The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-02-20
TUCWELL HERO
TO CITIZENS OF
new DEAL CITY
Satellite Colony Residents
Enthusiastic, Stokes
Learns on Trip.
BY THOMAS L. STOKES
Tires Special Writer


LONGVIEW, Wash, FEB 90
Found; One spot where Di. Rexford
G. Tugwell is regarded as a bene-
factor and not an evil genius with
horns and socialistic ideas, as lots
of business men talk of him.
The spot is a neat little valley
near this city where so families are
quartered in 60 houses with colored
roofs, a couple of acres each for
flowers and vegetables, COW for
milk and butter and a couple of
dozen hens and a rooster.
The resettlement is one of the
so-called satellite cities" projected
by DR.. TugWell's Resettlement Ad
ministration, an experiment that
has not met, in some cases, with
the success which is apparent here.
Conditions Are Favorable
Conditions here are favorable for
the experiment The colony is about
two miles from Longview, a model
planned city laid out in 1928 about
several big lumber mills along the
Columbia River.
The men in the colony have jobs
in the lumber and pulp mills, their
yearly earnings varying from $500 to
$1,000. They work five days week.
That leaves them Saturday and
Sunday to tend to their vegetable
gardens and flowers and keep things
in repair. All have automobiles of
not so recent vintage in which they
go TO and from the mills and for
weekend outings with their fam
lilies. A garage is connected with
each house.
I visited the project on Sun
day, cool, sunshiny day. Here and
there whole families were working
about their yards, spading up for
grass on their lawns and for flowers
about the house and vegetables in
the rear
Landscape Still Bare
The landscape was still rather
bare, as the families moved In only
three and four months ago.
But all were eager and enthusiasts
tic about having homes of their own,
instead of the far less desirable
rented houses they formerly occu-
pied in the city.
I knocked at one door after an
other and inspected the interiors
I found them we'll planned, COM
Portable, sturdy houses. The chill
dren, in a couple of cases, proudly
took me upstairs to show me their
rooms.
They are particularly pleased with
the glistening white bathtubs, the
convenient kitchen range which
burns wood, and the big stove (also
wood burner) which sits in every
living room. The homes range in
size from four to six rooms.
The cost varies from $4,000 to
$3.50, with an average of $2700.
There is no down payment. Each
family pays from $3.50 to $16.75 a
month, which will amortize the OBJ
legation over long period of years.
No One Behind in Payments
No one is behind in his pay
ments. When you meet the ef-
ficient Mrs. Erma Johnson, local
supervisor for the project, you feel
that her watchful eye will see that
the government comes out ahead on
its investment.
She is a sort of mother for the
families, advising them about home
planning, about what to plant, and
so forth. In charge of administra-
ton of the colony, which is situated
in the extreme southwestern part
of Washington, is r. A. Bottcher,
who has an office in Portland, Ore,
81 miles away, at Resettlement Ad-
ministration headquarters f o r
Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
Citizens of Longview are en-
thusiastic about the colony, which
has the warm support of the Re-
publican editor of the local daily.
John McClelland, and of the Cham
Der of Commerce. They are inter-
ested in expanding it to provide 100
more homes.
The so families that occupy the
homes were selected from more than
400 applicants. There is a college
graduate or two among them.
Built for S16G,S90
The colony was built at a cost of
$3.50, 8g0-$24, 9S6 for land, $141 ,104
for the houses.
This is but part of the rehabili-
tation being undertaken by the Re-
settlement Administration for the
three northwestern states. 1t like
wise has big agricultural land re-
claiming program for which it is
acquiring $4,000 acres of depleted
forest lands and arid grazing lands
in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
Erosion. grazing, and over
cultivation have done for these
lands in the northwest what they
did for once fertile wheat lands
in the dust bowl area of Kansas.
Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming and
Oklahoma.
Oregon and Washington also have
had their dust storms-as sailors
so miles at sea have discovered.
Many families were forced to leave
farms in this area that they could
no longer farm with profit. Others
still can be found in the new Wild
erneSs. trying to exc out a living
and failing year by year. Their
homes have degenerated into tum-
ble-down shacks.
Tells of Founding Town
A bent old man with long beard,
John G. Rush, sits in front of his
hovel at Lamont, Ore.-the only in
habitant left-and tells how he
founded the town 80 years ago, and
how it once hourished. 1t is only
IN ~nss