The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1919-10-28

manufacturers Of New York and New
England, the statement was made that
the United States needs OF new con-
struction 100000 homes, 100000
factories, 5000 schools and public in
situations, $4,000 apartment houses,
10000 theaters and churches, 100
freight terminals and $4,000 railroad
stations and freight sheds. We do not
know how the exact number was fig
ured out by the speaker who presented
these figures nor do we undertake to
vouch for their accuracy as a whole,
but that there is a pressing necessity
for dwellings, for apartment houses,
for schools, for churches and for en-
larged railroad facilities goes without
saying.
It is an interesting fact that the
same cry comes from every town and
city in the country that there is a
house famine, and yet the newspaper
people and the correspondents of out
side papers in practically every town
in the United States seem to be labor
ing under the impression that their
particular town or city is the only
one which is suffering from this house
famine SO general have been the re-
ports to the Manufacturers Recof |
from its correspondents in all parts
of the South and Southwest to the eff
feet that there is a growing scarcity
of houses that we have had to cut
out every reference of this Kind since
this condition applies not to one place
only, but to practically all places.
What is the reason for this tremen-
dous scarcity of dwellings? Why is it
that the hotels of the country are so
overcrowded that it is almost impos-
sible anywhere to get hotel accommo-
dations except by many days and
ometimes many weeks engagement in
advance? The New York man, for in
stance, knows that every hotel in New
York City is constantly packed and
overjammed, but he forgets that the
same condition prevails not only in
every other city in the country, but
at all pleasure and health resorts. 1t is
difficult anywhere in the country to
get hotel accommodations.
1t seems ell-nigh impossible to find
dwellings and apartments to meet the
urgent and growing demand, and
people are constantly asking the ques-
ton: "What is the reason for this?"
Some months ago we pointed out
the fact that since the panic of 1907
the construction activities of the
country have been far below the nor
NAL rate of progress. We have, there
fore, a vacuum created by II years
of slow construction suddenly needing
to be filled up. During that 12-year
period work of all kinds was delayed
Railroad improvements were far less
than they had been in previous years.
Home building, office building, hotel
building were all much below the nor
NAL needs of the country. When the
war came on in 1914 we were suffer-
ing from very wide spread business
depression. The war brought about a
concentration of the entire activities
of the country in doing the things
which made for the production Of mu-
nitions, the building of ships and
kindred work, leaving almost nothing
for home and hotel building. This
enormous vacuum, which will demand
the utmost construction activity of
the country for years to come before
1T can be filled, is a problem before
us, but with the scarcity of labor, the
unwillingness of men to work, the
disposition to lessen the hours of la
Dor which run through every line of
business from the cutting of lumber,
the laying of bricks, to the building