donald Carr tells the American people that they 
must change their way of living and revise values and standards. For 
centuries, Americans have treated their streams, beaches, and lakes with 
undue carelessness. We are paying the penalty now as beaches are closed 
in many cities, and as hepatitis, ugliness, and disease have increased. 
The author is rigteously indignant over ill-advised schemes by the 
U.S. Corps of Engineers — that most profligate of government agencies. 
He is impatient and disgusted with private industries which say to sports- 
men who demand river clean-ups — “All right, boys — what do you want 
=fishing or jobs?” 
He points out that real estate developments in the Washington, D.C. 
area have helped to contribute 2.5 million tons of silt to the Potomac 
River each year. He suggests that the practice of connecting drainage 
systems for sewage and rain water, was one of the most disastrous decisions 
ever made in the social history of the Western World. 
Carr expresses the hope that rapidly mounting public indignation 
and awareness of the water pollution problem will force stronger legisla- 
tion and greater appropriations to help cure some of the ills. Congress 
has just passed a $6 billion water pollution control program — a mere 
drop in the lake — but a good start. 
Raymond Mostek, 615 Rochdale Circle, Lombard, Ill. 60148 
fa iat f # 
Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Area, by 
Harry M. Caudill. Little, Brown and Co. 392 pages. Paperback. $2.45. 1966. 
Possibly no book in recent years has told the sorry plight of the 
Kentucky Cumberland area better than this popular one by a former state 
senator. It made a wide impact when published in hard cover several years 
ago. The book has now been reissued in paperback and is available through 
the I. A.S. bookstore. 
This volume holds great significance for conservationists, as it describes 
the impact upon soil and humans of the notorious practices of strip mining. 
Absentee landlords, fraud, lack of schools, greed, and ignorance have con- 
tributed to the nightmare that has become Appalachia. Some of the Cumber- 
land counties have the highest birth rate and the lowest income of any 
area in the U.S.A. Much of the population dwells on government doles 
and hand-outs. 
Caudill, a native Kentuckian, whose family has strong roots in the 
hill-country, blames much of the present problem on the T.V.A. and the 
coal-mining interests. His valuable suggestions for improvement and a cure 
offer a serious challenge to those who look with doubt upon a huge Federal 
road-building program as an easy answer to the ills of the Cumberland. 
Some voices have suggested that Appalachia be restored through a national 
forest or national park program, making it a huge playground for the over- 
populated East and Midwest. 
Raymond Mostek, 615 Rochdale Circle, Lombard, Ill. 60148 
