REAL ESTATE







AND







(Copyright, 1918, by The Record and Guide Co.)





NEW YORK, MARCH 2, 1918





CONSTRUCTIVE   SUGGESTIONS   FOR   SOLUTION
OF NATION'S   HOUSING   PROBLEMS

American City Planning Institute Meets at Philadelphia.





THE second meeting of the American
City Planning Institute was held at
the Bellevue-Stratford, Philadelphia,
last Tuesday, and representatives from
Canada and England, from Boston to
Chicago and the South were present.
Lawrence Veiller, Director of the Na¬
tional Housing Association, called the
conference to order, and the continuous
all day and evening sessions started
their lively discussions on war housing.
Joseph M. Richie, General Organizer
of the American Federation of Labor,
pointed out that everybody was repre¬
sented but the workmen. Architects,
city planners, experts on industrial rela¬
tionship, state sanitation inspectors, in¬
dustrial educational workers, manufac¬
turers, contractors, Y. W. C. A. repre¬
sentatives, both men and women of local
and national official and non-official in¬
dustrial housing committees, all will¬
ingly submerged their individual in¬
terests and plunged broad-mindedly into
the spirit of five-minute discussions of
the many direct and collateral subjects
involved in the housing question now
engaging the mind of the President of
the United States, both houses of Con¬
gress, the Cabinet, industrial leaders,
Chambers of Commerce and the work¬
men themselves.

Permanent  Construction   Favored.

"To What Extent Shall War Workers
Be Housed in Temporary Barracks—
in Permanent Homes?" was the subject
of the morning discussion, and perma¬
nent construction was overwhelmingly
favored, based upon the experience of
Great Britain and various communities
in the United States considering the
interests of the individual worker, the
industry and the community.

John Nolen of Cambridge, Mass., well
known for his work in city planning,
advocated permanency, showing that
the cost was but little more than make¬
shift temporary construction, and that
cost in, any event should not be the
primary consideration any more than
there should be an attempt to build the
cheapest possible vessels or shells or
uniforms. The point was raised that
soldiers are quartered in temporary
barracks and then why not workmen?
But it was pointed out that the soldiers
remain in such quarters usually but three
or four months at a time and that
usually an ideal location is selected,
women and children are excluded, men
are under strict military discipline, high
standards of sanitation and other regu¬
lations can be enforced, all of which
does not apply to industrial workers.
Frederic Law Olmsted of Brookline,
Mass., also declared that temporary
structures meant inadequate and un¬
satisfactory  housing.

Charles W. Leavitt of New York spoke
in favor of permanent construction,
based upon his years of experience in
handling thousands of industrial workers,
showing that most plants manufactur¬
ing war goods would continue to manu¬
facture some class of goods after the
war and that not only workmen's homes,
but the administrative buildings of the
plant, should be of a permanent char¬
acter, as they would be required regard¬
less of thf nature of the product.

Frank E. Blake, of the Remington
Arms Company of Bridgeport, asserted
that    temporary   barracks    for   skilled





workmen had been a failure in their
experience, and that they had expended
three million dollars in the best class
of permanent dwellings for their em¬
ployees, most of the structures being
brick with slate roofs. Houses for
superintendents are designed to rent for
from $20 to $35 a month. Most of these
houses are on lots SO x 100 feet, but
still they are too close together. They
have also constructed three dormitory
buildings, three stories in height, for
girls, the cost of each building being
$65,000, containing 125 rooms. They have
had no complaints regarding either the
rooms or the furnishings. Rentals are
from $2.50 to $3 a week for single
rooms or double room with two beds.
A la carte restaurants are provided and
reception rooms for the use of girls.

Leslie H. Allen, of the Aberthaw Con¬
struction Company of Boston, explained
how speed and permanency could both
be accomplished. If necessary, he said,
they sometimes rushed houses up, com¬
pleting the outside walls, roof and tem¬
porary flooring for emergency use, and
then as other houses were entirely com¬
pleted families could move into these
and the unfinished homes could then be
completed.

W. H. Ham of Bridgeport, which has
become the nation's laboratory for
working out many housing problems,
pleaded that the Government should set
a high standard for workmen's houses,
as its action would set the style for the
next hundred years. Construction
should be permanent and the cost
amortized over a period of thirty years.
He showed that speed and permanency
were both possible, and that they had
put up a brick schoolhouse and turned
it over ready for a hundred and fifty
children in four weeks* time, the base¬
ment having been previously excavated.

Thomas Adams of Canada, Chief
Advisor to the Canadian Commission on
Conservation, and a leader in solving
the war housing problems of Canada
and Great Britain, described what had
been accomplished at Gretna, in the
south of Scotland, where with but little
than vacant land to start, permanent
housing with brick walls and slate roofs
had been provided for ten thousand
women and five thousand men.

He declared that the twenty thousand
skilled ship builders in the United
States at the start of the war would be
increased to two hundred and fifty thou¬
sand, and that these workmen should be
given permanent homes because the
United States would need these workers
to build up its merchant marine after
the war. He also showed that good
houses were not alone sufficient, but
that wholesome amusements and recrea¬
tions  were  also  essential.

Opinion was unanimous in favor of
permanent construction except in rare
cases where a plant was manufacturing
war munitions, which would be aban¬
doned immediately at the close of the
war.

Shall Houses for War Workers Be
Rented or Sold? was the discussion at
the luncheon meeting. Joseph M.
Richie, representing skilled labor, felt
that this was a question which the
workers could best decide for them¬
selves, and that probably some would
want to rent and others would want to
buy, and it might be best to provide
for   both.    The   copartnership   plan   or





joint ownership in a community of
houses, represented by a stock interest,
was suggested as affording the work¬
men the advantage of ownership, still
providing for the mobility of labor
through the easy sale and transfer of
stock.

Mr. Ritchie said that about thirty-six
thousand men were now employed along
the Delaware River in the shipbuilding
industry, and that when the Hog Island
and Bristol yards were in operation and
additional shifts were added this would
be increased to about sixty thousand.
Tending to show that workmen at
present were not better able than
formerly to purchase homes, even with
the present high wage scale, he called
attention to a canvass which had been
made by responsible committees in
Philadelphia, dividing the city into ten
districts and examining 157 articles,
which showed that the purchasing power
of working men in that locality is no
greater now than in 1914 at the lower
wage scale owing to the present genera!
increase in prices. Custom and locality
also were sighted. Thus at Akron, Ohio,
there is a shortage of homes to rent,
while at Hopedale the custom is to rent
exclusively; but both plans were felt
to be desirable, permitting the men to
take  their choice.

Provisions for Women.

The Housing of the Single Worker
was the text of the afternoon session,
and was divided as follows:

1.    Shall We Provide for Housing
Many  Women   Workers?

2.    What is the Best Way to House
the Woman Workers?

3.    Shall We Encourage or Discourage
tlie "Take a Roomer" Campaign?

In this discussion representatives of
the Y. W. C. A., women architects and
other workers experienced in the hous¬
ing problems of girls and women took
a leading part. Mrs. John D. Rocke¬
feller, Jr., Chairman of the Housing
Committee of the Y. W. C. A., sent a
letter, which was read, outlining the
fundamentals which the association
deemed for the best interests of girls
and women workers, which included: 1
—Single rooms wherever practicable.
2.—One shower bath for every ten girls.
3—One toilet for every six girls. A—A
scientifically conducted kitchen, and S
—Wholesome recreations and amuse¬
ments and proper facilities to receive
men friends.

It was also felt that girls should have
representation in the management of
the home, and that they could best be
handled in groups, as follows: A—•
Young girls. B—Older women. C—
Colored girls, and D—Foreign, non-
English speaking girls, who should also
be  provided with  an American matron.

It was shown that girls spent more
time in their rooms than men, and that
girls want clothes closets, and that it
is better to keep different nationalities
together, as Italian, Swede and Russian
women, for instance, do not generally
get along well together and do not like
the same foods; also, while American
girls like the privacy of a single room,
foreign women do not object to double
rooms. Some discussion was given to
other likes and dislikes, such as the
comparative popularity of tubs and
showers, it being shown that girls under
thirty like side showers, which do not





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