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Show j Slum Clearance De Luxe By GUS W. DYER Prohtnor of Economics and Sociology, Vanderbilt University Our government is spending hun-1 hun-1 dreds of millions of borrowed money on what is called a slum clearance movement It is not believed thai erage cost of the white apartments was nearly $6,000. , A negro family must have an Income In-come of at least $55 a month in order to be eligible to rent the smallest apartment. The family must have an income of over $100 in order to be eligible to rent a five room apartment. A white family mu.rt have an income of at least $75 a month to be eligible to rent a two room apartment The government marks off the total cost of these units as 100 per csnt loss. Thev are all gift-houses, presented to selected groups of whites and negroes as presents from the over-burdened, mortgage-ridden taxpayers. The cost of administration, together with other overhead expenses, is so high that these gift houses cannot be rented to slum dwellers. The slum dwellers are entirely eliminated by th high rent charged. t Mi I LA- Mi La there is any constitutional authority whatsoever for this government govern-ment housebuilding house-building pro-g pro-g r a m. How those who have taken a solemn oath to uphold and protect the Constitution can reconcile their oaths with wasting hundreds of millions in a fantastic real estate movement has not been explained. ex-plained. The people who are doped with economic and political quackery, and who benefit from government gifts, do not ask for an explanation. They are. interested only in the easy money hat is coming to them from the "beautiful island of somewhere." But those who pay the bills and those whose incomes are threatened by the mounting government deficits should ask for an explanation and should analyze these projects carefully. The name of this housing movement move-ment Is decidedly misleading. It is not a movement to eliminate the slums. Neither is it a movement to improve the condition of slum dwellers. Two so-called slum clearance units, one (or whites and one for negroes, nave been completed in Nashville, Tennessee. These are perhaps representative repre-sentative of the other units throughout through-out the country. The ground selected for the negro unit practically joins the campus of risk University. Fisk University is. Perhaps, the leading classified school or negroes in the South. The white u'iit is located in the northern section of the city, near Saint Cecelia Academy, Acad-emy, a prominent private school for Sirls. These can hardly be designated 35 slum locations. , The negro unit has 3li7 apartments. The smallest apartments have two rooms each, and the largest have five rooms each. The avcraae cost o( these apartments was over $5,000. The av- These apartments built at 100 per cent loss to the government are rented rent-ed only to negroes and whites who have incomes sufficient to enable them to take care of themselves without with-out any aid from the government. This so-called humanitarian movement move-ment is a movement to subsidize and pauperize independent families who need no subsidy from the government and assess the enormous cost of the proiect on the general consumers, millions of whom are much poorer than the privileged negroes and whites they are compelled to maintain. main-tain. Could any policy be more antagonistic antag-onistic to democracy than this? These government apartments should be regarded as annexes of the almshouse. For such they are. Those who occupy these apartments are of necessity dependents, and must be classified as such. The taxpayers are paving at least one-half of their rent. it is extremely unfortunate for anyone to be forced by conditions to accept charity. Charity is always hazardous to the characters of those who accept it. Our government is based on the sovereign independence of the citizen. To spend hundreds of millions of the people's money in an attempt to induce American citizens who are able to take care of themselves them-selves to surrender their priceless independence in-dependence and become charity wards reveals the kind of thinking now being indulged in by those who are directing the government. |
