Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-07-29
HOUSING PROBLEM
is COUNTRYWIDE
Ioontinued from First Page.l

of the large rubber companies in
Ohio and elsewhere have built model
towns for their workers and the list
could be continued through nearly
all of the important industries of the
country.
Four Types of Operations
Industrial housing operations are
ways, among the most important be.
ing:
The United States Government
Housing Developments.
Projects built by Industrial
Corporations.
Projects built by citizens
through activities of Boards of
Trade or Chambers of Com
merce.
Projects built by Real Estate
Companies purely for profit.
Industrial housing is becoming
more and more a part of the indus
trial project, and has gradually be-
come necessary in order to get and
keep the best labor and higher
grade employees. AS wages increase
the living requirements of labor rise
and men will not and should not live
under the conditions which at one
time were considered good enough
for laborers.",
Wages and Housing
Two things are now required by
labor, where only one was asked he
fore. Not only is the prospective
employe interested in the wages he
is to receive, but of almost equal
importance, he wants to know where
and how his family are to live. He
won't take job unless the wages
are right and also the living condi-
h uyffA nh nd i'm
self are decent and the rent mod
crate. Doubtless attractive and
healthful housing results in lower
wages sometimes because the men
would rather live under such sur
roundings at less pay than be herded
like cattle at large remuneration
Good housing also attracts the bet
ter class of men and thus benefits
the city wherein the housing project
is built or near to which it is built
as well as to the corporation employ
ing them.
A housing project does not consist
merely of the erection of just houses
by any means, or it is not just COM
Portable, attractive houses. In the
first place, it must be necessary,
there must be real need for it. II
must be on a site selected for con-
venience to the works wherein the
labor is employed. 1t should be on
a healthful location. or one which
can be made so. 1t should be so laid
out as to give air and space and sun
light. 1t should have good streets.
ample and pure water, adequate and
properly designed sewers and storm
water drains. 1t should have parks,
trees, etc. 1t should have gas or
electric light or both, if possible. If
it is isolated and not near a big city.
it should have schools, churches and
amusement places.
Causes Back of Housing
The principal causes which make
industrial housing necessary are:
To afford accommodations,
which are healthfully sufficient,
for employees at present employed.
To AFFORD accommodations for
additional employees Tor existing
industrial plants so they can
To afford accommodations for
new industrial plants which
would come to city if there were
room for their employees.
TO prevent undue increase in
great demand for houses.
The Morgan Park Development of
the United States Steel Company
near Duluth, has resulted in pre-
venting excessive exploitation of
the steel company's employees. which,
If it had been allowed, would have
seriously hampered the company in
securing an adequate and sufficient
supply of labor"
Very soon after the great United
States Government shipbuilding pro-
gram was launched it became evi-
dent that the workers could not be
adequately housed at many plants,
so that it was this branch of the
governments activity which was,
perhaps. the pioneer in constructing
housing facilities. Many
millions have been thus expended
and many more will be for this in
dustry.
Bristol Development
At Bristol, Pa, d development Of
this kind was begun last fall TO
house 5000 employees of the Mer-
chants Shipbuilding Company. Much
of the work on this project is now
completed. The houses, several hun
dred of which have been built, are
of frame, some covered with stucco,
and others with shingles or clap
boards. -
The vast numbers of workers at
Hog Island have required great in
dustrial housing projects in that
section of Philadelphia, accessible TO
the plant, and several large develop
ments are under way.
The government has recently Ie-
cided on a great housing program.
on which it will probably expend
hundreds of millions of dollars. The
work is now under the direction of
the Industrial Housing Corporation,
the stock of which is held by the
Secretary of Labor. 1t is preparing
to build industrial houses not only
for shipyards, but for powder plants,
all forms of munitions works In all
parts of the country from Bath,
Maine. to Portland, Oregon, and
from Erie on the Great Lakes to the
Gulf. Probably the first two pro-
jects to get under way under the su-
pervision of the Industrial Housing
Corporation are those at Erie and
Bethlehem.
Erie Development
At Erie where many large plants
have for several years been working
on munitions, great industrial ex-
pansion thereof has taken place, the
population has grown by leaps and
bounds and there was no room for
the requisite thousands of additional
workers made necessary by the ex-
tension of the industries after Con-
gress declared war One concern,
the American Brake Shoe and Foun-
dry Company, has erected a large
number of brick apartment houses
on a tract near its plant, and the
Erie Forge and Steel Company has
acquired a very extensive tract in
anticipation of constructing a hous-
ing development of its own. At the
same time the citizens of Erie took
the matter up, as living conditions
were 1pidly growing worse and the