Evening star., 1941-03-24
Coordinated PLANNING
Urged 10 Provide for
Defense Migrants
U. 5. Lucky to Escape
Epidemics Lost Winter,
House Group Told
BY JAMES FREE.


Asserting that the United States
was lucky to escape disastrous epi-
denies in crowded, poorly housed
defense centers during the winter,
Jonathan Daniels, Raleigh IN. c.
author and editor, told the special
House Committee on Interstate Mi
grafton today that nothing less than
complete co-ordinated planning in
community safety will suffice in the
future.
Testifying at the opening of the
committees hearings on labor and
welfare problems growing out of the
defense program, Mr.. Daniels said:
There is a CompleXity OF special
ization and often an increasing COM
plexity among different specialists,
State and Federal, concerned with
the migration problem This divi-
sion Of concern and authority some
times seems maddening to local peo-
pie even when the local program it
self is not wise
Committee Chairman John H.
Tolan of California said that re-
ports reaching the committee from
all parts of the country substantiate
estimates that at least three to four
million persons will migrate to mill
tary and industrial defense areas
now developing. Indications are
that more than 250,0OO children of
school age will be affected he said.
Human Element Last.
Mr.. Tolman commented that mil
lions have been spent for defense
commodities and other material re-
ouirements for the defense program.
but little attention has been paid
to the human element.
1T is interesting to me why the
human element seems to come last"
he declared.
Whats going to happen to these
people when this emergency is over?'
representative Sparksman. Demo-
crat, of Alabama asked Mr.. Daniels
DO you mean workers or owners
of plants?" Mr.. Daniels wanted to
know.
Il mean workers" Mr.. Sparkman
continued. 1T looks like the Gov
ernment is taking care of the owners
nicely. What is going to happen in
most towns afterward?"
The Government is probably
going to have to provide a lot more
money for the w. p. A. the North
Carolina author said.
Less Security Than Indians.
Pointing out that there are more
than SIX times as many automobiles
as there were in World War DAYS,
Samuel Grafton, columnist for the
New York Post and Philadelphia
Record, remarked:
when a home becomes a risky
possession, and mobility becomes
priced family asset, then we may
ask ourselves how far we have
progressed in the social sense since
the days when Indians roamed the
Northeast and moved with the game
and fishes.
"A modern American father of a
family, who will travel a thousand
miles for the chance to spear a Job.
Is a more streamlined individual
than the aborigines, but he has, on
the whole, even less security"
The migration problem now facing
the Nation is not new. Pare Lorentz
magazine writer and motion picture
director, told the committee.
This is simply the climax of a
national problem that has been de-
veloping for 10 years" he declared.
Help to Farmers Cited.
Mr.. Daniels, who Travelled ex-
tenslVely throughout the Nation to
gather material for two books, said
the expanded industrial activity and
building of Army cantonments has
helped farmers in many areas bv
enabling them to earn money with
which to buy badly needed equip
ment and to learn carpentry and
other building skills.
But he pointed out that it is in
creasingly difficult for farmers to
find migrants formerly depended
upon for seasonal work, such as
picking Strawberries and beans and
digging potatoes.
Mr.. Daniels also pointed out to
the committee that in the first few
months OF the defense effort, Gov
ernment land purchases dispos-
seSSed more than half as many
farmers as had been helped in the
acquisition of land in three years
by the Farm Security Administra-
ton under the Bankhead- Jones
tenant purchase program"
Others appearing before the COM
n1lttee today were Duncan Aikman.
author and newspaperman, and
Katherine Smith, woman's page
editor for the Washington Times
Herald.