3 DECEMBER 1937, Page 2

Mr. Roosevelt's Housing Policy The three levers by which President

Roosevelt hopes to lift American business out of its present depression are hous- ing construction, utility construction, and railway purchases. And in his message to Congress on Monday he announced his plans for a building policy which, if successful, should go as far to conquer the business recession in America as the building boom did to carry this country out of the slump. Mr. Roosevelt desires to enlist the co-operation of employers, labour and finance to carry out his policy and to open up what he described as "the largest and most promising single field for private enterprise." During the next five years Goo,000-800,000 houses need to be built each year, at a total cost of some $2,600,000,000 at the lowest estimate ; the Government's contribution will be a grant of Sso,000,000 to mortgage associations and a reduction in interest rates. The announcement of this plan should do much to relieve the pessimism of American business at the moment ; and it realises the President's intention of trusting to private enter- prise to bring back recovery to America. Wall Street, however, is still waiting for Congress to undertake the revision of New Deal taxation on business profits.

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