Evening star., 1943-08-08

The first Of two scenes was a blighted
district on the lower East Side. It was
crowded with four-story tenements, air.
less, comfortless, slattern, half deserted
and pitted with rash of toilet signs.
There were rusted fire escapes, down.
at-heel alleys and slovenly backyards.
In every block were dead shops, in coffins
of ooardedup show windows. A few
disheartened women steered baby car
riages along treeless avenues or chartered
dejectedly at pushcart markets. Scare
crow scavengers grubbed in garbage cans
on the sidewalks for morsels of food or
scraps of metal
The second area, In the Bronx, was
half an hour distant by subway. In so
brief space the visitor was trans
ported from world of poverty and
decay. of greed and oppression, into
another Of prosperity and animation,
happiness and beauty. Here was a
modern suburb Of well-spaced apart
ment homes, bathed in sunlight and
air and set in the midst of trees, shrubs
and flowers, with parks, fountains and
Fairgrounds on every hand. Spacious
boulevards and fiorishing shops hustled
with men, women and children, healthy,
well n-dlessed and self-respecting.
One was a district of 18 blocks,
bounded by Fourteenth and Twentieth
streets, and by First avenue and Avenue
c, which the Metropolitan Life Insur-
ance Co. proposes to rebuild into an
up-to-date housing community named
Stuyvesant Town. The other, show
place of Greater New York, was the
Metropolitan's famous Parkchester de-
velopment of 129 acres, which has been
in operation since 1941 and boasts
population Of 10000, equal to that of
Poughkeepsie
Demolition work on the new project
Is expected to start in the next few
months, but construction will be post
poned until after the war, on account
of shortage of materials and Labor
When completed. the dying area will be
replaced by self-contained village with
its own stores, garages, movie theaters
and heating plant, eight Fairgrounds,
a central park and about IS apartment
buildings 13 stories high. 1t will cost
from $4,000 900 to SIS, ,000, 900 and house
24,3l5 people. -
Aid to Private Enterprise.
The promised emergence of Stuyve-
SAINT Town from this section of the So
called Gas House District" formerly no
torious as haunt of gangsters and
hoodlums. is not only inspiring in itself
but important as another experiment in
what seems on the way to becoming a
Nationwide movement. Following the
example of New York, urban redevelop-
ment laws have been adopted In Illinois,
Michigan, Ohio and Missouri, and are
being considered in many other COM
monwealths.
Their purpose is to open the field Of
residential housing to private enterprise
by means of vesting approved limited
dividend companies with the power Of
eminent domain, In cooperation with
State and municipal authorities. The
primary appeal is to insurance COM
panies. Savings banks, it Is hoped, may
be induced to participate.
In its monumental report on life in
surance, the Temporary National Eco
nomic Committee pointed out three years
ago that insurance companies were
mopping up the country's savings at a
rate which threatened in decade or so
to give them near-monopoly OF the
National Capital market. 1t was noted
with alarm that their premium income
Of several billions annually was invested
for the most part in bonds, mortgages
and policy loans In other words, vast
bulk of American savings was being en-
ployed to service and stimulate debt,
while the margin for new enterprise was
shrinking year by year.
The Securities and Exchange Commits
sion, which conducted the investigation
for TNEC. recommended that insurance
companies should be authorized by law
TO invest part of their funds in common
stocks, representing venture capital.
Outcries resounded from insurance off,
cials and policyholders. The safeguard
OF widows and orphans, they objected,
~ NkEuA