Evening star., 1938-07-31
Hou Housing Came of Age
Told in Book by Ickes' Aide
Michael ". Straus Cives
Picture of Obstacles
Program Met.

Michael w. Strauss, the human
dynamo who runs the high-geared
publicity mill for Secretary Ickes, the
Department of the Interior and the
billion-d P. w. A. spending pro-
gram is the latest official to join the
widening circle of New Deal
authors.
His initiation took place with the
recent publication of Housing Comes
of Age" (Oxford University Press>,
written in collaboration with Talbot
Wegg, architect. connected with the
P. w. A. housing program since its
inception.
Inside story of the first four years
of the Governments struggles in
launching a frontal attack on the
Nations slumS, Housing Comes Of
Age" bares for the first time many Of
the battling problems Of land specula-
tions, price pegging, poker bidding
by contractors and the intrigues of
city bosses" that had to be overcome
before the P. w. A. could turn spade
of earth for the first public housing
program in the country. Here is the
course which American public housing
inevitably must follow in its future
development. 1t is story of typical
pioneering in an untried field
To the public at large. the genial
diplomatic yet aggressive. chief of
Secretary Ickes' Information Division.
who pulls the gadgets behind the
scenes on one of the busiest-and
some say one Of the rougheSt-public
stages in Washington. is comparatively
unknown. Not SO, however, within the
inner circles of the New Deal. Big
and breezy, he is Mike" to all who
know him. be it at the White House
on Capitol Hill. or among the swarm
of State officials who come with out
stretched hands to tap the P. w. A.
till.
Was Chicago Newspaperman.
Strangely enough. the man who is
now Mr. 1ckes' official spokesman,
won his friendship by fighting and
foiling many of his attempts to reform
politics and business in hard-boiled
Chicago. Mike had risen from re-
porter to managing editor of the Chi
cago Evening Post and, as he laugh
ingly explains, used to raise merry
hell with his present boss
He was sent to Washington before
the New Deal was born as corre-
SpOndent for Hearst press service
Later. when the new Secretary of the
Interior was called on to organize
the P. w. A., he wanted some one to
help him sell it to the country. Mike
has been doing 1t effectively ever since.
Actually, he was the first appointee
under the Public Works Administra-
ton, now boasting a. staff of some
10000.
Having been present during the
birth-pangs of the Housing Division
and watched it through the teething
age, Mr.. Straus has had the co-opera-
ton OF its staff in digging up many
unusual details of those years He
was fortunate, too, in having the COL
laboration of Mr.. Wegg. a Chicago
architect, who joined the Housing Di-
vision in 1888 and participated in the
early efforts to make America slum-
conscious
Mr.. Wegg is graduate of Harvard
and Of the BeauX Arts in Paris. As a
designer he worked on the plans for
many of P. w. AS low-rent housing
projects.
Last November the Housing Divi-
sion was transferred to the neW1y-cre-
ated United States Housing Authority.
1t was by then a lusty child with 81
huge projects costing $135.O0O. 900.
completed or nearing completion
They sheltered more than 2l.0O0
families.
Mr.. Wegg was transferred to the
new agency
Dedicated to Ickes.
Their volume is dedicated ITO Har-
old L. Ickes, whose social vision led
public housing from theory to fact
in the United States"
Public housing came of age" when
II words were written into the N. /,
R. A. of 1888. They directed the
P. w. A. TO include reconstruction re-
construction, alteration or repair under
pubic regulation or control of low
rent housing and slum- clearance prof.
ects.' These II words contained the
kernel OF an idea that blossomed into
Americas first housing program" the
book explains.
In such chapters as bids. Bricks
and Brickbats' (Mr Ickes was fire.
quently on the receiving end) the
curtain is raised on sordid account
OF colluSionS and political opposi-