Evening star., 1943-06-28
No Need to Exuqqerute

| graceful conditions in Washington
and refuses to mince words In its
description, the result is helpful.
For such a report is in the nature of
pitiless self-examination. Congress
is charged under the Constitution
with exclusive legislative control over
the District, and some of the things
pointed out by the committee report
reflect on the faulty execution Of
that responsibility.
1t is all the more to be regretted,
therefore, that the committee did
not reflect, in its report, a more
realistic attitude in its discussion of
some of the conditions it criticized.
When the committee reported that
In "delving" into the local housing
situation it found 80 per cent of
the population of the District of Co.
lumbia were living under slum con-
ditionS" 1t should have given the
source OF its statistics and a defini-
ton of slum conditions. Otherwise,
the statement appears to be a mani
fest exaggeration and in that re-
Spect is weakened AS a matter of
fact, conditions in the housing field
require no exaggeration for emphasis.
If by slum conditions, the COM
mittee had in mind overcrowded and
inadequate housing, it is possible
that SO per cent of the people of
the District are affected. But the
examples cited by the report have
more to do with the squalor of pov-
erty than with the shortage of hous-
ing. When the two problems are
confused, it makes the solution
equally confused.
AS a matter of fact, the commit
tee Is talking about two separate
and distinct phases of the housing
shortage. One is found in the alley
communities, which fit the popular
conception Of slums. The other is
housing shortage in Washington,
due to the great influx of war work.
erS. One is confined to a relatively
small section of the District, densely
populated and the breeding place for
crime and disease, which, in years.
can be cleaned up if there is a will
to do it. The other applies to the
city as whole and will remain with
us until the exodus of war workers.
after the war, brings it's own relief.
AS for the alley communities, it IS
unfortunate that the committee re-
vealed its flndings-always shock
ing-as if it had discovered some
thing brand-new, quickly remedied
by making the facts known. For
the problem represented in the alley
communities began to manifest it
self some years after the Civil War
and, for variety of reasons, has
def1ed cure. In the First World
War, for instance, Congress moved
by the Indignation of comparable
Stunning expedition" decided that
the way to do away with the alley
dwellings was to order them va
Gated by certain date. But as
there was no provision for alterna-
tive housing, the old closing
law died on the books and was in a
way responsible for another long
period of continued inaction.
But another, more far-seeing Con-
gress finally established the Alley
Dwelling Authority, now more ap-
| propriately known as the National
Capital Housing Authority, with
| powers of eminent domain and a
small fund for conversion of alley
property to decent, low-cost housing,
or to other use. But just as this work,
under the intelligent direction of
| John 1hlder, was demonstrating it's
real possibilities, another session of
| Congress wiped out the revolving
fund and declined to appropriate
another cent.
In the meantime, the influx of war
workers has created another type of
shortage in housing, aggravated by
the public and private demolition,
| NuAi1A5 OliC JdoU 1CW years, OI
structures which were sheltering an
estimated 10000 persons at a time
when private construction was halted
by the war and when low-cost public
housing was reserved for people
whose Government employment gave
them priority.
What we need in Washington is
less "delving" into the housing short
age and some decision to use the ex-
perience and machinery of the Ma
tional Capital Housing Authority in
an orderly program of slum reclama-
ton. That requires money, which
can be appropriated only by Con-
gress. If the members of the
D'Alesandro committee will work
toward that end, its preliminary
delving may yield helpful results.
Stute Sovereignty