Reconversion to Spring
Reconversion to Spring THE last time I haul visited the Grand Central Palace it waa crowded with the business of war. Time and again I have described in this column the newer shows which ham been...
...It takes • few of th* families In the most desp*r*te need off the streets and puts them into barracks...
...That state across the Hudson produces mors roses and more orchids than any other section of thia rolling world...
...Wo need a program which will »e-house a large part of our population...
...But this Is practically nothing...
...But under the spells woven by the lobby, that section of the bill waa defeated in the House...
...The question i* whether the lobbyists or the people of the country—primarily the homeless veterans—will win the final round...
...Please do not expect me to describe the blooms and gardens which I saw at the 30th International Flower Show...
...Without effective government help they cannot get them...
...F*w example, the Ford Motor Co...
...As the point ef departure, from which so many ef my friends took the plunge into war, the place enme to stand in my mind as a symbol of the parting of the ways between war and peace...
...It's all bunk, this idea that orchid* are just for the rich, tb* peer cam have them if they'll just take the...
...As the induction center of this New York area, it took in each week thou-- sands ef boys, stripped them to their akivering skins snd assigned such as were lit to the flrhtinr fores...
...Mary, Naf of Alt Contrary I RECALL that last summer I brought down a good deal of friendly spoofing when I suggested that folks who grow things are friendly, decent, generous people...
...So far as actual shows are concerned, New Jersey deserves a special word...
...Orchids Arm Hot My fasiaess We came across one young fellow who class-angled the whole thing for us...
...We have before as, then, a conflict between promoters who want to coin the people's need into unlimited profits and government planners who want to produce the homes that we need at juices which we can afford to pay...
...Is that fair...
...There are attendant dangers...
...MEN WORKERS PREFERRED New YORK (IaPA)— Since V-J D**» 4,000,000 women have lost their jabs* Labor Department Women's Bureau figures *how that, because employer* prefer to hire men...
...The National Housing Agency estimate* that to house our population decently, we shall require 16,100,000 non-farm dwelling units over a 10-year period...
...But up her* there is an ostentation about them that rubs me the wrong way...
...To achiev* our aim, we must take measures something like those which gave us victory in the battle of war-production...
...daction of almost 2,000,000 units th* first year...
...The houses are to be built by private builders...
...The number of rose bushes which I have planted and transplanted is as the auxaber of the stars...
...And wheal it cones to beauty, 1 would place my tomatoes and egg plants against anything that was exhibited at Grand Central Palace...
...No sign of marching men or boys shyly looking a military future in the face...
...The House has passed a bill appropriating $263,727,000 for this purpose...
...Obvi...
...I recall writing ia this coiornn a complaint because Mr...
...As though the whole miserable buainess had been aa illusion...
...But—anyway- when I walked into that great exhibition hall, I felt that all of the thousands of peepU streaming up and down were my own kind...
...I spend a lot of time and effort over them, but it is always under orders, female orders...
...Per myself, and under my earn steam, I raise cabbagea and corn...
...Down in Cuba, or Trinidad, where they belong, I am fond of orchids...
...But for the fear years of war the Army took over...
...Instead of the bare austerity of militarism was the richness and beauty of peace...
...It ia something to think about—especially for persons who get discouraged about humanity, get the notion that all of ua are a vulgar lot with minda centered only on what is cheap and low...
...If the whole world could be as quickly and completely reconverted as that big exhibition hall, what a happy place thia would be by now...
...Flowers are out of my lie...
...Time and again I have described in this column the newer shows which ham been held there annually time out of mind...
...WlLSON W. WYATT, the President's Housing Expediter, has presented a comprehensive housing program and has shown rare energy and executive ability In promoting it...
...processed in mass -prodaetien fashion...
...They need millions of homea at prices which they can afford...
...Millions of dollars are being thrown around by the biggest and most expert lobby that has functioned in years...
...Epaulet* ana shoulder paebee or the rosea in the cheeks of a healthful WAC were the oehy flowers which bloomed there...
...At our table we had folka from Massachusetts and Connecticut where, last week, tt was still practically winter...
...For four years it wss dominated by the saluting and heel-click in jr austerity ef conflict Last Saturday, aa I strolled through the wide doors, it was ss if time had rolled back, as if there had never been a war...
...What do you think of when you hear that state mentioned...
...In Washington the massed real estate interests and the Chambers of Commerce are united in a bold and open attempt to swing Congress against the will of the people and the interest of the veterans...
...We were reporting on Delaware, a state now far advanced in spring...
...Poll* taken all over the country show that citizen* are practically unanimous in favor of the original Patmaa Bill including its provision of $600,000,000 in subsidies...
...Tear* saw, there wsald always be soma expensive looking exhibits under the name of J. P. Morgan...
...Congressmen who wish to be re-elected had better think twice before they cost their votes against home* for the v*t...
...Between the exhibitions of roses, lilies, iris, orchids, lisppy people streaming up and down in search of new beauties for their gardens...
...The nub of the problem," according to the chairman of the New York Council of the American Veterans Committee, "is that we veterans cannot afford to pay more than $50 s month for rent and you (referring to the Real Estate Board) are making a profit and want to make more...
...There waa a restaurant, where the coffee was good and the service was slow...
...ran* and other homeless American voter...
...So the first round of the fight has gone to the profiteers...
...There are more profits in commercial buildings or homes for the rich...
...Whole beds of bulbs have been lifted clean out of the ground and have had to be replanted...
...Morgan got the prises rather than hi* gardener, a gentleman with a Scotch name...
...The temporary barracks may soon become the slums of the future...
...They have been made a symbol of snobbery...
...They envision the pro...
...The plana of Expediter Wyatt and th* National Housing Agency are moderate and practical...
...alone, where woman during the war constitute...
...The object, I suppose, was to show Why the exquisite products have to be sold for $5 or $15 apiece...
...By virtue of merely being there, of having been called together by the beauty of gardens, we were friends...
...I liked, the young follow sad loudly apptauaod hist speech Bmt actually 1 waa net mtor sated...
...He and ths other gardeners of that prolific state ought to do something to counteract the smell emitted by Hague...
...Clear Issue: Public Welfare vs...
...The Federated Garden Clubs ef America and state clubs from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts offered the prizes, and, apparently, did the organising that brought all that beauty together...
...But a* emergency protection they are needed...
...Every sort of bloom that you can think of from every sort of clime and soil—and all banked in colorful designs on every sids...
...Bat such activities, carried on under the approving eye of one or the ether of tb* ladies of the household, are to me merely a pleasant sort,of slave labor...
...out of the labor market are now ex is ting on unemployment compensation...
...Many women force...
...Zenon Scbreiber, of Paramus, N. J., constructed for ua a rock garden arranged about a waterfall which took > a whole flock of prizes and proved to be the top attraction of the show...
...on sly, we face an emergency...
...If we allow the lobbyist* of the real estate boards to have their way, w* shall get only a few houses and those we get will be for the rich...
...Well, we were gazing with appropriate awe when a young fellow turned to me and orated aa if he ware on a soap-box: "Hall, don't you believe « word of it I brought up a pocketful of seed* from Florida, threw taesn into a pot, and first thing ye» know I had orchids ss Uaatifai as any yea will see around hate...
...Even during the most expansive tim* of the building boom of the 1920's, private industry never produced more than about 700,000 dwellings a year...
...The iris bugm which I have dog up, separated and consigned again to the earth weald pa** cahralation...
...Shakespeare could do it It will be better for me not to try...
...Mary...
...Tea to one, the name of Boss Hague pops into your mind...
...Profits An Editorial— THE heated argument about housing presents the public with a brutally clear case...
...Tb* bill in its emasculated form ia now being considered by the Senate Committee on Banking...
...They are using their power over priorities to channel materials to building project* involving homes to sail for leaa than $6,000...
...What th* real estate boards object to is that, under the Federal Government plan, prices and profits will be kept down...
...Whole books could be written about what winter has don* to the gardens in different parts of the country...
...I asay be wrong, but I had a feeling that tb* very rich eat leas of • Agora than they formerly did...
...It is hardly a matter of class...
...We, for exsmple, have suffered from alternate freezing and thawing...
...The place was dominated by the garden etwba snd by the cial houses...
...Private enterprise might be saved, but million* of veteran* and ex-war worker* would have no roof* over their heads...
...On* of the commercial houses had put on an exhibit to show with what care the powdery orchid seeds have to be planted and with what precautions the tiny plants must be nursed along for seven years before the miraculous blooms appear...
...Our friends from Us* colder northern start** reported with scarcely niatrsaaed sense of superiority that they have suffered practically Ba losses from the rigors ef their colder winter...
...The cry that this provision is a threat to private enterprise is obviously a false alarm...
...It's a pity, for they really are lovely things...
...How much there waa to say and how important it all seemed—about crocuses, tulips daffodilly hyacinths, magnolias...
...This time I failed to notice any exhibits under the name of Morgan or Vander-bilt or Gould...
...trouble...
...It consists, necessarily, of two parts...
...Whenever I had] secssiea to drop in, 1 would lunch in the officers' mess and rather what reports I eewM of the attitudes and qualities ef the young men who were twine...
...But they warn that without the $600,000,000 subsidy to keep down the coat* of scarce materials, they cannot maintain their control over price...
...Together with previous measures, this will furnish over 200,000 family units...
...Returned veterans and their families are sleeping in railway stations, on doorsteps, crowded in with relatives...
...As part of every knot of on-lookers we fell into converse about our garden or theirs...
...But the people I ran talk about A quarter of a million of them cam* to sea the flowers during the six days...
...I suppose the members of a Sportsmen's Club or of a Chamber of Commerce feel the same way about on* another...
...it percent of the workers, now *m ploys 1 women In only 4 percent of the jobs, and recently announced that it would »°* rehire any women who wore not en tha payroll at the time of th* steel strik...
...The first is ths provision of ss many temporary roofs for house-lose people as can possibly be turned out in a hurry...
Vol. 29 • March 1946 • No. 13
