Evening star., 1936-09-04
NV WILLIAM C. McCLOY.

rhirtv-one million dollars is great
deal of money to allocate ior one
neriment. But if the Resettieiheii'
Administration can put across us
.rsreenbelt towns" idea, it believes the
ees,,lt will be worth many times tiiat
sum to the people of the United oVa.es'
"carden cities" for workers Is tne
h.s;c idea-the establishment OF sew
eral community towns to prove no.
nnlv that such centers can oe pun
near industrial districts. but that tiiei,
;nitial costs. their maintenance ana
o,,erotion are a safe and sound eco
nonic possibility. These groups u
houses-some of the groups are quite
large-are so situated ana pianheo
that they share the advantages OF town
and country.
Similar cities for low-income WORK
ers have already been established sue
cessfullv in Germany and Great Brit
ain. but in America they have so lar
been limited to workers Of compar-
atiyely high incomes. The Resettle-
rnent Administration hopes to orlng
this sort of home within the reacn Oh
families with modest incomes.
From 100 districts, representing all
parts of the country the R. A. selected
four as best suited to carry out the
experiment. The localities chosen are
adjacent to Washington, D. c.; Mil
waukee, Wis; Cincinnati, Onlo' ana
Bound Brook, N. j.
Court Rules Against r.. A.
Certain influential residents OF
Bound Brook raised the Federal
Island" issue, contending that the
town would lose much of its taxable
real estate, since it would pass into
Federal possession and the Federal
Government cannot pay taxes. In ad-
dition, they contended they would be
forced to provide police and fire pro-
, lection, as well as educational facll-
tiles. for 5000 people who paid no
taxes. The dispute finally reached
the United States Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia, which
ruled. May 8, 1886. against the Re-
settlement Administration. The 4. A.
held further appeal in abeyance, but
stopped work at Bound Brook, contin-
uing with other projects where there
were no objections until this week,
when Milwaukee realty interests filed
a taxpayers action in Federal District
Court in Washington asking an in
junction to block further work on the
Greendale project.
In common with all the resettle-
ment projects, the garden cities had
a twofold purpose Not only were they
designed to provide homes for those
with modest incomes, but to give en-
ployment to men out of work. The
first and most nearly finished of these
cities is at Berwyn, Md, and is called
Greenbelt Three thousand men,
many of them jobless since 1929, have
been at work there for more than a
year and a half; the building Of the
town gave jobs to all relief workers
in Prince Georges County, Md; alb
sorbed many unemployed transient
laborers in Washington and took
nearly 1000 men from the Baltimore
relief rolls.
Tugwell Gives Views.
After visiting Greenbelt, I spoke to
Dr.. Rexford TugweI. director of the
Resettlement Administration, of the
interest shown by these men in their
work. I had been impressed with it.
They are a very different set OF
men from what they were when they
came to the administration" he said.
"Most of them had been out of work
for several years and showed it.
What will it really cost the Gov
ernment to build Greenbelt?" asked.
"The Government will get every
dollar back" was the answer.
The money allocated for building
Greenbelt-$6.9 .95O, ,O00-is not grant,
but loan that will be amortized by
the tenants in 40 years. Unskilled
workers there work 96 hours per
month twelve 8hour days. and earn
q maximum of s4950 per month. The
hourly rate is 5112 cents.
Greenbelt lies miles north of
Washington. Etched like a needle
against the southern sky is the Wash
ington Monument. The new town
has been laid out in the form of an
enormous horseshoe, covering 200 acres
Of the community's 2,100 acres. A
broad girdle of fields and trees sur
rounds all these garden cities, insur-