Evening star., 1937-05-29

the old estimates of costs are not
justified
They claim that Senator Byrd's
estimates were altogether too high
anyway-although admittedly the
costs Of the work already completed
have been high compared to what
might have been accomplished on a
strict business basis. 1t has been a
case, they maintain, of mixing busi-
ness and relief, with very large item
to be charged directly against relief.
The Resettlement Administration,
its officials claim, never went into the
Blue Ridge foothills with the idea of
providing demonstration of cheap,
efficient building. It took over a Job
forced upon it to provide homes for
mountaineer families and at the same
time provide work for local labor 1t
was hedged about with all sorts of
restrictions which never would have
concerned the private contractor.
Only one Of the projects is close
: to completion-that in the Ida VAL
ley near Luray. It is unfair, they
claim, to judge what will be done
in the future on this, which was
started by Subsistence Homesteads.
When the Resettlement Administra-
ton took it over it did not like the
plans, but to junk everything that
had been done and start all over
again would have been considered the
height of inefdciency.
Claim Looks Belle Facts.
1t is willing, however, to take any
blame that attaches to the project,
which admittedly looks pretty ter
rible to the superficial observer The
Resettlement officials claim that it
really Is not so bad as it looks.
In Senator Byrds complaint to
secretary Wallace it was claimed that
the cost of the farmsteads would run
from $4,000 to close to $4,000 Re-
settlement denies this, and also de-
rlles that it has expended any un-
1ustitlable sums on such overhead as
would come under the general head
OF surveying" The circumstances
were such, however, that it was
obliged to spend considerably more
on this sort of work than any private
contractor would have done.
Now there are to be no community
houses and no expensive hydroelectric
projects, such as were proposed at
first, and which might have run the
costs pretty high. This was all at
tended to when Secretary Wallace
ordered the projects pare down to
the bone.
Here are the figures on the Ida
Valley project as furnished by the
Resettlement Administration:
Land, $4,000. or approximately
$500 homestead.
Buildings, $5l,s35, or approximate
ly $4,000 homestead.
The sum represents the basic cost
directly chargeable to the project at
present-that is, $4,000 a homestead.
Admittedly this Is not all, but the
bookkeeping gets rather complicated.
That great miscellany to be classed
under overhead" Resettlement ON
cials say, Is not split down for the
separate projects, but is Jumped to-
gether for the whole Shenandoah
homesteads project, including some
settlements on which work has hardly
been started. To have kept separate
books for each project, they insist,
would have greatly increased that very
overhead" which is complained of.
Extraneous Costs Figured.
Roughly, they calculate the cost of
one set of items, including general
surveying, mapping, locating of
houses, legal work connected with
clearing OF titles, general engineer
ing, architecture, planning, etc..
amounts to about per cent of the
total. Some of this has been handled
in Washington, some on the site.
Another set of items, which tn