The Washington times., 1934-07-07

Will uO HULL
charm, if care
fully admins ~ ~
tered. That is ~
about all. Lewis Nancy
There is too little effective de-
mand for new building, the cost
of building Oabor and materials)
is too high, and the credit terms
under the act are too strict, to
allow one to hope for more. If
building were cheap, or if the
Government were going to give
building money away, something
might be done. But as things
are, what are the chances?
In this connection, a persistent
notion is that the Government
should directly or indirectly go
into the business of providing
cheap housing, "slum clearance"
etc. There has been talk Of this
for over a year, but practically
nothing has been done.
After all the talk, it seems to
me that the failure of the slum
clearance projects to take hold
shows why it is so hard to put un-
sound ideals into practice. 1t
shows how economic laws win in
the end.
You see, slums are 'man-made,"
and a New Dealer would say, Let
us just abolish them" But man
himself finds his acts limited by
environment and economic forces.
So such attempts fail-Sooner or
later.
Why do we have slums? There
are two chief reasons: First, we
have poor people; second, we have
areas where rents must be low.
Unfortunately. many people can.
not afford to pay much rent, and
some can't pay any. They 60 to
sections where rents are very low,
and we call these places "slums." J"
It does not pay to build good, up
to-date residences there.
But, at the same time, the land
is often located near business
sections and is very valuable be-
cause of it's potentialities. Thus
the "site rent" (not the building
Space) is high.
In such cases the Government
can compel decent sanitation and
fire protection, but not much
more-unless it gives our money
away.
But no Government New
Deal or Old Deal can do the
two things required, namely, to
do away with poor people, and
to make land abundant and
cheap in areas near city jobs.
We can help poor people to
help themselves, and show
them charity. But land lOca-
tiOn is what it is. If it is in
the heart of a city, it is bound
to be valuable and pay high
taxes.
No one, Government or indi-
yidual, can afford to buy such
land and build modern" housing
on it, and then proceed to rent
dwelling space at any such figure
as $3.50 per room. In New York
city it is probable that about
$l2.50 per room would be
minimum. After the cost Of the
site come interest and malnte-
nance charges and taxes.
Now there are many thousands
of people who cannot possibly pay
that much. What are you going
to do for them?
The plain fact is that the
Government is in exactly the
same fix as the individual land
lord. It cannot wisely make a
permanent investment which
does not pay. It can give our
money away, but even that can
last only as long as it can take
the money away from those who
have any.
Again, if attractive housing
could be furnished in slum areas,
people would be drawn away
from outlying areas, causing va
cancies there and hindering de-
velopment plans. The Govern
ment would be competing with
its citizens.
As I see it, the two chief
remedies for the building and
other capital goods" industries
are ~ to get prices Of build
ing materials and labor down
to where the product can be
sold prOfitably, and ~ to get
our money stabilized on a def
mite standard of value.
FiHpZifu nnd DeDOSit