Evening star., 1934-10-10
RELIEF MIGRATION
TOFREE BAD LAND
100000 Acres Already
Purchased for Families
Needing New Homes.
BY the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
A controlled migration that may be
one of the largest movements of its
kind in history has been started by
Harry Hopkins. relief administrator.
He disclosed last night that the
Government, working secretly to
thWart spectators, already has bought
a million acres of poor farm land,
from which families are being trans
planted to better soil
Three to four more millions OF
acres will be bought before the $25,-
600. 900 program is finished. The
average cost per acre will be about
S5. The sub-marginal land will be-
come parks, forests, game preserves
and Indian reservations.
Guarding the exact location OF the
land, Hopkins said the Government
is buying or taking options in the
Dakotas. Montana, the Southeast and
Far West.
Most Making Own Plans.
Two-thirds of the stricken farmers
whose land is bought are making
their own plans for the future, Hop
kins said.
They don't want a thing from us
they simply get up and 60"
For the others relief loans are being
assisted with part-time jobs. such
as forest and highway work. The real
hope for many such families, he indi-
Gated. is the decentralization of in
of foCfnriaS in
rural communities. He pointed to
RedhCuse. Va. where a rural-indus-
trial community is bning built with
relief money for stranded families.
H eaid the residents should be able
to tUv the homes there for $40 a
mo-,
Obviously enthusiastic about the
Venture, Hopkins gave this eXplana-
tion of its aims:
Farmers should not be permitted
to bump their heads against stone
wall. We might as well use the land
for some really social purpose and
give the people who have been strug-
Cling with it a chance to get going
on decent farms"
Fear Spectators.
Declining to tell exactly where
purchases we're being made, Hopkins
explained that real estate operators
might jump at the chance to boost
prices.
He lit a cigarette and, black eyes
narrowing, had a further word to say
about some members Of the real
estate fraternity:
In many instance land companies
have taken this poor land and sold
it over and over again, as fast as the
different buyers gave up. On lot
of these farms nobody ever made
any money except the real estate
dealers"
Purchase Of private land for social
purposes is nothing that the State
and Federal Governments haven't
done for years" Hopkins declared.
He said land owners we're not refus-
ing to participate in the program,
although some had declined to take
the prices offered them.
ut looks now like two-thirds of the
families who sell their farms to the
Government have plans Of their own
about resettlement." he reported. 1--WE
do get a resettlement problem with
some. most of whom already are on
relief rolls because the land has busted
'em. OF course, the real hope of this
thing is the decentralization of in
dustry."
Get Farmers Consent.
Others at work in the land-buying
program have indicated they we're
making purchases only in areas where
95 per cent of the farmers consent to
the plan. No condemnation proceed
ings have been used. they said
Hopkins reported that Secretary
Wallace, whose department is taking a
Rading part in the hand retirement
program. estimates there are 10000 600
to 40.000000 acres of land that ulti-
mately should be taken out Of farming
and turned to other uses.
Some of the parks developed from
o retired farm land are to be turned
over to the States for maintenance
under agreements that they would GO
back to the Federal Government il
not properly kept up.
The retired farm tracts in the
Northwest are expected by officials ID
preserve the country's migratory water
fowl by providing nesting areas.
Some of the land is to be given back
to the Indians. literally speaking, to
provide additional grazing and hunt
ing grounds for them.
S-