The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1937-06-28
The Human
Side of the
News
BIZ EdUin C.. Hill
CcopyriEht. 1897. BY King Features
Syndicate, Lne.)

@OJOukAbkC O1A 4kS0IS = 6AA ASA GAN
wading pools for the pickaninniesI
And O lovely tiled court for q hoe
down when the banjos are ring
ing in front Of that old bronze
cabin door. Uncle Sam turns
over to New York city the $4,219r
900 Federal housing project for
Negroes, in Harlem.
Far better housing than Simon
/ Legree ever dreamed of goes to
the black folk, for a rental Of 81
per room. Fifty-five per cent Of
the cost will be repaid. over a
period of so years. The remain
ing $4,000, 900 or so will be written
off. The project will house STA
families, carefully selected from
$4,000 applicants ON the basis Of
need, responsibility and depend
able income. Assurances are given
that political pull was eliminated
in making the selection.
That number Of fortunate tam1-
lies is pitifully small in Harlem's
overcrowded population OF some
where around 275,00O Negroes.
Building the model house is Just
the beginning in endeavorS OF this
kind. In many previous instances,
it has been found that the houses
soon are occupied by higher in
come groups than those for which
they are intended.
ARRESTING SYMBOL
!, England, which has gone more
extensively into slum reclamation
and model housing than we. still
experiments, still finds a low-lr-
come Substratum beyond the reach
of these beneficent plans. 1t was,
believe, Cardinal Newman who
said Eve live by symbols"
There is here, indeed, an arrest
ing symbol of possibly magnificent
achievement, an interesting dem
ohstration of what we may nope
to accomplish with an eventual
rational organization Of the magi.
cal energies and techniques over
which we gained dominion in the
decades after we freed the slaves.
One horsepower Of electric en-
ergy-snd we still have Something
like 10000, 900 horsepower Of n.y.
droeltctric energy still undevel-
oped. in America-gives us the
manpower equivalent of eight Of
those black slaves who toiled in
the cotton fields and lived in
damp wretched shacks, with crun-
bling chimneyS. It wouldn't be
bad idea to stack one Of these
lnouldy old swamp cabins up
against this Harlem palace Of tile
and polychrome, just to fore
shadow what may be when we
really learn properly to use our
new slaves Of the power age.
Negroes in the big cities have
' been crowded into sleazy, unst;I1i-
tary, ola draggle-tail houses, Unfit
for human living. Surely we owe
them at least this declaration Of
good intent in the faltering begin
ming Of proper housing which the
Harlem project represents.
A recently published book by
Robert Allison Parker, Father
Divine, the Incredible Messiah"
is not only an excellent account Of
the strange little fanatical mes
Siah, but an equally fine appraisal
Of the inducement to psychic and
social distortion provided by Har-
LENS black slun1s. I quote from
Mr.. Parker:
"a majority of the residential
structures of Harlem date from
the last decades of the Nine
TsAVA$OWNy A
were constructed with no refer
ence to the present occupants
enforced mode of life. Many are
old law tenementS, condemned
by the building regulations Of
1901. Many contain dark, win
dowleSS, airlesS rooms, notorious
as firetraps and breeders of dis
east. In many, there are no
baths, or at best defective
plumbing. M . n y are ,un'
heatead, cold water flats.
although they receive an es-
timated II per cent lower wages
than whites, NegOes are forced
to nay at least 20 per cent
higher rentals. Researches Of
the New York Housing Au.
thOrity demonstrate that Negro
tenants of Harlan must pay
relatively higheG. rentals than
prevail in any other section Of
the metropolis. To meet the
high rentals, many have re-
sorted to taking in dodgers, q So
l., utlOn which has resulted In ap-
apalling OvercrOwding.
LIVE IN SQUALOR
"For the questionable priviI-
eye Of being permitted to dwell
in abOminable Squalor, between
warped and peeling walls in
tested with vermin, most Of Har.
lens population is forced to sur.
render an outrageous proportion
Of it's meager income. The land
lords sereneIy disregard COM
plants and tenement regulations
alike. Protests against filthy,
defective toilets in the outer
halls, against weakening stair
cases, against fire risks, are met
with indifference, or counter.
claims that the tenants them
selves are to blame for the filth
and SqualOr.
"And Harlem has no defense:
for only in rare instances are
Negroes permitted to live out
side the strictly segregated dis
tricts; and the rentals are based
on the age-OId principle, ALI that
the traffic can BEAR"
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