Document 3JqJbKZpJmNe2z0JDNYmVaGYn

tS'jju.'+.&Z. WAifemfc&^L LEAD INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION Groybor Building, 420 Loxington Av o n io 1 N*w Yort, H. Y. ; :.i 1 Xagr 22, 1934. 1 .< 0 KBOEHS Of TEE XEAS BECST3I2S ASSOCIATION *0 haw ^ms ra quo *tO& bj tho IDurabla foods Industries Cceulttoe to prorid* our nolabors with a eojqr of a lottor of that Occult too, dated Uojr 19 with regard to tho Satlocal Housing Act, ofalch So attached. for jroor information, the load la&ustrlea J1 Association haa tcixm no action on tho subject mattar Vi tV ' \ify . -. 1 'HUJASW *W..gyrH , ' UK.Mi* ^4^llWy -WWW1 j.im' o 1 w 1S16S95 -ai -eg^waass_:w DURABLE GOODS INDUSTRIES COMMITTEE 268 Mayflower Hotel Washington, D. C. May 19, 1934. Vil u s m B. Hamnsiew Seertltry T^Wa Dl*Hc* !< To Code vtul^ontsea and Code Committee* and Alt Employer* in tie Durable Good* Industrie*: Your Committee, in a report to be released in the near future on national recovery and employment, has stated that one of the fundamen tals of recovery was the rehabilitation of the real estate mortgage market and recommended a national program of modernising and repair aa a means of increasing opportunities for employment in the immediate future. On May J 4th the President sent a message to Congress recommending the passage at this session of Congress of the National Housing Act. which substantially provides for both these programs recommended by the durable goods industries. Of th* approximately 9,000,000 now unemployed, nearly 6,000,000 are frem the durable goods industries, and over 2.600,000 of these were formerly employed in the construction industry. There can be no ques tion but that the key to the unemployment problem is to be found in the stimulation of the construction and other durable goods industries which will create, in turn, opportunities for employment in the service and con sumption industries. These industries can get their former employees back at work only as the volume of sales of their products is expanded. A restoration of confidence on the part of both borrower and lender in the soundness of a reorganized real estate mortgage method of financ ing will probably do more to stimulate the free Sow of private capital-- through private banking channels--into housing construction with result ing re-employment, than any other single steptaken in an effort to bring about recovery. / This letter is being written to acquaint you with the fact that the Durable Goods Industries Committee endorses in principle the Adminiatration'* basic proposals embodied in a Bill, & 3603, entitled National Housing Act, now before Congress. We will later tend you an analysis u! tils bill, together with our interpretations, and any suggestions we may recommend for minor amendments. But in the meantime we strongly urge that yvu transmit copies of this letter to your organisation and urge them to immediately express to theii congressional representatives their endorsement of this broad measure as one of the most constructive steps yet taken by the Administration in the interest of recovery. If the American people can be given assurance again of the soundness of owning their own homes snd be relieved of the fear of arbitrary fore closure. and if investors can buy real estate mutually insured mortgagee amortised over long periods and on which risks ore reduced so as to justify lower interest rates snd financing expenses, private capital will be avail able again in Urge quantities for the existing shortage of needed construe tlon. No more effective stimulant can be given to the housing construc tion of the country and no more effective means c\n be found to grt the unemployed back to work. ovsat H.uJilt'll - >m u h i i i i u i jj sum !