Evening star., 1943-11-18
Realty Session Told
Army Has Acquired
100000 Acres
BY FRED H. MORHART, Jr.
Star Staff CORRESPONDENT.

CLEVELAND, Nov. 18.-Under
secretary of War Patterson las
night revealed that the War Depart
ment "has acquired almost 1000 ,00l
acres of land for military purposes,
and added that some 5000 900 90,
has been committed to this purpose
Mr.. Patterson, speaking before tn,
36th annual meeting of the Ma.
tional Association of Real Estat,
Boards here, said that, in addition
the department has taken over piers
warehouses, storage plants, theaters
laundries and Office buildings.
He estimated that this leasing
plan itself involves yearly renta
of s65 100000"
"As real estate men," he declared
"you will understand the size of the
task when tell you that for storage
space alone, just one item, we have
100000 feet under lease"
Third Privately Owned.
Mr.. Patterson added that Of the
100000 acres of land acquired only
about 100000 acres, less than q
third, formerly was in the hands OF
private owners.
The rest of the land, $4,000, ,00C
acres. represents a bookkeeping
transaction, transaction within the
Government itself. These tracts
were obtained by withdrawal from
the public domain or by transfer
from other Federal agencies, such as
the Forest Service and the Park
Service" he said.
Let me emphasize the fact that
this figure represents the bare min
imum necessary to train and accom-
modate our Army in this age of
mechanical warfare and large aerial
operations"
1T may be safely said that we
have passed the peak of our land
and housing program. Barring oc-
caslonal requests for special purpose
facilities, no large acquisitions are
contemplated. In the large sense
we have come to the time when we
are tightening our belt rather than
letting it out another notch"
1T is impossible at this. time, of
course, to discuss postwar diSpoSi-
ton of our holdings in any concrete
way In order to reduce the amount
Of land withdrawn from agricul-
tural productivity We have already
encouraged a policy of leasing GER
tain areas to farmers on COM
petitive bid basis.
Safety Strips Used.
These lands include the safety
strips with which We surrounded our
ordnance plants: they were acquired
to serve as double -barreled precau-
ton against sabotage and the effect
of explosions. Scientific advance in
storage and handling of munitions
has minlmized many of the earlier
hazards and we have been able thus
far to lease more than $4,000 acres
OF the safety strips.
Many searching serious studies
are now being made on the subject
of postwar dispositions. I know of
no error-proof formula, but the aim
of all realistic plans must be to
as possible. We cannot disrupt our
industrial economy by wholesale
dumping of federally owned proper
ties. Several bills have been intro
duced in Congress which would di-
rect the Secretary of War to afford
former owners the first opportunity
to repurchase their land. I SYM
pathize with the objectives of such
legislation, but the legislation itself
is impractical. Individual tracts
have been merged in great reserva-
tions and covered with costly i'm
provements. The administrative job
of searching out original owners
would in itself be insurmountable 4"
he stated.
The National Association of Home
Builders, also meeting here yester-