Mr. LANGAN. It amounts to practically the same. It is a business license, but it is just another name for a sales tax really. Senator CLARK. And do you have any wage or income tax? Mr. Langan. No, sir; we do not. Not in Mobile. We do in 1 other city in Alabama, which has a 1-percent wage tax. Senator CLARK. What has happened to your revenues since the war? Have they increased substantially? Mr. LANGAN. Since the war our revenues have increased approximately 100 percent. They have practically doubled. But also our population during that period has increased from 129,000 to around 180,000, so we have had about a one-third increase in population. That, of course, does not really paint the picture of what a city is faced with. A city in days gone by was a concentrated area with 50foot and 40-foot and 25-foot lots so that you could service 10 or 12 people on your sewerage system in a block, and you could also pave only a short amount of street. Drainage systems and everything else were concentrated. With the automobile, the areas are spreading out into miles of territory, with 100-foot, 150-foot, and 200-foot frontages for our homes. That means that a garbage collector can collect probably one-half of the number of houses that he used to. The sewer department to install sewer and water lines has to expend 2 and 3 times the amount. As a matter of fact, we just finished borrowing over $22 million, and we have the water and sewer systems saddled with debt now; just barely keeping its head above water. Senator CLARK. What has happened to bonded indebtedness since the war? Mr. LANGAN. Our bonded indebtedness has actually decreased a little since the war-that is, as far as the general fund is concerned. But in the field of improvements it has increased tremendously. We owed one debt for one particular area of operation which was paving of our streets and public improvements of that type. That amounted to $3 or $4 million. Today it is $17 million. The same way with the water and sewer board, which owed 2 or 3 million dollars. It owes today $22 million. So that in all of the fields of spreading-out service we have had to increase our debt tremendously. Our general obligation debt, however, is limited, and we have not floated a new bond issue on that recently. However, the need for permanent public improvements is increasing very rapidly. As we go out into new areas we have to install fire stations and other services which will necessitate in the near future an additional bond issue to provide for the financing of these capital improvements. Senator CLARK. Would you say that the burden of local and perhaps also State taxation on your citizens has increased in the last 10 years? Mr. LANGAN. Yes, sir. It definitely has. Senator CLARK. More than the Federal burden? Mr. LANGAN. It probably has. I do not know whether the percentage of the income tax maybe has gone up in those years. Senator CLARK. Of course, across the country it has increased enormously. The proportion of State and local indebtedness and State and local taxation has gone up very much across the country since the war. Mr.LANGAN. Yes, sir. Senator CLARK. I did not know whether that was the case in Mobile. Mr. LANGAN. The cities themselves, of course, comparable to the income of other governmental bodies at the turn of the century, were at the top. Today it is the Federal Government, the State, the county, and then the city. The city is at the bottom. Our income today, comparable to other governmental units is very meager. We are very handicapped. But, yet, we are the governments on which the main demands for services are being made. Our county government has a higher revenue than our city government has, yet, we employ almost 2 persons to their 1-personnel who are serving the people. So that we are getting the burden for services and yet we do not have the income to meet the services. Senator CLARK. Thank you very much. Mr. LANGAN. One of the great needs of our cities is to provide for adequate housing for our low-income citizens, and especially housing for our minority groups. Today we actually have many of our minority group people living in crates out on the dump, in shanties, in parts of our town. Mobile today has 3,360 low-rent housing units with 407 units now under construction, and we have just recently applied for an additional 2,180 units; for a preliminary loan for the planning of the same. Senator CLARK. Mayor, can you seen any connection between the inadequate housing of your minority groups and your crime rate? Mr. LANGAN. Most definitely. In those areas where we have poor housing and slum conditions, our police are continually busy. Our hospitals are involved. And particularly there is another field that we are hurting badly in. We are contributing almost a million dollars locally to care of indigent patients in our hospitals. These people who live in these slum areas are continually in fights, cutting scrapes, and things of that type, and they go to our hospitals and have to be treated by the city hospital with taxpayers' funds. All of these things we feel can be improved by raising the standard of living of our people, giving them decent housing and trying to raise their morale. Actually, slum conditions are a condition of attitude of people and not really an economic situation as such. Stockholm and other foreign cities claim they have no slums, yet, they have people in the low-income class. But it is a pride in the individual. We believe that by giving these people adequate housing we can develop their pride, their interest in educating themselves and making themselves good citizens of our communities. With the construction of these additional dwellings we will be in a position to move forward with the other plans for improving our cities. We have pending at the present time applications from 2,828 families for low-rent housing. In other words, that has been brought right up to today. Our applications have been processed, and the need still exists right now for 2,828 low-rent housing units. With many more persons threatened with displacement by the highway, the airport, and the renewal programs, our surveys show that we have at present 16,313 housing units which are substandard and for which adequate housing has to be provided. Senator CLARK. What percentage of the total is that? Do you know, Mayor? Mr. LANGAN. That is approximately 33 percent of our total housing that is substandard. It is, therefore, imperative that the low-rent public housing program be continued if we are to be able to move forward with our highway program, our airport program, and the urban renewal program, and an enforcement program of minimum standards for our housing and still provide decent housing for those persons who will be removed from this substandard housing by those programs. They have no place to go. If we go in and enforce our minimum standards program, then they have got to move; yet they have no place to move. So we feel it is absolutely vital that we have a low-rent housing program continue. We also have a great need for a program of assistance for those persons in the middle-income bracket. The median cost of housing has been continually rising from $12,300 in 1954 to $13,700 in 1955 to $14,950 in 1957. Now the Senator CLARK. Are those prices reflected in the Mobile area? Or are your prices generally lower due to the climate and Mr. LANGAN. They are slightly lower. But because of the rapid growth in Mobile, actually, the demand is probably equal to the national level. Our income is much lower than the national level, so there we are getting caught in the squeeze of the rising cost of housing and our low income and the demand for housing by the rapid growth of the city. Senator CLARK. It was very encouraging to hear that since the emergency housing legislation went through there have been some pickups in private building in the Mobile area. Do you find that the houses that are being built are low enough in price so that the middleincome people can afford to buy them or rent them? Mr. LANGAN. Most of the prices are running in the $13,000 to $15,000 bracket. As I say, because of our low income, it is making a strain on many of our people to purchase those homes because we run about twothirds of the national average in income in that area. Senator CLARK. So there is still a great unfilled need for private building for moderate-income families in your area? Is that right? Mr. LANGAN. That is right, sir. The strength and stability of the Government and its people are dependent upon its people being educated to understand and participate in government and being homeowners to feel that they actually have a personal stake in the well-being of our Nation. We should, therefore, do all possible to aid our people in obtaining homes through a program of mortgage loans directly and through FHA loans. Of course, this new program we feel may make additional money available which will take care of some of that need. But if it does not we feel that probably the Government through funds that may be available to it in its insurance programs and other programs could make some of those funds available for a direct loan program if the local market becomes unavailable for that purpose. To summarize, I would, therefore, like to recommend that we move forward with a low-rent housing program, that the same be continued and expanded. I notice in this committee print you do recommend 35,000 additional units. And we hope that through the regulation changes and the allowing of those units to be placed in various parts of the city in smaller groupings it will aid in the overall planning and development of our city and also will help to bring about homeownership for those people if they improve their economic condition. Also, we would like to recommend that urban renewal programs be extended for 10 years with an allotment of $5 billion being made available during that period, and that the matching formula be changed from a two-thirds to one-third to a 75 to 25 percent or even an 80 to 20 percent formula. Also to provide that sites in urban renewal areas may be available to the housing authority. In other words, when we go into some of these areas to clear blighted areas and slum areas, we feel that we need some low-rent housing in close to industry where the laboring group, the minority groups and others can live and walk to work. They do not have automobiles and other transportation. So we feel in some of these urban renewal areas it would be well to allow the housing authority to move in and purchase an area for a low-rent housing program. Senator CLARK. They can do that now, can they not? Mr. LANGAN. Of course, it is proposed I think, when they do move in and purchase in those areas to allow the local contribution to be the tax exemption from the city on that housing. Senator SPARKMAN. Go ahead, Mayor. Mr. LANGAN. But we most heartily endorse the emergency bill that has been passed and the recommendations as contained in this committee print bill for the continuance and expansion of low-rent housing, the urban renewal program, and the other improvements that are suggested. Senator SPARKMAN. Thank you very much. You have given us some very helpful suggestions. I want to say for the record that our subcommittee held one of its meetings in Mobile during the adjournment of Congress. We had the privilege of seeing some of the urban renewal projects getting underway. We were very much impressed with the tremendous program that Mobile has in hand, and we are very glad that you were able to come up and present us your views both as an individual mayor and as a representative of the mayors' conference. Mr. LANGAN. Thank you, sir. Senator SPARKMAN. By the way, may I ask you a question about the section 221 project that was set up for Mobile? Is it underway yet? Mr. LANGAN. They have not actually started the construction. We have commenced the laying of water and sewer lines going out there, and we are clearing up further easement rights to get them all the way out. Also we have revised their plan providing a school site and the necessary park facilities and all in that area. That has been submitted to the planning commission and has been approved, so we do expect it probably to move forward. It has been improved in layout. We have a good park site in there for recreation, and also the school board has procured the school site in there, and the water and sewer lines are now moving forward into that area, so we do feel it can move forward. However, I do feel that we still are going to need additional section 221 housing closer in to the older part of the city plus some low-rent housing for those other people who are being moved out of those areas. In other words, the section 221 housing will not take care of all the displaced persons. Too many of them in that area are renters now and will need some additional housing that they can rent either from private industry at a small rental or in low-rent housing. Senator SPARKMAN. Thank you very much. Senator CLARK. Mayor, I would just like to add to what Senator Sparkman has said that it is like a breath of fresh air to have a fellow like you come up here and tell us the real story. Mr. LANGAN. Thank you. Senator SPARKMAN. Mayor Dilworth has come in now. Mr. Mayor, we are glad you are here. Will you come around? We are delighted to have you. Just have a seat. May I say, Mr. Mayor, I do not know what Senator Clark's commitments are, but I have a luncheon at 12:30. I was rather hesitant to ask you to start before noon. In fact, if it would suit your convenience, we could wait until afternoon for you to start. Mr. DILWORTH. I do not think I will be more than 10 minutes, unless that inconveniences you, Senator. Senator SPARKMAN. No, no. Mr. DILWORTH. If it does, I will be delighted to wait. Senator SPARKMAN. No, no. Go right ahead. Senator CLARK. Off the record. (Remarks off the record.) Senator SPARKMAN. You may proceed just as you see fit. STATEMENT OF RICHARDSON DILWORTH, MAYOR, PHILADELPHIA, PA., UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF MAYORS; ACCOMPANIED BY WILLIAM L. RAFSKY, DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR, CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, PA. Mr. DILWORTH. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my name is Richardson Dilworth, and I appear here today both as mayor of Philadelphia and on behalf of the United States Conference of Mayors. To speak for such a body as the conference of mayors is, I believe, both a singular honor and a serious responsibility. For the members of the conference are the elected representatives of the people who live in our urban communities. And the great majority of the 174 million Americans of today do live in urban communities. In a sense, then, I speak for the bulk of the people throughout the Nation when I say to you that our cities are today in the anomalous position of being nearly swamped with critical problems and, at the same time, beginning to see solutions to those problems almost within |