Mr. WHITTINGTON. That is true, but a good many people did not go along with what they thought was not really in the promotion of war, and when they were convinced that it was subversive, communistic, or fascistic they did not continue in such work. I was just wondering why you continued with that sort of an organization. Mr. KIRKPATRICK. I was hoping to change it. I never rejoined them. I continued my job. Mr. WHITTINGTON. You accepted pay after you went back? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. It was because they gave me what I asked for. Mr. WHITTINGTON. What do you mean by that? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. They then gave me some housing for Milwaukee. Mr. WHITTINGTON. What kind of housing did they give you? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. They programed housing to be built there. Mr. WHITTINGTON. Did they program the private housing that you recommended or the public housing? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. They did program the private housing that I recommended. Mr. WHITTINGTON. You did get some private housing out there? The CHAIRMAN. You had no public housing in Milwaukee? The CHAIRMAN. You did not in that area at all? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. We have an old PWA project. The CHAIRMAN. You would not know how many more expediters, inspectors, investigators, and so forth, that it takes to build a Govern ment house than it does to build the same house by private means? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. I have built none, but I have a pretty good idea. The CHAIRMAN. It takes about 10 times as many, we have found. Mr. KIRKPATRICK. I can believe that, sir. NHA established war housing centers for the superficially laudable purpose of assisting in the housing of war workers. The regulations, however, were drawn in a manner to bring about community dependence upon these agencies, and the confidentially announced aim was to continue the centers as postwar Government controlled and financed real-estate offices. (Where these centers had been discontinued, they are now being revived under the guise of veterans' housing centers.) NHA tightly restricted residential construction long after the need for wartime curtailment of building had passed. While NHA prevented the start of postwar building activities, OPA continued to use its powers under rent control to force or encourage the sale to owner-occupants of about 5,000,000 dwellings which had theretofore made up a large percentage of the supply of rental properties. Since rental properties, due to turn-over, always accommodate many more families than the same number of properties housing owneroccupants, it can be unqualifiedly proved that the number of units which we need to meet our acute housing demand is almost exactly equivalent to the number of families which would be taken care of if we still had the rental units we had in 1940. For illustration, in Milwaukee, about 40,000 single-family and two-family houses, which formerly constituted part of our total rental properties, have been sold to owner-occupants. As rental properties, these 40,000 units, due to turn-over, would have housed over 50,000 families, and our acute and immediate housing shortage in Milwaukee is about ten or twelve thousand units. being used-at tremendous cost in public funds and scarce materialsto enlarge the sphere of and increase Government control of the shelter and the lives of Americans. It is my considered opinion that NHA personnel, in joint action and agreement with OPA personnel, has deliberately created a large portion of the present housing shortage. It is also my belief that this was done to encourage a demand for authoritarian control of most of the real property in this country similar to the controls proposed in the Uthwatt report in Great Britain, which report proposes as * the first assumption * * * that this involves the subordination to the public good [sic] of the personal interests and wishes of land owners for every aspect of a nation's activity is ultimately dependent on land. I think we can all agree, gentlemen, with the last statement of the Honorable Dr. Uthwatt, because it was the refutation of government ownership of land on which Thomas Jefferson based his fundamental philosophy of Americanism. Of course, the plea is made that this control is desired for the public good, but the public is not some vague, indefinable thing, but on the contrary, is made up of millions of individual human beings; and men are free only as individuals. All you have to do to make this Uthwatt statement a completely Fascist statement is to substitute the word "state" for the two words "public good" and you have the basic philosophy of Hitler and Mussolini. The record of this joint effort by OPA and NHA can be traced with reasonable clarity. I suggest to you that it was no accident that the following actions have been taken. Mr. WHITTINGTON. How long were you director under the National Housing in Milwaukee? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. I started in the fall of 1942, resigned, I think, in April 1943-I resigned my pay, I did not resign my job, I maintained the office out of my own pocket, continued the functions and continued the cooperation with the National Housing Agency and went back on the pay roll in, I think it was November 1943, continued and resigned in January or February-February, I think, 1944, but even after that, I continued to pretty much direct its affairs. Mr. WHITTINGTON. Did you do so without pay? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. Yes, sir. Mr. WHITTINGTON. What is your present position? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. I am a builder of houses. I have been such for many years. Mr. WHITTINGTON. You did that before you went into this work? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. Yes, sir; I did. Mr. WHITTINGTON. When they declined to permit private building out there, and you were convinced of the Fascist, communistic, or whatever other description you desire to use of the National Housing Administration or Agency, why did you continue with that sort of an organization? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. It was a wartime agency, sir. Many things I put up with on the basis of war. Many citizens, millions of them, did many things during war that they would not think of in peacetime. There are many controls necessary in war that are not necessary in peace. Mr. WHITTINGTON. That is true, but a good many people did not go along with what they thought was not really in the promotion of war, and when they were convinced that it was subversive, commu-, nistic, or fascistic they did not continue in such work. I was just wondering why you continued with that sort of an organization. Mr. KIRKPATRICK. I was hoping to change it. I never rejoined them. I continued my job. Mr. WHITTINGTON. You accepted pay after you went back? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. It was because they gave me what I asked for. Mr. WHITTINGTON. What do you mean by that? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. They then gave me some housing for Milwaukee. Mr. WHITTINGTON. What kind of housing did they give you? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. They programed housing to be built there. Mr. WHITTINGTON. Did they program the private housing that you recommended or the public housing? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. They did program the private housing that I recommended. Mr. WHITTINGTON. You did get some private housing out there? The CHAIRMAN. You had no public housing in Milwaukee? The CHAIRMAN. You did not in that area at all? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. We have an old PWA project. The CHAIRMAN. You would not know how many more expediters, inspectors, investigators, and so forth, that it takes to build a Govern ment house than it does to build the same house by private means? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. I have built none, but I have a pretty good idea. The CHAIRMAN. It takes about 10 times as many, we have found. Mr. KIRKPATRICK. I can believe that, sir. NHA established war housing centers for the superficially laudable purpose of assisting in the housing of war workers. The regulations, however, were drawn in a manner to bring about community dependence upon these agencies, and the confidentially announced aim was to continue the centers as postwar Government controlled and financed real-estate offices. (Where these centers had been discontinued, they are now being revived under the guise of veterans' housing centers.) NHA tightly restricted residential construction long after the need for wartime curtailment of building had passed. While NHA prevented the start of postwar building activities, OPA continued to use its powers under rent control to force or encourage the sale to owner-occupants of about 5,000,000 dwellings which had theretofore made up a large percentage of the supply of rental properties. Since rental properties, due to turn-over, always accommodate many more families than the same number of properties housing owneroccupants, it can be unqualifiedly proved that the number of units. which we need to meet our acute housing demand is almost exactly equivalent to the number of families which would be taken care of if we still had the rental units we had in 1940. For illustration, in Milwaukee, about 40,000 single-family and two-family houses, which formerly constituted part of our total rental properties, have been sold to owner-occupants. As rental properties, these 40,000 units, due to turn-over, would have housed over 50,000 families, and our acute and immediate housing shortage in Milwaukee is about ten or twelve thousand units. I say that OPA is responsible for this shortage by reason of the fact that it has been completely unrealistic in its administration of rent control to the point that it amounts to practical expropriation of property. The result has been that millions of citizens have sold their properties because they could not get a reasonable return from the rentals received. At this point I would like it clearly understood that I advocated rent. control in my home community, but I never dreamed that such control would be exercised in a manner which has caused the displacement of more families and created more physical and financial hardships for millions of citizens than any other administrative action taken by any agency in the history of our country. Mr. WHITTINGTON. When these housing projects were constructed in Milwaukee, in the Milwaukee area, before hostilities, before the war, how many of them were constructed there? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. Do you mean Government housing projects? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. National Housing Agency did not come into existence Mr. WHITTINGTON (interposing). I am talking about slum clearance, and so forth. The CHAIRMAN. It is the United States Housing Authority. Mr. KIRKPATRICK. We had no United States Housing Authority in Milwaukee. The CHAIRMAN. How about Defense Homes Corporation? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. We have none. We have one Public Works Administration project, 518 units constructed in 1934, I believe it was, sir. It was either 1934 or 1935; it was one that consequently became known as the Tugwell Greenbelt town on the outskirts of Milwaukee in a village called Greendale. The CHAIRMAN. What is the size of that? Mr. WHITTINGTON. When was that? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. That was in 1935 or 1936. Mr. WHITTINGTON. It was built with Federal money? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. Yes, sir. Mr. WHITTINGTON. What was the protest of you and other men of like thinking against public construction, and what was your connection in protest, if any? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. Well, unfortunately, I have to make an admission that I thought in 1934 and 1935 that probably it was a very good thing because I thought that it was a warranted expenditure to go in and clear slums and help house people and subsidize families who otherwise would not have a decent place to live. As a matter of fact, that is when I became acquainted with many of the people in the Government housing agency. Mr. WHITTINGTON. Had you anything to do with the construction operation? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. No, sir; I had nothing to do with it. I was rather favorably inclined. It was only after I saw the manner in which it was handled and the costliness of it that I became rather pretty much of an opponent of Government housing because I do not think it has housed the people for whom the funds were intended to be spent, and I think it has cost too much. The CHAIRMAN. They could not afford to pay the rent. Mr. KIRKPATRICK. They could not if it was an economic rent. Mr. WHITTINGTON. It would be fair to say that that same change of view that you underwent was undergone by Members of Congress who failed to make any further appropriations for it. It is fair to say that the observations you make with respect to national housing is probably responsible for a change in congressional sentiment and the displacement of a man like Blandford with a man like Mr. Wyatt so that that sort of thing will not continue. Mr. KIRKPATRICK. I am afraid, sir, that I cannot agree with you, as I have said in my statement, that just the change of the administrative head will not do the trick, sir. Mr. WHITTINGTON. Do you not know as a matter of fact that nothing will do it unless Congress refuses to make appropriations? It makes no difference who is administrator and what you call the agency. Mr. KIRKPATRICK. If that is the case, then why set up the operation? The CHAIRMAN. They are pretty smart operators; they will tie in a disabled veteran and his grandchildren. Mr. BARDEN. I think the gentleman here, Mr. Holden, made a very wise statement; he said there is no way to identify the infallible man. I think that was a very wise statement. Mr. KIRKPATRICK. I want to correct you, sir. Mr. BARDEN. Is that true? I thought it was the gentleman over here. Mr. WHITTINGTON. Would it be a fair policy to provide for the liquidation, reasonably, for the Government to get as much as it could out of all this war housing, do you think; what would be your constructive recommendation along that line? Mr. KIRKPATRICK. It would seem to me, sir. Mr. WHITTINGTON. That is what we said we were going to do until we brought the poor veterans back without a home. We were going to tear down the whole thing and call it a day. Mr. KIRKPATRICK. NHA encouraged builders, and in many instances required builders to construct properties which they rented at a loss, with NHA telling these builders, publicly and privately, that restrictions on sales would be lifted and that the builders could safely build houses costing far in excess of the $6,000 per unit wartime sales limitation. This was done in the fall of 1944. NHA then deliberately, and in violation of its agreement to lift regulations, held fast to most of the restrictions until October 15, 1945. Thereafter, NHA supplied information to the press and to national magazine which attacked builders for selling these same houses for more than $6,000, making it appear that the houses had been deliberately held off the market to make an unreasonable profit. Although restrictions were lifted on building in October 1945, restrictions on prices of materials were kept in force by OPA. The result was that when free enterprise was finally permitted to make a start on meeting the housing demand, the builders of the Nation found themselves without materials. I believe this was done deliberately. War Production Board had recommended to OPA early in 1945 that it change all of its prices on lumber to emphasize and give an incentive to the production of those grades and sizes which would be needed |