Evening star., 1935-06-21
HOMESTEAD PLAN
DECLARED FAILURE
Even TugWeII Reported
Ready to Abandon Dream
i of Shifting Population.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

Big, sensational messages about In
heritance taxes and the like are used
to divert attention from some Of the
palpable failures.
The latest of these is the passing OF
the dream of the planned economy"
experts on the subject of rural re-
settlement" and subsistence home
isteads."
It will be recalled that populations
were to be moved about. small COM
nunities were to be built and, In short,
America was to be remade by the New
Deal.
DR.. Rexford Tugwell was the prin-
cipal exponent of the idea, aided and
abetted by the President and Mrs.
Roosevelt, both of whom saw in it a
practical form of idealism which they
believed would appeal to the public
imagination as an attempt at least to
help the 'underprivileged."
Town Building a Flop.
But now, alas, the whole thing is
being Iquidated as Impractical, or, to
put it more gracefully, the idea is being
recast with plans much more modest.
In two years, with $25 100000 to
spend, only 80 projects were started,
involving 1,065 houses either COM
pleted or under construction. At pres
ent only about 268 of these houses are
occupied.
The troubles are manifold. In the
first place, sticking a rural settlement
in the middle of o vast area and try
ing to make community where there
is no employment for the inhabitants
has been found to be an obstacle
Take ReedSville, w. Va, in which
Mrs. Roosevelt had a special interest
Well, they are still trying to persuade
a certain captain Of industry to have
his company put factory or branch
or something there so as to give the
town start.
But town-building on the whole has
proved a flop. The rumor is that
even the left-wing DR.. Tugwell doesn't
like the sociological aspects Of these
communities. They turn into com
pany towns" if dominated by one
industry or they become centers OF
intensive or excessive reform, with
more conservation than work.
The name subsistence homestead
was, it is recognized, bad choice, for
subsistence isn't very attractive as q
design for living. To subsist implies
the minimum of comfort and not the
abundant life which the New Dea
promised to all who would cast aside
cousins and aunts and migrate to the
wide open spaces where the towns
were to be built.
So the projects turned out to bt
Interesting only to stranded miners ol
destitute farmers or rundown city per.
sons who were willing to try anything
once. Also, the record of repayment
to the Government on the loans made
for the subsistence homes has beer
poor, and other diScouraging aspects
have entered into the picture.
The first news of what happened
came officially with a brief bulletin
posted on the Department of Agricul.
ture's board recently stating that the
subsistence homestead division had II
be liquidated this month. This wai
based, of course, on the expiration oi
the provisions of the old national in
dustrial recovery act. But then there
was in the off1ng the $4,000, 900, ,00O
work-relief program. DR.. Tugwell
had been made rural resettlement ad-
miniStrator.
The President, too, had earmarked
S100,000,000 for the resettlement di-
vision. But the mathematical bugaboo
which limited to only about 81 ,140 the
amount to be spent on each man en-
ployed has put damper on the whole
resettlement plan. At recent meet
ing of key executives in the admins
tration, the President looked ruefully
at Undersecretary Tugwell as he re-
marked that some of 'Rex's pet prof.
ects' would have to go by the boards
TugweIl May Change Plans.
1t turns out that among DR.. Tugwell's
own assistants there is disilluSionment
and rumor has it that DR.. Tugwell
himself has about become unsold on
the practicality of the scheme.
Anyway, the question now is: What
shall become of the whole idea?
DR.. Tugwell is represented as believ-
ing that the best method would be to
set up projects of suburban homes" or
what are called satellite cities These
would be homes built on an acre ol
ground and sold to city workers on the
edge of a town or city. Experience
with this type of project at Houston
Tex, has convinced DR.. Tugwell that
1t would be useful.
But this, after all, is Government
housing rather than any such revolu-
tionary plan of moving populations
around, which was visioned by Presi-
dent Roosevelt and amplif1ed in
speeches by DR.. Tugwell, and this is
high-cost work, as projects go, and
that's what the $4,000, ,000,0 program
is supposed to frown upon.
So while officials are not ready tc
confess abject failure, the whole reset
tlement idea nevertheless is being
liquidated as gracefully as possible
along with the subsistence homestead
plan.
(COpyripht l9350