Evening star., 1936-11-20
NEW CHIEF Of R. A.
TENANCY STUDENT
Or. Alexander in Line to
Become One of Top
New Dealers.
BY BLAIR BOLLES.

Or. Will w. Alexander, scholar and
former clergyman, chosen for the I'M
portant post deserted by DR.. Rexford
Tugwell, advances in Importance to
the administration at the very time
when his most cherished subject, farm
tenancy, seems due to get great atten-
ton from the White House and from
Congress. Turning the sharecropper
into an independent farmer is said to
be one of Mr.. Roosevelt's chief wishes.
As a result, Dr. Alexander a year
hence may be one of the leading
figures of the New Deal. This earnest
student of racial problems is well
known to a few for his books and his
pamphlets, just as Tugwell, the Co.
lumbia professor, was known to a
few, but only the few, through his
publications before March, 1888, when
he was pushed toward fame as MIR.
Roosevelt's Assistant Secretary of Ag-
riculture.
Alexander, who is in Mississippi
looking over some farm tenancy DEM
onstration projects, will not return to
Washington until after Thanksgiving.
his Office said today 1t is unlikely he
will actually become resettlement ao-
ministrator until January /, for Tug
well is expected to keep the post until
that date, when he becomes vice presi-
dent Of the American Molasses Co.
Tenancy Chief Problem.
When Alexander does take over,
however, it was learned, he will give
most of his attention to tenancy, for
running r. A. will consist mainly OF
the routine business OF finishing
projects already under way. And so
at last he might see launched, under
his own guidance, program to cure
the social miseries and economic
shortcomings he depicted in his THE
Collapse of Cotton Tenancy"
The drive against tenancy has been
undertaken already with the appoint
ment of the Presidents Committee on
Tenancy, of which both Tugwell and
Alexander are members. On the COM
mittees report, to be given the White
House by February /, will be based
the Presidents recommendations to
Congress for law to effect the
gradual eradication of the share
cropper system.
Alexander's background as a soci-
ological scholar offers another reason
why he may become leading figure
among the latter-day Roosevelt advis-
ers. For more than 20 years he has
O oyHS-
ing between the white and coloreo
races. He made a study of interracial
problems for the Julius Rosenwald
Foundation. He is Director Of the
Commission on Interracial Cooper
alton. He is secretary Of the inter-
racial department of the national
council of the Y. M. c. A., and is a
member of the Committee on Church
and Race Relations of the Federal
Council of Churches. He was once
acting president of billiard University,
colored institution In New Orleans. He
is former chairman of the COMMITTEES
on Race Studies of the Social Research
Council.
Most Sharecroppers Colored.
prehends the race problem, for most
sharecroppers are colored. And since
Alexander possesses such specialized
knowledge of the social needs and
economic possibilities of the Southern
colored sharecropper. his value in the
administration Of a farm tenancy
eradication program is considered
great.
Dr.. Arson Phelps Stokes, canon Of
Washington Cathedral, who has
known Dr.. Alexander more than 20
years. had this to say Of his work with
the Interracial Commission:
I'm this position, he, as Southern
er, with a statesmanlike vision, has
made the commission the most effec-
tive force in the South in preventing
friction between the races and ir
opening up larger opportunities for de-
velopment to colored people. DR.. Alex
ander is man of statesmanlike out
look with a rare combination Of wis.
dom and courage"
Alexander joined the Resettlement
Administration May 16, 1885, few
days after it was established by ex-
ecutive order. He was born in Mis-
souri, in 1884, and spent the early part
of his life as Methodist minister in
the Southern States. He married in
1914 and has three children.
He holds degrees from Berea Col
lege, Kentucky; Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tenn, and Boston Un1ver-
sity, Massachusetts,. He was given the