Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-12-30
HOUSING NEEDS NOT
BETTERED BY PEACE

2
Mr.. Mcfarland said:
Il do not believe many American
! citizens realize what tremendously
important thing the government has
/ been undertaking in the past twenty
months in relation to the future
prosperity, security and general de-
cency of the workers of the land.
/ Forced by diminished production
and by an abnormal and unheard- of
/ labor turnover TO pay some atten-
tion to the living conditions of work
ers, it was discovered that wages
] alone would not hold men on any
I job. Food, health, housing and re-
creation-all were essential to a
Contented and productive condition.
Local housing operations fell
down everywhere, not only because
of the high price of building mate
rial, but because of the impossible
ity of getting building material at
any price, or labor to use it, Fur
ther. it has been apparent to some
of us for long time that the proper
housing of industrial workers was
subject quite as suitable for gov
ernment attention as the loaning of
money to farmers or as the promo
ton of the interests of people on the
land through the Department of Ag-
riculture.
Accordingly some of the keenest
and ablest men and women in the
land were assembled in the great
production departments at Wash
ington. The Ordance Bureau of the
War Department, and the Emef-
gency Fleet Corporation in the Navy
. Department had TO undertake hous-
ing in order to get anything through.
To help out the whole situation the
United States Housing Corporation
was formed, and though put into op-
Grafton among the latest of all the
larger government war functions, it
has done heroic and tremendous
work.
Something over one hundred and
fifty projects We're sketched in var
ious parts of the country close to
munition production Centers. More
/ than twenty-five of these projects
are vet in the building stage in the
Emergency Fleet Corporation, and
some thirty are well along in the
United States Housing Corporation,
"All of these operations, save
where it was necessary TO create
new towns because of the manufac-
Z
like I. y. T., for example, were re-
lated to either existing communities
or planned to be permanent, so that
the governments money was not to
be wholly wasted,
For example, there may be found
within radius Of fifteen miles OF
Hog Island shipyards in Philadel-
phia, but including also the great
shipyards at Chester and Camden,
examples of housing of every sort.
There have been built regular Phlla-
delphia rows of houses of the most
Objectionable type, though fortu-
nately few of them. There are modl-
fled and improved blocks of houses
There are houses in groups of two
four, six and eight, as well as semi
detached houses and charming sepa-
rate houses.
Some OF these projects are in or
binary ugly city conditions; others
are in exceedingly attractive sub
urban conditions. At Yorkship
Village. near Camden, nearly two
thousand houses are almost ready
for use, including the most impor-
tant experiment in decent housing
ever undertaken in America. On
the other side of the river, just be-
low Chester, is the notable village
of Buckman, where something like
five hundred houses are nearly ready
for occupancy and these houses are
Just about as good in a general way
as those in Bellevue Park, Harris
burg, because they are built with
view to land contours, trees, vistas,
open spaces and the like.
Hilton, near Newport News, is
another of these items in social JUS
tice which relates to the perm lament
and tremendously large shipbuild-
ing enterprise in that neighborhood.
Now all of these enterprises are
hoped to be permanent, and they
will be unless swamped by the wave
Of silly destructiveness which got
into Congress shortly after the ar
mistice was signed.
mo one has suggested that the
signing of the armistice wiped out
a half million industrial workers
who have been living in wretched
and unfortunate conditions. No one
has suggested that the big shipyards
and the big plants for the making
of machinery related to shipDulld-
ing are to go out of business. let
a Joint resolution was introduced in
the Senate and actually passed un-
der the insistence of Senator Reed,
of Missouri, which ordered the
United States Housing Corporation
to Immediately cease work on all
not more than 75 per cent.
The argument was made
that it would be better to throw
away those projects than to COM
plete them, for, as some of these /
wise men observed, the war was
over and there was no need for any
more attention to decency in hous- I
ing !
Fortunately. this resolution has I
been held up in the House of Rep {
Hearings begin on 1t |
January s. If the people of Har- /
rirsburg want to see come through /
a great experiment, costing insofar |
as the waste part Of it is concerned, 4
less than one battle J.
ship. but which may improve and /
stabilize living conditions for the in /
dustrial centers to a great extent, ,
they will all make evident TO Mr.. 1
lreider their opposition to the pass
age of Senate JOINT resolution 1874"
When Mr.. Mcfarland was asked I
what Harrisburg had to do with the I
national housing situation, he re- ]
piled:
"a #f4 III n