Evening star., 1935-01-19
.|CKES FORECASTS
/. ENLARGED SLUM
CLEARANCE PLAN
Housing Conference Speech
Links Program With
Huge Relief Fund.
NORMAN THOMAS RAPS
CAPITALISTIC SYSTEM
Socialist Leader Says Dwelling
Problem Cannot Be Solved
by Present Set-up.


mere $3.50, 100000" already obligated
for that purpose was predicted today
by Public Works Administrator Ickes.
I'VE hope that under the leadership
Of President Roosevelt this program
will be greatly expanded this year." he
told luncheon session of the Ma
tional Public Housing Conference at
the Willard Hotel.
He did not specifically mention Mr..
Roosevelt's new $4,000 100000 work
relief program, but his reference to
slum clearance and low cost housing
plans was definitely linked to it.
Predicts Concerted Move.
Envisaging the future, Secretary
Ickes declared the country will be so
impressed with the desirability of de-
cent housing at cost within the
reach of all that private enterprise
will be Joined with the Nation, the
State and the municipality in a move
ment that will provide home, fit for
human beings, for every American
family" Such a program, he de-
clared, must go forward in the inter-
estS of humanity and for the common
good"
Referring to the fact the Public
Works Administration has approved
low cost housing and slum clearance
projects that will provide 42,16l indi-
vidual dwellings, Ickes said the Gov
ernment is ''pinch-hitting" until local
communities and private enterprise
undertake to go ahead with programs
of their own. The Government was
compelled to go into this field, he said,
because private initiative was unable
or unwilling to undertake much that
was worth while"
The Secretary declared he offered
mo apology" for arguing in favor
of a Government subsidy for slum
clearance, which he characterized as
a Government investment for pro-
lection against fire insurance. tuber-
culoSiS and other preventable and
communicable diseases.
"Slums cannot be eradicated," he
said, except on the basis Of a GoV-
ernment subsidy"
Hackett Speaks Tonight.
Col. Horatio B. Hackett, director
of his housing division, will speak
tonight before the conference, which
opened last night.
From Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt
the conference received an indirect
message from the President to this
effect:
My husband asked me to convey
this message. We are just waking up
to the realization that better housing
is one of the essential conditions for
the accomplishment of our program
for better times"
Norman Thomas, Socialist leader,
told the conference last night housing
conditions for the poor might be i'm
proved, but the problems could not
be solved under the American capital
istic system. Mrs. Mary K. Simkho-
witch, president of the conference, said
its purpose was to formulate a plan
by which 100000 persons now uv-
ing in city slums might be rehoused.
Thomas said to rehouse America it
would be necessary to think in terms
Of billions, not millions.
There must be comprehensive
i RAOSAeA4, IA al anu bdAlt
with local cooperation" he said.
The program must be flexible; it
must avoid heavy-handed Federal
bureaucracy.
1T requires an attack on private
landlordism and the whole real estate
set-up which is responsible for so
much ugliness, misery and discom-
fort with their inevitable social con-
sequences"
Thomas Favors Subsidy.
Thomas scored the appalling fail
ure of America to house its people
decently'' and declared the Govern
ment program could never succeed if
it were intended as an emergency
measure.
Even if there were no great prob
lem Of unemployment, we would need
housing program" he said.
He warned of a degree of danger in
entering upon any housing program
as cure for unemployment, and
warned, also, that housing. under
public authority, must not be planned
solely for the lowest paid wage earn
ers. The financial aid, he declared,
must come from a Government sub
Sidy.
Thomas hit directly at the subsiSt-
ence homeSteads program of the Gov
ernment, warning that while it was
helpful in an emergency, any extern
sive program of placing unemployed
on subsistence farms would have the
effect of setting up "a subsidized peas
antry in America" which, he warned,
would hold down the standard Of liv-
ing.
DIR. Emerson Speaks.
Housing problems from the stand
point of health, mental and physically,
were dealt with by DR.. Kendall Emer-
son, managing director of the National
tuberculosis Association. Joseph Hud-
mutt, dean of the School of Architec-
ture of Columbia University, who also
spoke, said architects were more con-
cerned with the needs of those who
are suffering from social and economic
conditions than with planning palaces
and large buildings.
Land costs, values and acquisition
for low rent housing projects were dis
cuSsed at this mornings session. The
speakers were Paul Studenski Of New
York University; Irving Brent. editor
of the st. Louis Star and Times; H.
Tudor Morsell of the P. w. A. Hous-
ing Division, and w. E. Zeuch, Fed
eral Subsistence Homesteads Corp.
This afternoon the delegates were to
be taken on a tour of washington by
John Ihlder, head of the District Alley
Dwelling Authority. They will pass
by the monumental Government
buildings to investigate Washington's
slum areas and alleys.