New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-09-24
Hoover. F'avOrs
u. S.-ContrOlled
Housing Plan
Says Federal Commission
Should Supervise Nation
Wide Building Program
to Coordinate ALI Work
Asks Washington Inquiry
Charges Nine Departments
Are Grossly Inefficient;
Opposes Tax Exemptions

opposes lax Exemptions
Adoption of a home building pro
gram on nationwide scale under the
supervision Of a Federal commission
was. urged by Herbert Hoover yeste r.
day as the only effective means OF
dealing with the housing shortage. Mr.
Hoover appeared before the Senate
Committee on Reconstruction and Pro.
duction, ct % West Thirty ninth Street
to give his views on postwar problems
including transportation, finance, gov
eminent reform and postal savings
banks.
Asserting that every city in the coun-
try is short of houses because of nom
building during the war, Mr. Hoover
contended that the individual efforts
OF cities to solve the problem, as is now
tho case with New York, would result
IN failure. He said the effect would be
| to create competition between cities
for building materials and for priority
/ privileges in transportation, which
would defeat the purpose. He asserted
that only Federal control over recon-
struction program would be effective
! Mr. Hoover said he did not favor
schemes for stimulating building by
exempting mortgages from taxation
/ and for giving priority rights to build
| ing materials on the railroads. His ex-
periencc as Food Administrator dur
/ ing the war, he said, had taught him
that priority orders involved a rcduc-
T., ton of the efficiency Of the railroads.
: Urges Inquiry in Washington
/ Turning to Senator William NJ.
, Calder, the chairman, Mr.. Hoover said
the committee ought to investigate the
! departments Of the government at
! Washington.
".The departments there" he said,
"arc woefully inefficient as the result
of hundred wears of accumulated
negligence"
He told Senator Calder that nine
| governmental agencies in Washington
which are handling reconstruction "a.e
competing with the building trades all
| other" Mr.. Hoover said he lamented
the fact that the government had no
| real construction program.
Completion of the Erie Canal, Mr..
Hoover said, would do much to help
railroad congestion and to reduce the
prices of food and building materials
in New York.
Mr. Hoover was called as q witness
chiefly to give his views on the question
of expanding the postal savings bank
system. He declared that while the law
contemplated that depositors were to
receive per cent interest, actually.
ewing to departmental regulations,
only l per cent was given. "Such an
| operation in private banks would be
called profitccring and demand would
be made for an investigation" he said.
"The real question at issue in this
discussion appears to me to be not only
the aggregate of national savings can
be increased by offering a larger return
on postal savings deposits - whether
more savings can be pulled out of
stockings, waste, Injuries and wild
cats Every dollar so saved is a con-
tribution to national welfare for many
reasons.
U. s. Must Stop Profiteering
~ have no doubt of the validity
of the principle that the government,
through the postal savings bank, should
not compete with mutual and other
savings banks, but l do believe the
appreciate of national savings would be
stimulated if the government stopped
nrohtccrnr and if it paid something
like an adequate rate of interest to
deposltors.
st appears to me that the first thing
to do is to pay interest at the rate
of 70 of l per cent quarterly on aver
age deposits. This is only justice and
the implication Of the law.
"Thc second step worth considering
is the declaration yearly in advance of
an additional rate that will be paid
upon deposits of twelve months dura-
ton. Such declaration to be based
upon safe experience and by yearly
determination will rise and fall with
general interest rates and the earnings
of the bank.
"The principle of redcposit in local
banks to prevent national congestion
Of funds is no longer the essential
principle it was when the original acts
were passed. The inauguration of the
Federal Reserve system has rendered
liquid that the postal savings deposits,
amounting to less than l per cent of
the national deposits, bear no relation
to it.
ut also appears to me to be time
that n more definite organization be
given to the postal savings at the top
believe 1t is necessary and desirable
that real directorate should be ap-
pointed in which the Federal Reserve
Board and some independent member
ship should be introduced"
The committee will meet again to-
day. when Clarkson Potter, Of w. R. |
Compton e. Co., will testify.