Evening star., 1936-07-23
HOUSING DIVISION
Of ?. v. A. To co IN
REFUSAL Of FUNDS.
Director A. R. CIaS Is Moved
to Become Chief Prober
Under Ickes.
WAGNER BILL FAILURE
HIT FUTURE PROGRAM
Activities Also Suffered From Bar
to Allotment of ANY Part
of $500, 100000.
BY NELSON M. SHEPARD.

BY NELSON Nj. SHEPARD.
Denied further funds from slum
clearance and low-cost housing, Ad-
ministrator Harold L. Ickes has set
about to liquidate gradually p w. AS
Housing Division, which has had its
ups and downs over a period of three
years.
This was the objective behind the
transfer yesterday of Housing Director
A. r. Clas, who has now become P.
w. AS chief investigator, with rank
of assistant administrator.
Failure of the $876, 100000 Wagner
housing bill and restrictions placed by
President Roosevelt on public works
expenditures were the two things that
checked the Housing Division, so far
as concerned any future program.
Ickes pinned his hope on the passage
of the Wagner bill, which would have
carried on a three-year program of
slum clearance and loW-rent housing
on a scale never before contemplated.
When that bill was pigeon-holed in a
House committee his chief hope for
a formidable program next year died
with it.
P.W. A. Got $500, 900, 900.
P. w A. was allotted 100000, 900
for all its activities during the 1867
fiscal year, and none of this sum was
allotted to the Housing Division. Yet
it is possible that limited grants for
non-Federal housing projects may be
sponsored for work of this kind in
New York and Cincinnati.
The task of liquidating the Housing
Division falls upon H. A. Gray, as
Clas' successor
Officials said that the liquidation
process does not mean that the ap-
proximately 1000 employees in the
Housing Division are in any immedi-
ate danger of losing their jobs.
However, Ickes expressed concern
today at press conference that "a
slight reduction of personnel may be
necessary in some divisions unless the
new P. W. A. funds are forthcoming
soon.'
Comments on Shake-up.
He commented only briefly on yes
terdays shakerup of P. w. A. di-
rectorships, remarking he thought
these shifts were pretty good"
Creation Of separate investigating
division of P. w. A, he explained, was
logical" thing to do. BY separat-
ing P. w. A. investigations from those
of the Interior Department he said it
would be possible to decrease the stats
to some extent.
Ickes today accepted the bid of
Minneapolis concern to erect the
superstructure of the ST, 100000 hous-
ing development in Lexington, KY.
This project occupies 68-acre site
which was formerly the track of the
old Kentucky Horse Racing Associa-
tion.
The administrative change made in
the Housing Division was only part of
a general p. w. A. shake-up affecting
three other divisions which Ickes an
nounced yesterday.
Difficulty in Bids Faced.
While the housing division is en-
gagged now in the largest program of
its kind in the country's history, in
volving nearly $50, ,o00, 900, it is pos
sible some of the projects may be
abandoned. There has been difficulty
in getting satisfactory construction
bids in some sections of the country,
even after the foundations have been
completed.
The new housing director is one of
Secretary Ickes' most trusted aides.
Former experience as an inspector and
chief of the inspection division since
January, 1884, has made him thor
oughly familiar with the details of low
cost housing. He supervised the in
spection of some 1000 applications for
housing projects.
The housing division has been a
Jonah for hard luck since its incep-
tion. Nearly two years passed before
it was able to turn ground for a single
project. Then, after things started
moving slowly, Federal courts stepped
in and junked Ickes' program for
strictly slum clearance projects, rul-
ing In Washington and elsewhere that
the Federal Government could not le.
gally condemn privately owned city
property for housing purposes.
Ickes Ready to Spend $500, 0,000, 900.
Clas, formerly associated with Col.
Horatio B. Hackett, Deputy p. w. A.
administrator, in his Chicago archi-
tectural firm, took charge of the hous-
ing division two years ago after an
earlier shake-up. It was due largely
to his enterprise that order eventually
emerged from chaos in putting Ma
ton wide program into execution.
Administrator Ickes, meanwhile, is
awaiting a sginal from President
Roosevelt releasing the $500, ,000, 900
which he has to spend during the next
II months. The sum actually will 70
q great deal further In construction
than the figures indicate, for it is ear
marked for non-Federal projects,
which means that P. w. A. will extend
loans to local jurisdictions on the basis
Of IS per cent of the cost of projects.
In that way the $500, ,000, 900 revolving
fund may spread over more than $780,
600. 900.