CITY CREDIT TO BUILD HOMES FOR PEOPLE AND WIPE OUT SLUMS, THOMAS' PROGRAM
City Credit To Build Homes for People And Wipe Out Slums, Thomas' Prosram Socialist Candidate for Mayor Points Why Opponents" Plans Are Inadequate /CREATION of a municipal body, modelled...
...There is little doubt that Algernon Lee towers head and shoulders above all other candidates for this office in knowledge, ability and earnestness...
...record of conspicuous service to the city and to the Labor and Socialist movement...
...Continued encouragement of bona fide cooperative housing...
...Thomas put it: "1...
...Build houses ' and parks and we shall not have to build so many jails and hospitals," Mr...
...Editorial, Ntw York Times, Oct...
...He has represented his party in a number of international Socialist Congresses as well as national conventions of the party...
...From all sides independent citizens art turning to him as tht most effective mtans of registering a protest against Mayor VPalker and Major LaGuardia...
...As for the Republican Party, it "contains elements just as corrupt and just as reactionary as any In Tammany Hall...
...This poverty stricken, city is MtaraHy oesjouertng slums...
...In the matter of public education...
...He stands firmly on the Socialist program to the framing of which he made some important contributions...
...He is a man of ability, learning and high ideals...
...These monotonous peektag-box houses in regions often Isektag dscent rahUo improve* ments for which the workers painfully save up their money are a modern tragedy...
...I think New York could go far on a program of municipal housing without any subsidy from taxes simply by saving in interest charges...
...Assails "Packing-Box" Houses "Both of my opponents have expressed concern for housing," Mr...
...W» know very well that recapture wlB not solve th*.transit problem: hot it would be a Ml'igliry first step and a very big step, toward sorfin* it...
...you wish to do the square thing by him...
...In their place ought to be garden communities such as most of the cities of Europe are providing...
...I was one of the first to urge the Municipal Assembly to continue ' emergency rent laws, the constitutionality of which action is now in question...
...It has not promoted limited dividend companies which it was designed to further...
...But no city in Europe is providing them without making housing a civic responsibility...
...He would bring dignity and character to the mayor's office...
...If necessary I should not hesitate to put city credit behind a decent housing program...
...Gov...
...What is worse, unemployment is growing and there is every reason to fear that it will grow very rapidly within the next few months...
...Editorial, New York World, Oct...
...Nor would they have left unscathed the pitifully weak references, by way of defense, to the glaring delinquences of the old administration...
...I believe in better regulation of dwelling houses than we have...
...There is only one way out and that is municipal housing under an expert board with power to condemn land and to provide housing at cost Such housing should not merely be in present slum area but also in new parts of the City...
...He certainly spent a" good deal of his time in the presidential campaign doing just that...
...From the Citizens Lnion "In contrast uith the other candidates, the personal qualities of Norman Thomas stand out...
...City Credit To Build Homes for People And Wipe Out Slums, Thomas' Prosram Socialist Candidate for Mayor Points Why Opponents" Plans Are Inadequate /CREATION of a municipal body, modelled along the lines of the Port Authority, which could borrow money at 4 and 41* percent with which to finance the construction of low cost housing for the people, is urged by Norman Thomas, Socialist candidate for Mayor...
...There are community laundries with every convenience...
...The Social-' ist party ha* studied all these subjects, not for weeks only but totyears...
...Baps at Walker Referring to the opening of the Democratic campaign in Tammany HUt> Mr...
...Has Mayor Walker given it I thought...
...Build bouses and parks and we shall not have to build so many jails and hospitals...
...Norman Thomas...
...In some of the houses there are kindergartens for the children below school age...
...Anyway, that is the way to begin...
...Its bsjfM* lngs are fire proof and walls sound proof . The apartments are built around courts and playgrounds...
...SS *f the whole duty of man...
...Editorial, Evening Telegram, Oct...
...Lee is a graduate of the University of Minnesota...
...The Mayor appealed for votes for "Americanism" as distinguished frqm votes for the Socialist candidate, Norman Thomas...
...Thomas' outline of the Socialist program on housing was coupled with criticism of Mayor Walker's and F. H. LaGuardia's housing views...
...Even if more limited dividend companies should be formed it is not possible to provide decent housing in New York on a basis of six per cent return on capital invested and five per cent on the two-thirds of the cost which can be covered by mortgages at a price which the people who most need decent housing can afford...
...Neither the jazz Mayor nor the politically versatile Major La Guardia has anything definite to say in relation to vital problems and constructive policies...
...The Socialists had organised a research bureau* with the result that they had accurate information on every matter that came up in the board...
...For the first time within the memory of the voters a group had appeared in that body that were something more than rubber stamps, that took their job seriously, and who injected life into what had been a body of dull routine...
...There is no evidence that New York can do it any other way...
...Not he...
...Smith warned his listeners against the fellow who tries to tell you what has not been done...
...In oreVr t* S» what U right...
...Lee Urges Straight Vote For Socialists -CeYisdifJerte for Aldtsrmanic President Draws Coniparison Between Programs of the Parties A JVOKRlfON USE, the iasiBllft candidate for President of the Board of Aldermen, has a long...
...It has, by providing remission of taxation on housing and by facilitating the securing of mortgages aided cooperative building...
...Thomas added, would not hesitate to put city credit behind a decent housing program...
...And when b*s L* Guardia'* party ever lifted n finrtr to press for such recapture...
...Solomon inquired if Tammany HaQ and Americanism were synonymous and Murphy, Tweed, Croker and Van Wyck were the Mayor's choice as prototypes of Americanism, "The opening 'gun' in the Tammany campaign was more like a cap pistol report...
...Knows Board of Aldermen As leader of the Socialists in the Board of Aldermen, Lee attracted much attention because of his ability in pressing issuea...
...Neither of these can reach the families that most need decent surroundings...
...AH but two Tammany members and one Republican voted hi favor of this crime against legislative representation...
...Cites S3 Vienna Apai iuiisjis "Almost every American who returns from Vienna is enthusiastic about tbe Viennese houses...
...But standing on the platform of my party, I have always said that these thinra were not enough...
...Not only was the governor's speech one of the poorest be has delivered but it stamped him as a regulation Tammany man and thoroughly dismayed his friends of the 'new Tammany* variety...
...Compares Three Platform* "On the housing question, wt have no trouble in finding out where Norman Thomas standsand his party stands with hirn 10J per cent...
...16, 1929...
...This is the Socialist program as Mr...
...I know that isn't a pleasant thiaf to talk about...
...The confession that the present dwelling house law is the best we can do by way of regulation is, if only half true, proof of the inadequacy of regulation...
...16, 1929...
...Norman Thomas doesn't watt you to split your votes...
...If personal merit alone were to decide the contest Mr...
...for all whs are unable to sattefr their tacalal hung-er with the east wind of aetaerit*.—Hux!e...
...The Rand School of Social Science, of which he is Educational Director, is the pioneer institution in workers education in the United States and Lee has been connected with the school since its founding: over twenty years ago...
...Neither has denied my statement that in the richest * city of the world where apartments rent for sums running literally up to 545,000 and 160,000 a year we lag behind most of the civilized world not only in getting rid of slums but in establishing garden communities with park and playground space...
...Solomon soon proved his ability as g» lecturer and debater and served tbe late Meyer London, Socialist Congressman, as secretary...
...Due to one of those raw election steals of which Tammany has been guilty in many elections, both Lee ear) Cassidy were kept out of the board until the last two months of the term for which they were elected...
...Has Major La Guardia's party anything to at}, about it...
...22, 1929...
...Most of our new buildings for the families of workers are unnecessarily ugly...
...Thomas, in quality of mind, in integrity of character, in the uprightness and dignity of his bearing, in the shrewdness and fairness of his argument, in the magnanimity which he has displayed, has fully.-justified the judgment of the Citizens' Union . . . the quality of his vote is bec°ming increasingly impressive...
...It should be related to a plan for parks and playgrounds...
...This program should be part of a city planning program and should bear relation to the provision of parks, playgrounds, transit, etc...
...be joined the Socialist movement in 1910...
...The same is true ss te the transit question...
...Even then the two Socialists had to carry their case into th° courts to force the hands of the board...
...Both of them are exceptional in the . dreary deserts of new buildings, some of .which, as in Queens, are of the cheapest packing-bos sort in which our insufficient laws for Are protection are flagrantly violated...
...Further continuance of the Emergency Rent Law as a temporary measure...
...More drastic regulation of dwellings with a view to getting rid of the old law tenements within the next five or at most ten vears...
...Every one per cent saved In interest is, roughly speaking, a dollar per month per room saved on rooms that rent from $10 to $12 per room The moral is obvious...
...If you admire him...
...L* Guardia has been too busy cikmV ing into band-wagons and tuneling off of them that no one cat, take him very seriously...
...In discussing the issues of the campaign Lee declare* that Mayor Walker "does the baby act" when he complains that criticism of Walker's administration is "slandering New York...
...A citywide housing program not only for slum clearance but for garden community developments...
...From the N. Y. World "Mr...
...But the state housing plan itself has already failed...
...And how about unemployment...
...Of coum, both Walker and La Guardit art' for the five-cent fare...
...A plan of unification prepared by the Transit Commission has been slumbering somewhere in his office for more than a year.' " For Mayor of Now York Norman Thomas From the Evening Telegram ''Thomas, better than La* Guardia, provides a. rallying point around which the liberals of the city can seek to proclaim the end of the local Republican party and open the way far a real and lasting liberal moiement . . . alt voters who desire to express themselves in favor of such a movement could best express themselves by voting for Norman Thomas...
...Municipal housing under expert authority at cost...
...A Socialist city administration, Mr...
...But unemployment to with us already, on a pretty lag srale, and the face cannot be bushed up rftuch longer...
...When in the election of 1917 seven Socialists were sent to the Board of Aldermen Solomon became Secretary or the delegation and rendered important services in research work for tba delega••erred in Legislature He was also elected to pie Assembly fn 1919 and constituted one of the Socialist delegation which was SEptUed from the Legislature by order of the notorious Thaddoua Sweet, then the dictator of the Republicans in the Lower House...
...Calls State Flan a Failure "The State Housing Board plan which Major LaGuardia has endorsed, like Mayor Walker's plan that blooms every election time, is a proof that regulation is not enough...
...The school has given an education and training...
...The Mayor tried hard to make out a case of progress under his administration, citing subways, schools and other fields...
...He was the leader of the Socialist delegation in the Board of Aldermen in 1918-21 and was re-elected together with Edward F. Cassidy to that body in the election of 1919...
...Solomon was re-elected in 1919 and ousted sad then returned in 19X0 over the combined opposition, of Republicans and Democrats in lus district He was again eapelled from the Assembly but in tab f sB of 1920 waa again returned and he was permitted to keep bis seat for the year 1921...
...Thomas says...
...The system seems to me both just and sound though probably unconstitutional in America...
...fillrise Solomon's father waa a tailor and after a school education Cterlet prepared himself for eoDsge with the view of becoming a lawyer...
...What could be done is shown by the beautiful Amalgamated apartments near Van Cortlaadt Park which are cooperative, and at Sunnyside which is a limited dividend company venture...
...We cannot get good bousing simply by regulating private building...
...Never more than 50 per cent of the land Is built upon and the rents run around $2 to $3 for an apartment, most of them two or three room apartments...
...th» Socialist party and iu candidates have a c-orcprcliengive and well thoug-ht-out policy, and to the matter of public health a»" wall...
...I believe a municipal body, such as I have described, could, like the Port Authority of New York borrow money at four or four and a quarter per cent...
...It is true that tbe East Side is losing some of its population but at the present rate of progress we shall still be using old law tenements in which today nearly a third of our population are estimated to live for another generation...
...Vienna has accomplished these marvels by a system- of taxation of housing far the better-to-do te provide funds...
...Not a word...
...to thousands of men and women to fit them for service in the Labor and Socialist movement...
...They intend to vote for Mr^ Thomas not because he is a Socialist but partly because he is a man of fine ability and high character whom they can support with individual self-respect, as they feel that they hardly could do in the case of the candidates of the two leading parties...
...The Mayor has not lifted his finger to speed up the essential work of transit unification...
...Solomon Is Well-Trained To Serve City SMiftHst Candidate For ri CSomptroller Served at City Hall and in State Legislature rr TBB DMoiMtteP of Charles flaiomflB for Comptroller the Iffftf1*1, party has selected one saT Its ablest and devoted memtgjgsv Salomon is an example of hew the Socialist movement in all covatries awakens the interest of woddagmen, fits them and trains them for service In any public capadty...
...Solomon declared that Mayer Walker made the issue one between the Democrats and Socialists...
...Executiie Committee, Citizens Union of Sew York.'' From the New York Times "One clear indication of the failure (of the Democratic and Republican parties) to stir the voters is the number of dissatisfied -citizens who announce tbe'tr" purpose to vol* for Mr...
...Smith would certainly have not left unattacked those matters to which both failed to refer if their party were on the outside trying to break in...
...you will vote also for the Socialist alder-manic candidates and assembly candidates in yew various districts- -you will vote f*r a sound principle as well as ftf a splendid man.'' "Learn what is tree...
...Thomas would win eas' Hy...
...About 50,000 apartments have already been provided and more are so rapidly under way that the end of the slums is in sight, barring, perhaps, a Fascist upset of the Socialist city government, which upset could only be brought about by force from without the city...
...We cannot get good housing merely by continuing emergency rent laws...
...So far as I am aware only two limited dividend companies are now under this law which has been on the statute books since 1926...
...is the sanitates...
...In the language of an independent Democratic newspaper in this city 'practically every shovelful of dirt which has been dug for subways during the past four years bed elready planned before Mayor Walker came into office...
...He has been editor of a number of Socialist publications, including* the New York Daily Call...
...Recovery of land values by taxation for society which creates them so that the landlords cannot forever capitalize the profits of congestion and block the road to the City Beautiful...
...Regardless of one's estimate of his party's platform, his sincerity and fearlessness make a particularly strong appeal in new of the lack of those aualities at City Hall at present...
...if you trust him...
...Mayor Walker and Gov...
...Tenant cooperatives should be encouraged to assume so far as possible the management of the houses after they are built...
...He has been an office ,worker, a journalist and publicity man and graduated from the Brooklyn Law School in 1922 since when he has represented labor men and labor unions In important Born in New York in 1889...
...Besides these apartments are also some garden type developments...
...But why Bar not the Walker admintetratJef" used its legal power and gives SJ> tice of recapture of the municipal, ly owned but privately exploited' transit lines...
...Thomas declared...
Vol. 9 • October 1929 • No. 12
