Evening star., 1935-12-07
The Dark Hollow Eviction.

While there is ample ground for SYM
pathy with and for the Allegheny Noun
tain people who stand in danger OF evic-
ton from their homes for the estab-
nshment of a national park, with no
place to co. the situation does not justify
condemnation of the Government or
State authorities for ruthlessness. In
every case of custer, required for the
clearance of the area, opportunity was
offered these settlers-many of whom
have no strictly legal title to their lands
to go elsewhere, to homes established
by public enterprise, with funds for the
purchase of these new homes assured In
the payments for their quilted housings.
In other words all of them, Squatters as
well as the holders of legitimate titles
to their property, were assured OF other
homes on terms that could be met. The
great hardship which they were required
to bear was removal from places which
they had occupied for a long time, IN
some cases several generations. Some
who are sympathetic with them feel that
there was actually no need for the custer.
That is a question of judgment respecting
the requirements for the establishment
of a national park. Some have urged:
"Why not let them stay? They do no
harm and they add to the picturesqueness
of the park" Therein lies the primary
issue. which has been met by the decision,
reluctantly reached, that the use OF the
park lands for habitation was undeslr-
able and that If any of the occupants
went all should go, without discr1m1-
nation.
The attachment of these people to
their long-used places of residence and
occupation is pathetic in the face OF the
necessity for their custer. But their con-
dition in that environment is not good.
There are no advantages whatever for
advancement from the primitive state
in which they have lived for so long.
Opportunities for employment are few
and in some cases educational facilities
are WHOLLY ldCA111Ss VI oO ASAAONS SS W.
be useless. Yet they cling to the lands
on which they have SubSisted for decades
with a tenacity that bespeakS sturdy
spirit if it does denote lack of enter
prise.
The psychology of these mountain peo-
pie is different from that of the dwellers
in the lower areas, and especially so in
the case of those who have made the
''hollows" of the Appalachian Range their
homes. Until the building of good roads
in that region the few miles of their
separation from communities larger than
their own tiny social microcoSmS were as
many leagues of distance. In the course
of successive generations of this manner
of subsistence they developed a love of
isolation. Initiative and enterprise were
dulled. They were content to 'get along"
In this present situation there need
be no fear of actual acute suffering in
case, through the ignorant stubbornness
of those who still refuse to adjust to the
new conditions, actual custer without
provision of an immediate shelter be-
comes necessary. Succor is certain to
reach these unfortunates. Meanwhile,
as The Stars special correspondent who
went into this region and reported the
conditions says, after all, Virginia does
not set children in the middle of a county
road in cold weather" And there is
comfort in that reflection for those who
fear the shocking spectacle of an eviction
without mercy.