Evening star., 1937-05-29

CluueS management, maintenance
charges. etc. probably would amount
to 6 per cent more.
This runs the whole close to $780,
| Above and beyond this is the fur
nishing of water system-admitted-
ly very expensive. Nobody knows
how much it will cost, but the pres
ent estimate IS $500 per house.
Granting that this Is all, which Sen
ator Byrd does not, the cost Of one
of the Ida Valley set-ups will run
about $4,000.
This is according to the new plans,
regardless of anything that may have
been talked about before or for which
budget authorization was obtained.
| The water system, the Resettlement
Administration claims, cannot be
charged entirely to its responsibility.
When 1t took over the proposition
from the old Subsistence Homesteads
1t proposed the much cheaper digging
of wells. The Virginia Department
Of Health. it claims. objected against
this on the grounds that the water
would be highly insanitary.
Stocking of Farms by Loans.
No account has yet been taken Of
the furnishing of the houses and
stocking of the farmsteads. as Sena-
tory Byrd evidently considered in run
ming the costs above $4,000. This
will be an entirely different sort Of
charge, the Resettlement Administra-
ton holds. Money will be loaned to
a family just as it would be loaned
to any other farmer. If will, of course,
be charge on the tenant, which he
himself-unfamiliar with intricacies
OF bookkeeping find it hard to
dif1erentiate from payments on the
property.
Now Resettlement Administration
engineers admit frankly that $4,000
is lot of money to have spent on
one OF these farmsteads-if one con-
| siders 1t as private business prop
osition. Supposing somebody - for
whatever strange reason-wanted just
such a home and arranged with a
private contractor to build it.
He probably would pay $500 for the
! land. 1t is close to a basic price,
although here there is some disagree
ment between Senator Byrd's figures
and those of the Resettlemeint Ad-
ministration. Admittedly he could
get builder to put up the buildings
for a lot less than s2,5OO-probably
for $1,000. A well would have cost
$3.50 1ncidentals might have run it
to $3.50 understanding that rigid
economy was practiced. Then there
would be such things as legal costs.
Relief Labor Difficulties.
Now, they claim, the Government
was working under difficulties which
no private contractor would have
encountered. 1t had to use relief
labor This was not so enlcient as
private labor, although here no great
differential is charged. But it had
to be paid, whether or no. When
delay of few weeks occurred the
private contractor could have laid of
his help. The Government could
not. A certain proportion of skilled
and unskilled labor had to be main
tanned regardless of the need at any
particular time.
Altogether, the Resettlement Ad-
ministration says, this is very ex-
pensive way to build, If the labor
cost is to be charged on a straight
business basis. But if it is to be
credited to straight relief, then it
can be considered as money which
the Government would have to have
expended anyway and is an unfair
charge against the houses.
1t is also true, they admit, that it
might have been possible to have
bought just as good farms, or better,
throughout the country for less
money But under the agreement
between the Federal Government and
the State the mountaineers were to
be settled in the same counties where
they now lived. Under these circum-
stances there were. very few cheap
farms available.
Still another justification put for
ward Is that the mountaineers can
not be considered as experienced
farmers, able to settle down in a new
place and make their own way in
the new environment. They need
suosldizing. They probably will need
lot OF nursing along And for hay-
ing sociological program no apolo-
giles are offered-not even for bath
tubs.