The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-11-19
Fair Enough
nv wEsTBROOK PEGLER


| Copyright, 1945, by Ming e"'"s ~
| Nrw Work. Nov. 18-Some OF the young
mon and their brides tell me tnat they look
for day. real soon, when they Will own pretty
little home on the edge OF Town. WIN grass 10
NOW and roses round the door and room
f flIu" tho habv with nursery pictures on the
walls.
After the other war we faltered little
while and then, all of sudden, down on Long
island out in Westchester and over on the
Jersey side, promoters bought up old, no-ac
count acreage which had been just lying there
and the big scoops moved in and pretty soon
there were streets and sewers, gas mains and
wires and row on row OF real nice little love-
bowers In some developments they were all
alike except your choice OF orange, vanilla or
raspberry for the paint job In others, the
builders would reverse the pattern in alternate
order. to give an effect of difference or
variety, although actually the space and the
design were the same. And, in the more
EXPENSIVE brackets, up around say $4,000,
they put in quaint brickWork which was catchy
for the time and cute window effects and
breakfast hooks.
We had very bad housing situation in
New York for a short time. 1t was really
worse, for spell, there, in the winter Of 1919
20 than it is today because remember doing
the story at the old Armory at Saith and Park
avenue where the homeless were put down on
cots. Not hobo homeless but people, families,
without homes. It was pretty terrible / can
tell you.
But then, the builders, spectators mostly,
got the idea and those rows of houses popped
up. One day, nothing but bleak old fields lit
tered with trash. Another day, something like
a battlefield, all churned by the trucks de-
livering materials and the big machinery
And then, the scene began to smile and you
had thousands and thousands of nice new
houses, each with its spot of lawn and most of
them with flowers and baby carriages every
where.
Up toward the Bronx there were acres and
acres and acres of land that had waited all
that time for the people to come out and now
big companies, banks and individuals with
enterprise, vision and the willingness to risk
dollar to make dollar spat on their hands
and nonchalantly whipped up new city. I
could tool you around mile after mile in that
part of town and point out buildings six, eight
ten stories tall, housing thousands of us now,
where, just after the other war it was all dead
land with an occasional truck garden almost
in the shadow of the IL.
The majority of the houses were supposed
Ito be Swear jobs for much of the lumber was
green and the work was rushed. But they
were, anyway, homes, and notice that when
the time is up on Swear job they don't tear
it down. They are still standing, not as fresh
and pretty as then but homes, still.
In those days, with the amount of capital
for a down payment that many thousands of
our service men have got today, fellow could
get possession of right nice house with first
and second mortgages, at selling price of
around S., 900 or $6000 Then they worked the
mortgages off, he and she, and meanwhile, If
the Jop didn't blow up, and you remember we
sailed right into good times under the dirty
Republicans, they got car on time payments
and new roads were pushed out into the coun-
try and it was in such times and conditions
and to such homes and surroundings that many
of these new veterans of the second World
War were born
But this time, just don't see how
You speak of housing and you are speaking
of project government undertaking, fl
nanced by some mysterious authority which
eventually get the money from the taxpayers
and reserves the right to boost you out of your
apartment if you have the misjudgment to
pass certain plimsol mark in your pay and
bother, bother and you're a dirty fascist"
and you're communist and meetings and
speeches to Wrangle whether democracy is
gong to be observed in renting the apart
ments.
linen you turn to the country anu 1lo PoWei-
shovels do you see nor those white stakes 5o
feet apart on old pastures and rocky hills,
although there is still plenty of that old land
available between the old subdivisions OF the
twenties and the golf courses. I hear some
half-brave talk but nothing convincing because
when you get the pencil and the table-cloth
and put down just the preliminary hgures,
you scratch it out and start playing tlt-tat-toe
On SIS a week, minus Social Security and
taxes, on SIS, even or 500, if it comes to that,
how much house will those boys and the little
brides be able to buy these days at these
prices? I do see where some developments OF
come-apart houses are being talked up in
print and they were snare and deluslon 70
years ago but I am told that they are very
sturdy and efficient now But my old friend,
Thurman Arnold, a new dealer with Commissions
and abrasions, who had charge OF the anti
trust division Of the D. of j., long ago warned
us that we couldn't expect prefab houses un-
der our present laws and those laws haven't
been changed as much as comma. The
unions won't let you put them up and In some
places they won't even let you use window
glass already set in the panes in factories un-
less you pay some loafer OF glazler IN the
town where your house is to sit down in the
tavern for two or three weeks at straight
time. And if the kitchen cabinet comes ready
painted you have to pay local painter on the
same basis and the same with pre-cut pipe
and on down the line.
Poor old Thurman tried to get some laws
that would let these boys and girls buy pack
age-store houses and save their money but