Show WORLD IN GRIP OF DRY PHASE enli lile ae ne a are speculating about the possible causes of dry weather in our own region we may note for wlate wl ate ier er it may s that in england they are giving serious thought to problems caused by fall in ing of the water levels in streams a phenomenon that has been develop ing for a couple of years now that may be mere coincidence but anthe on the other I 1 land and it may suggest that con editions affecting a far wider area than just our group of a half dozen dozen mid western states are at work it may be that the areas which now seem to be particularly wet not dry such as some parts of the east are the exceptions and that either the whole world or at least the northern hemisphere Is in the dry phase of a long iong time cycle ENer everybody body now knows of course tl at rad cal climatic changes do take tale place that the ice lee caps at the poles have advanced and retreated Is proven by the evidence of our hills and N s alleys and lakes and soil soll even some of the ancients surmised that there had bew beben great climatic changes in europe by which the old in central and northern europe had greatly moderated but these changes come over such uch long iong periods as to mean nothing to any single genera tion of men 11 hether tl ere reilly are definite cales subject eventually to meas brement whereby weather condl kigns vary within a relatively brief period of years says a fifteen year yea r wet to dry ca c cle or a forty year wet to dry cycle it not yet known but there seems reason enough for even a nonscientific person to suspect it A hundred years hence when a vastly greater amount of reliable in formation about weather veather happen ings has been gathered in this and other countries it may be pos sible to predict the next swing toward dr arness nass and the nest next swing toward wetness with real accuracy so far as any large area Is concerned meantime we here in iowa may rest on the die fact that drastic changes in climate do not seem ever ener to come rapidly and that several times in tl e past this region has known pro longed dry spella only to emerge again into compensating wet spells nowhere on earth has there been within the period of white men mens a knowledge a more dependably ta fa climate for producing the necessaries ot of life than in this corn belt of which iowa Is the center des tribune |