The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-05-03

Before the depression, new con-
StructioD worth IL billion dollars
was goinS up each year in che
United States. It dropped to three
billions in 1884 Residential con-
struction reached its high point,
two and one-half billions, in 1925
In 1884 all the homes built in the
country were worth just S248, 1855, 100
The human distress inherent in
these figures has been the starting
point of all New Deal housing &C
Invites.
Public Works Move Slowly.
The first plan was for the govern
ment to build if private individuals
could not or would not. The gov
eminent could not make work by
going into the textile industry or
coal mining, but it could build
things. At the same time it could
supply business for industries which
make and transport building ma
terialS.
This was the theory on which the
first public works appropriation Of
So 300, 100000 was made in 1893.
If it had been made early enough
in the depression, if plans had been
drawn far enough in advance so that
work could have started almost
simultaneously with the shutting off
of normal operations, many econo-
mists believe it might have had a
real effect in checking hard times.
Instead of that. the depression
was three and a half years old be-
fore the thing got under way. Con-
gress forced through a public works
bill in the last year of the Hoover
administration, but it provided less
than a half million dollars and lit
tie of the money had been spent
when President Roosevelt took
office.
But the New Deal, completely
committed to the theory of public
spending, with a big appropriation
at its disposal and free to spend it
almost any way it saw fit, dis
covered that there were still OBJ
stacles in the way of connecting up
jobs and the jobless.
Gen. Johnson's Idea
The PWA appropriation became
law June 16, 1888. 1t was 1884 be-
fore it put many men to work. On
April ID, 1885, third of its projects
were still under construction.
Around the question whether this
task could have been done more
quickly, bitter controversy has ragged.
Gen. Hugh S. Johnson, who eX-
pected to have charge of the spend
ing as well as of MIRA, thought he
could have moved faster. He would
have used the money to motorize
the Army, build Army posts, build
warships, help railroads replace
equipment and electrify their lines,
build colonies of inexpensive homes
similar to subsistence homesteads.
Machine plans, steel and other
heavy industries would have reaped
most of the benefit.
Secretary IckeS, to whom the task
of spending the money fell, started
without an organization and with
out specific proposals before him.
He was determined that the money
should buy socially useful works and
that no faint of graft should ever
attach to it.
He found that Federal projects
could be gotten under way most
rapidly, but that many of them we're
for undertakings necessarily spread
over a number of years-Such as
dam building. In the end $780,
100000 went for CWA, CCC and
other emergency job-creating I'M
dertakings. Of the remainder, two
thirds went to Federal works, one
third to local projects.
On April IA, Mr.. Ickes reported
that 500 projects had been COM
pleted and $500 were under con-
struction. Two thousand more were
still in preliminary stages. Some
of these last ones we're undertaken
late, after Congress had made an
other $475,OOO,0OO available.
Work for Millions
Of the Federal projects, 1898 had
been finished. Another 401S, in
Guiding dams, power plants, river
and harbor improvements and other
inherently slow undertakings, were
under construction. Of the state
and city projects, 1173 had been fin
ished, 1853 were still under way.
Work had been done in all but SO
of the country'S 3073 counties and
more than two million persons, ac-
cording to Mr.. IckeS' estimate, had
been employed on construction sites,
in addition to others employed in
the course of procuring $800,000,0 900
worth of materials.
But conceding that Mr.. Ickes did
as good a job with PWA as any one
could have done-and more and
more people are conceding that, as
they learn about public spending
and conceding that the new public
works appropriation will probably
yield even more impressive results,
the conviction has nevertheless
grown that something else besides
government spending is necessary
to get the construction industry
back on its feet.
Tomorrow-An SOS to private
norifaI