The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-10-11
BEFORE BUILDING
!. BE SURE YOU CAN
! HANDLE The TASK
Persons Who Fail to Pre-
pare for Futures Uncer-
tainty Foolish I'D

(By Noble Foster Hoggson, Presl- |
dent, .Hoggson Brothers, Builders.o
Tile. that is. fond of building will |
soon ruin himself without the help of
enemies" was the confident declara-
ton of, -Plutarch, while Kett,, who |
proves himself to have been an ard |
ent preparedness advocate. cauAioned
"Never build. after you are five-and- |
forty; have five years income in hand |
before you lay brick. and always
calculate the expense att double the
estimate Good advice, or bad?
Philosophers and jokesmiths Of all
ages have had their various says
about the man who puts his trust In
fate. leaves his safe open and plunges
sbfind1y orr otherwise into a building
operation. Today in the comic. week
lies and in the dailies his troubles are
made light of and he is as prolific
source of cheerful ridicule as GER
tain pustly well-known make OF mo-
| tor car.
A thing Is tragic or humorous ac-
cording to the point Of view The
man who sits on a. tack does not
share the onlookers' amusement. In
fact, he is not only painted at his own
misfortune. but he is, painted because
| he occasioned someone else to find
plight. Now it is perfectly safe to
make this positive statement in this
connection: The person who Witness
4 ed the others zunfortunate encounter
with the tack, never deliberately sits
on the same tack himself; in fact he
] is particularly cautious about sitting
down anywhere soon thereafter with
out looking for a tack. Nor is this
an indictment of tacks. Tacks serve
a very real and useful purpose in this
world, but they have their place,
which is not in localities where they
may be sat upon.
Now let us supply thep rinciples OF
1.-THE tack episode to building. The
man did not sit on a tack. He built
house or skyscraper or a garage
it does not matter much-and when
he finished he discovered among 9TH
I er things that he was called upon to
pay a great deal more money for the
/ completed product than he had ex-
Il pected to pay. He had come in con-
tact with a pretty big tack, and, for
: people who find amusement in such
! things, he presented most ludicrous
u figure, subject for much hilarious
: laughter He told about his expert
: ence and he wrote about it, but he
s could not produce the tack. to prove
t his case, so the people who laughed
: at him did not profit by his lesson
! and they went about building in the
same way he did They regarded his
warnings as wet Paint sign. They
had to rub their fingers upon tbs
Ipainted surface to see If it had not
8 | really dried and the sign left on a:
q a sort Of April Fool joke. q
: Tt narrows downs:in the final analy
:. + sis to- a matter of ego. The man whG
intends to build VIII not take heed %
1.-THE man who has had an unfortuhat.
!. experience in building. because : h
= feels that he is shrewd enough to 1ool
: after his own interests and safeguard
J. his own rights, notwithstanding tn
!. fact that he is engaging for the tim
) being in business enterprise that
: totally foreign to him Benjamin A
!. Howes In his book on Building" re
counts a typical case:
."Once upon a time there was a IA
nous author who wanted to build
house--to build a home, as the res
estate advertisements put it. He ha
= plans drawn by an architect and &c
70 bids for it's construction in perman
= ent and fireproof material. But that
r half as much again as I have allow
70 ledp The cried. So 1t was decided t
- build in cheaper construction and b
{. days labor. with the direct supervi'
:, ion of the authors Family, thus savin
the contractors profit. When tt
- house was finished--and it was vel
:. attractive. even though 1t would ne'
=. er be family homestead, because
- I.would hardly last long enough fl
y that-and the famous author Wi
- happily ensconced, he was aske,
as And was the house built for your or
=. ginal allowance p Half of 1t was!' r
80 piled the famous author"
~, When man sets out to buy fl
- cent loaf Of bread he gets a loaf
70 bread for five cents. When he sc
~ out to- build residence for twent
=. five thousand dollars there are
good reasons why he should not
~ able to build it for that amount.
The man who is going ito but
- lshould definitely know two things:
so First: Exactly what he is going
20 get for the price he expects to pa
o. Second: The outside limit of CT
sas for the completed structure.
py To demand these safeguardslis ps
10 fectly fair and natural. In eve
- phase of business today, except but
ing, one knows in advance just wi
uAS the cost of any specified piece of VIC
- Twill be.
s1e In building operation, as ordin
10 lily conducted, no one participant
~ in position to guarantee the work
all participants. The responsible
of, the various contractors who q
cute different portions of the worl
ana individual; the responsibility of e,
ienl ends with the completion of his .
ticular part; no one of them is Il
position to guarantee anything hey,
his own share or detail of the VIII
operation.
orldl Usually the owner proceeds with
.ork adequate guarantee of the limit
Tho cost; he. does not protect him
Ste against errors In plans, specificati
9TH and estimates. II the discovery of
r of Irors necessitates extra charge la
He he must pay them; il such errors
uble.I undetected his building may be
rica.' fective and he tmay suffer from
boat diminished equity and earning Pow
ting If the plans and specifications
made sighted in execution, If rnismans
Shut rnent occurs, If the building is
pri- ready to earn income when expec
essel he must suffer loss.
yare, A watch, an automobile, an en-
open or printing press consist of !
> Sc dreds Of parts, assembled, adju