Vermont Vitality

Following the suggestion of Secretary of Commerce Hoover that the best " sequel to a destructive flood is a flow of credit (TIME, Nov. 28), a committee of New England bankers chosen by the New England Council announced the formation of two corporations : 1) The New England Flood Credit Corporation, chartered in Delaware;! a holding company to find the market and sell $1,000,000 worth of guaranty stock in-- 2) The Vermont Flood Credit Corporation, chartered in Vermont. Vermonters will be asked to take up $250,000 of the stock; outsiders $750,000. Vermont bankers will make relief loans to flood victims, accepting character to supplement collateral. If there are losses on the loans, the V. F. C. Corp. will shoulder 50%. Most of the V. F. C. Corp's directors are to be Vermonters and though the Corporation is designed to live only one year, its guarantees will stand for five years. Such was the financial aid devised by self-reliant New England businessmen to restore the vitality of private enterprise. At Montpelier, Vermont's legislators were, awed by the damage their capital had suffered from the raging Winooski River. Going into a special session, they listened to John E. Weeks as he read from the 46th Psalm "Therefore we will not fear....though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled." They voted an$8,500,000 $8,500,000 bond issue to restore highways and bridges; authorized the Emergency Board to borrow $1,500,000 for other relief measures; voted to loan the St.Johnsbury & Lake Champlain R. R. $300,000 from State funds; expressed their sorrow at the death of Lieutenant-Governor S. Hollister Jackson, drowned at Barre, Vt.

New Hampshire. With only $3,000,000 flood damage (compared to Vermont's $30,000,000), New Hampshire believed itself able to rehabilitate itself by taxation alone. In a special session last week, the New Hampshire House voted a special issue of 4% bonds to be issued up to $3,000,000, as needed; voted also to increase the state gasoline tax from 3c per gallon to 4c.