New-York tribune., 1919-12-28
$3,000,000,000 Would Be REQUIRED
To Meet Nations Building Needs

when cities are underconstructed CIR
where the demand is away above nor
NAL, for at that time the cost of the
materials he goes into the market to
buy is far beyond his calculations Of
the narrow profits he normally expects
ia take. He asks for credit terms.
whereas the financially strong cor
poration, firm and individual con-
frontcd with the immediate necessity
pared to pay the premium price for
deliveries on the job as the materials
are wanted and they are not confined
to their own locality nor to their
financial sponsors to purchase their
materials through certain channels
The potential building requirements
Of this country at the close of this
year will be in excess Of $4,000 ,000,0 900.
The manufacturing plants OF all kinds
Of building materials throughout
the country cannot possibly produce
$1,500, 100000 worth of construction.
That estimate is based upon the posi-
bility of these building material manu-
featuring establishments being able to
operate at a maximum of so per cent of
capacity. Owing to the scarcity of COM
mon labor, it is considered improbable
that the aggregate of all building mate
rial plants will not exceed more than
so per cent in 1920.
Labor Situation Looks Better
The labor situation in the skilled
branches of the building industry is
rapidly becoming clearer. During the
war the government placed q ban on all
non-cssential building construction.
Most of the artisans in. the building
industry found in the shipyards, the
cantonments, in the actual service, in
the telephone and telegraph branches
of wartime activity, productive work
at high wages. Immediately following
the cessation Of the war they were
quick to realize that the high cost Of
wages and conditions Of work would
keep the building industry upset, and
they retained their former places or
sought work in the Middle West, where
building construction almost immedi-
ately resumed peace-time activity be-
cause of the tremendous demands for
speedy industrial construction, most of
which proceeded on the cost-plus fixed
profit basis, which was characteristic of
most of the wartime building work.
Filtering Back Into. Peace-Time Job
Recently news spread among these
New York building artisans that plans
were afoot to clarity the standard wage
and at the same time to attempt to ar
range a truce on strikes for a year or
two This was exactly what these men
had been hoping would develop after
the war, as blood is thicker than water,
and with the yuletide season appealing
to them to return to their homes there
has developed within the last two
months gradual infiltraton of labor
into the skilled departments Of the
building industry which had solved
much Of the labor perplexities that
have confronted the general and sub
contractor since the outbreak Of the
World War.
To the casual observer it would ap-
pear as though the building industry
has been in a state of innocuous
desuetude since the armistice was
signed, but quietly and without osten-
tation and empty boastfulness of what
was going to be done the Building
Trades Employers Association and the
Building Trades Council, representing
some forty-odd labor unions, have been
ironing out an acceptable wage and
working agreement that BODIES we'll to
becoming the acceptable standard for
all building work for the next few
years. There has been established. at
any rate, definite conception regard
ing the standards Of expectation as be-
tween employer and employee in the
building trades which in the long run
will establish the sbuiding industry
upon basis that will equip it to meet
the unprecedented era of prosperity
that is just ahead.