Evening star., 1937-08-03
WAGNER EXPLAINS
HIS HOUSING BILL
Senator Predicts Passage
of Measure This Session
In Star Radio Forum.


Housing Authority to eliminate slums
and spread employment was discussed
last night by Senator Wagner OF New
York in the National Radio Forum
arranged by The Star and broadcast
by a coast-to-coast network of the Ma
tional Broadcasting Co.
The Wagner proposal is on the
calendar OF the present session OF
Congress. 1t provides that loans be
made for slum clearance and construc-
tion Of low-rent housing.
The speaker sketched the far-reach-
Ing effects Of the bill on living condi-
tions and unemployment and de-
clared there can no longer be any
doubt that the housing bill will become
law at this session of Congress. Its
passage will mark transfer from
emergency legislation to permanent
social reform"
With reference to the housing
shortage, Senator Wagner said there
Is an immediate shortage in quantity
Of over two and half million family
dwelling units in the United States"
and in addition there are millions of
inhabited quarters which have be-
come unfit for human habitation"
As to cost, the speaker declared
that "for every 850,000 human beings
moved out of the slums into decent
quarters the annual cost will be only
one-third Of the cost Of building a
single large battleship."
Text Of Address.
The text of Senator Wagners ad-
dress follows:
A few days ago the front pages Of
Oil the newspapers reported the sub
mission to the President Of pains
taking study OF chronological unem-
plovment. For long time we had
been hearing talk about this subject,
with its complex name but its very
simple meaning. Now we know the
facts about it. We are face to face
with a problem involving the future
economic security of our country and
the welfare of its people.
The facts are that during the whole
period of the depression and in the
years since then the installation of
machinery. the adoption of labor
saving devices and the progress of me-
chanical invention have been rush.
ing along at greater rate than ever
before. In many of our major indus
tries four men today can do the work
Of five in 1929. Every fifth man has
surrendered his Job to a machine.
In the long run these changes
continue the trends which have made
American standards of living higher
than those in any other part of the
world. The great dynamos in our
factories, the intricate networks of
gears and shafts and wheels, are a
part of our wealth and prestige which
We cannot afford to lose.
But the study to which I have re-
{erred did not neglect the human
element in the situation. 1t showed
that this chronological change. this
displacement of men by machines, has
revolutionlzed the character of our
unemployment problem. The 8,0OO,-
600 men and women who cannot get
Jobs in private industry today are
not unemployed because there is
depression in the ordinary sense; they
are not unemployed because the aver
age run of industries are not making
profit; they are not unemployed be-
cause OF international conditions
They are unemployed chiefly because
We have not found new lines Of ac-
tlVity to absorb those displaced by
machinery in existing lines of activity.
New Industries Spur Growth.
The all-important task of TODAY
therefore, is to locate those areas of
enterprise which have not partici-
pated in the recovery-Which are still
SO undeveloped that they afford an
opportunity for the immediate invest
ment OF capital and the immediate
absorption OF men. II we look back
over our history We find that every
period OF prosperity has been nour-
ished by the growth of some vast new
industry
The most recent issue of a leading
financial journal expressed a COM
monty known fact when it said:
In the consumer goods industries
business has been on the rise and
since last Fall has been plainly in a
Doom era, substantially above the 1929
peak In the capital goods industries
shortages created by the depression
nave not been made up, and the de-
mands that are coming along with
rising prosperity are making shortages
critical"
VI all these so-called capital goods
industries, home construction is tho
most serious victim of this lag. A
table before me indicates that during
tne seven years between January,
1923. and January, 1890, an average
OF $4,000 family dwelling units were
oullt each year. During the seven
years between January, 1880, and
January, 1887, an average of onlv
14,0O0 dwelling units were built each
year or less than one-sixth as many
as in the earlier period Putting aside
the question of quality, there is an
immediate shortage in quantity of
over Two and half million family
dwelling units in the United States
IN addition to this shortage in GUAM
tity. there are millions of inhabited
quarters which have become UNFIT for
human habitation. And despite all
this. home building is lmping along
at only one-third the rate of 10 wear,
ago.
Already reports are flowing into
washington about a critical housing
shortage. Public officials, MAYORS
governors, are issuing warnings of an
impending crisis. Headlines in all
parts OF the country tell the story of
rising rentals, of evictions, of people
oy the thousands living in tents.
Cites Own Experience.
Many years ago I had occasion As
q Supreme Court judge in New York
to write the first opinion sustaining
the emergency rent laws. At that
time reviewed all the facts connected
with housing shortage I noted the