Evening star., 1939-07-12
Aid 10 South
Held Solution
For U. 5. Ills
Farm Security Head
Asks 'Chonce to Buy
At Virginia Institute

ASKS Nnonce to Buy
|. At Virginia Institute
By the Associated Press.
CHARLOTTESVILLE. Va, July
12.-America could forget many OF
her economic troubles If the South
were provided with purchasing
power, DR.. Will Alexander, Farm Sc
cur1ty administrator, asserted today
IN talk before the University of
Virginia's Institute of Public Affairs
Give the South a chance to buy, VI
ne said, "and poverty and unemploy-
ment elsewhere will disappear as
the mills and factories speed up pro-
duction to fill the South's orders"
Other speakers before the insti-
tute's symposium on housing were
Nathan Straus, United States Hous-
ing Authority administrator, and
Corwin Edwards, special assistant to
Attorney General Frank Murphy.
Mr.. Straus said that although
public housing is not "the sole means
OF attacking our economic ills, ii
Is, nevertheless, an extremely i'm
portant and effective instrument for
building the great road of social
progress"
The public housing program, he
said, will bring untold benefits to
the Nation as a whole. Low-rent
public housing cuts across almost
every field of human activity. 1t
benefits rich and poor, strong and
weak, the businessman, the farmer
the laborer"
Restraints of Trade Blamed.
Mr.. Edwards said the unhealthy
state of home building is in consid-
erable part due to unreasonable re-
straints of trade in violation of the
antitrust laws" The program of
the antitrust division of the De-
! partment of Justice "for dealing
with this state of affairs" he added
will inevitably present new oppor-
tunities to the Government spending
agencies in the housing field"
DR.. Alexander said that providing
the South with purchasing power
was tremendous, but not an i'm
possible task, and recommended as
a method to be followed the plan
employed by the Farm Security Ad-
ministration in its rehabilitation
loan program to low-income families
Under this program. he said. the
Federal Government is providing a
new start for hundreds of thousands
of farm families which long before
1929 were SO near the brink of disas-
ter that the depression merely
pushed them over.
That rehabilitation loan method
Is one way to expand the Sou.h's
purchasing power. There are many
others. Some of them will involve
little subsidy For years, how
ever, we have subsidized the North
through the tariff at the expense
of the South. and turnabout would
be only fair play.
Housing a Place to Start.
"A good place to begin expanding
the South's purchasing power
would be in housing. The Nation
has already set the pattern for SUBJ
sidized low-cost housing-but, as
usual, most of the subsidies are
going to the great cities of the
North instead of to the rural South.
If we really want to eliminate
slums, however. probably the most
fertile field is in the farming areas
OF the Southeastern States.
1.-TWO million new houses would
be required to house the Southern
farm population with any sort of
decency. A little help from the
Government in this field would
create $2000,0O0,0 900 of purchasing
power, which would be spent for
goods not only in the South, but
throughout the Nation.
"As a national policy, we are SUBJ
sidizing slum clearance in cities
Isn't 1t time for us to grant a SINH
lar subsidy to clear rural slums and
house farm families with something
approaching an American standard
of living?
Would Be Self-Liquidating.
Another field for profitable in
vestment in the South is medical
care. Decent health for the South
would mean immense savings in
other kinds of expenditures. There
is ample evidence, for example,
that much of the economic failure
In the rural South today is due to
Ill health.
"The Government could easilv in
vest a billion dollars a year for
many years to come in rehabilitat-
ing the Southern farmer. Most
OF this investment would be directly
self-liquidating. All of it would
be indirectly self -liquidating through
the increased revenue pouring into
the Treasury from revived industry +"
Maj. Gen. James G. Harbord,
chairman of the board of the Radio
Corporation of America, recon-
mended last night that Congress
continue to "quash the efforts of
well-meaning pacifists to require q
referendum before war can be de-
clared."
The radio executive said further
that Congress should vote into
permanent statute without delav a
| carefully planned selectiyo ser,,;,.