Evening star., 1939-11-05
Housing and National Defense
Head of S. H. Believes Both Are Vital to Nations Welfare

United States Housing Authority was
paying q 100 per cent subsidy" or was
making total gift Of the project" to
the locality and thus to the Smith fam
lily. Nothing could be further from the
true state Of affairs. The little illustra-
ton above shows that. without the U.
s. H. A. grant-in-aid the annual rent
would be about $3.50. OF this the U. S. H.
A. annual contribution covers $168, or
about one-third, the local annual con-
tribution covers $72. or about one-sixth,
and the Smiths pay $240, or about one
half. The rehousing of slum dwellers
under the U. s. H. A. program therefore
represents a plan by which the Federal
Government, the locality and the tenant
family itself share fairly in meeting the
rent bill.
Rate Of Help Changes.
Another wrong impression about the
cost Of the U. S. H. A. program to the
Federal Government arises from adding
up the Federal annual contributions or
grantsin-aid over long period of years
in the future, running up to go years,
and then stating the sum as a present
cost. Naturally. If it costs the Federal
Government $120 to help the Smiths live
in decent housing instead of slum for
year, it would cost 80 times as much to
help them for 80 years and 60 times as
much to help them for 60 years, if the
rate NJ ho1Y, HiH ~ to-
years, or even less, the Smiths may need
no help or less help. and the public aid
would be reduced proportionately. In
any event. if we are going to figure the
cost of helping families to live IN safe
homes over the next 60 years we must be
careful to compare this cost only with
the costs of public health, roads, agricul-
tural subsidies, pensions, or national de-
fense, over the next go years. We would
then find. on 60-year basis Just as well
as one-year basis, that the costs Of
public housing are strikingly low. For
example, at the present rate, our annual
appropriations for the Army and Navy
would total about $50 900, ,000, 900 over the
next go years.
But less than half the case for pub
lie housing is stated when we say that its
cost to the Federal Government is rela-
lively too small to interfere with the full
development of other programs for our
security and welfare. To present the full
case, we must note the indispensable
value of housing in strengthening and
supplementing these other programs No
clearer example of this is available than
the very real relationship between decent
housing and an effective national de-
fense program.
should like to outline four ways in
which public housing is closely linked to
the problems created by the present in
ternational situation.
First, an adequate national defense
program, despite the progress Of mechan-
ization, involves manpower as the
prime factor of strength. A strong and
healthy citizenry cannot be fully de-
veloped when one-third of the Nation
is living In the slums. A strong and
healthy citizenry Is immeasurably ad-
vanced as q Nation becomes healthfully
housed.
Second, the shifts of industrial popula-
ton attendant upon producing goods for
war markets have always created q hous-
ing problem all their own. This problem
may become more acute In nation at
peace than in q nation at war, because
q nation at war puts part Of its popula-
ton in the trenches. A highly geared
and sensitive public housing program
can help meet the impact OF the war
abroad upon our peacetime industries.
Key in Economic Life.
Third, the strength of any nation in
modern times Is founded upon Its eco.
nomic system. A thriving economy can
bear without difficulty the cost of pre-
paredness and can meet if necessary any
strains that may Unexpectedly arise.
Complete economic recovery would brace
us at every point. The most important
key to further industrial expansion, in
the opinion of the majority of eco
nomists and business men, is the further
revival of residential construction. The
public housing program for the lowest
income third is universally recognized
to be an integral part Of this revival.
Fourth, and above all, our security in
q world torn by conflicting ideologies
depends upon sustained confidence in
democracy and democratic institutions.
Men will not 60 on forever willing to
sacrifice everything for their country
unless they feel that their country em-
bodies something worth sacrificing every
thing for America, with its boundless
natural, technical and financial re-
sources, can forever hold the allegiance
of all its people to the American ideal 50
long as that ideal remains living force
to better the lot Of the Individual.
So long as one-third Of the people live
in slums, we are neither realizing our
Just aspirations nor utilizing our match
less powers. It is happy event, in these
disturbing times, that over the past two
years through the public housing pro-
gram, the growth Of the slums has for
the first time in half q century been
checked and the upward trend COM
menced In earnest toward decent
housing for those who need 1t most.
Materially and ideally, physically and
spiritually, the normal continuity Of the
public housing program Is link in our
chain of defersA arainst ANYTHING that