Evening star., 1934-04-25
Amendment Would Limit
Price Paid for Property
Acquired.
ALLEY WORK MEASURE
TO BE REPORTED SOON
Three Other District Proposals Or.
dered Sent to Lower Branch
by Committee.

The House District Committee to-
day ordered favorable report on the
long pending alley clearance bill with
an amendment fixing limit on the
price paid for property acquired.
The amendment was offered by
Representative Palmisano, Democrat,
of Maryland. who threatened to block
committee action on the measure un-
less 1t was adopted. He suggested a
80 per cent limitation above the as
sesSed value, but the committee finally
agreed to work out percentage basis
before reporting the bill to the House.
Palmisano expressed the fear that
the proposed clearance of the slums
might benefit unscrupulous real es-
tate dealers and pointed out that in
number of cases in recent years
the District and Federal Govern
ments had been held up" in land
acquisition cases.
High Price Cited
He called particular attention to an
award by a condemnation jury which
was 200 per cent in excess of the as
sessed value Of the property.
The favorable report was ordered
after Col. U. S. Grant, Sd, former
executive officer of the National Cap
ital Park and Planning Commission.
had sketched the history of the move
ment to rid Washington of its alley
slums
For a long period of years" he
said, efforts were made to eliminate
the insanitary and dangerous condi-
tons due to the alley dwellings. This
bill is the result of those efforts"
Col. Grant also explained that
alleys are source of infection to the
District. tuberculosis and other
| communicable diseases. he said. are
more prevalent in the alleys than
| elsewhere and the proportion of crime
and deaths also is higher.
He declared it would be an eco
nomic gain to clean cut these slums.
ALLEY clearance" he continued
would constitute a case of preventive
municipal menaces."
Chairman Norton read to the COM
mittee a letter from Frederic A. De-
| lano, chairman of the Park and Plan
ming Commission, pointing out that
Budget Director Douglas had approved
the bill with an amendment. Under
this amendment, $500, 900 authorized
to be used in purchasing and re-
! modelling alley property would come
from the public works funds already
appropriated by Congress and allo-
Gated for slum clearance projects all
over the country.
The committee also ordered favor
able reports on three other District
bills.
One is designed to transfer the
power Of the Board Of Public Welfare
to the District Commissioners, an
other to establish a board of inde-
terminate sentence and parole, and
the third would make April 13. the
birthday of Thomas Jefferson, a legal
holiday in the District.
Bill Explained.
Corporation Counsel E. Barrett
Prettyman explained to the commit
tee that under the bill transferring
the powers of the Welfare Board to the
Commissioners the former would re-
main as an advisory and research Or
ganization. This measure already has
passed the Senate.
During discussion on the bill
, Palmisano said he was surprised to
learn that a number of different
agencies with divided authority had
been set up in the District to control
purely municipal activities. He de-
clared he had discovered that while
the District is supposed to be run. by
the Commissioners, the Park and
Planning Commission buys land for
park purposes and that there is an
other organization which equips the
land.
Il don't believe in this divided au-
thority," Palmisano said.
"As conditions now exist, it is i'm
possible to place blame anywhere"
The bill fixing April 13 as a legal
holiday was ordered reported at the
request of Representative Shannon,
Democrat, of Missouri, its author.