The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-06-07
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS


 that he has been able to get by without
 attracting overmuch attention to himself
 here in his home town. But by degrees
 it began to trickle back here from some
 of the big men in the real estate world
 that he was held in the highest esteem
 in the national conventions.
 He put on campaign here in Birming-
 ham several years back that stirred some
 interest in home building and owning, but it never reached the proportions It
 did in some of the other large cities and particularly in those in the far west.
 and it is only now beginning to get it's
 real stride all over the country.
 The coming of L. R. Putnam, regional director of the information and education section of the United States Department ! of Labor. with headquarters in New Or leans, revived interest in the propaganda ! here in Birmingham. only regret that | the invitations sent out by H. Key Mill ner, chairman of the special committee I to take charge of the movement here in | the city, were not more widely accepted
 by those throughout the state.
 We have many problems pressing on 1 us for solution in these peace times, and | there is much difference in the minds of many as to the proper solution of some of the weightier ones for there are social, economic and religious issues | which are much debated by those who wish to set the world here in America
 on the right pre-war road to prosperity There is, however, no variance of opin | ion that America needs more homes. Va. l rious reliable authorities, after careful, | investigation estimate the dwelling short l age in the United States at from five hun l dred thousand to million homes. Hill Ferguson stated at the Chamber of Com | merce meeting that at a rough guess he places the number of houses in Birming i ham at forty-five thousand, and that in
 1915 at least ten per cent of them were tenantless whereas now there is a short
 age of nearly five thousand.
 Now Birmingham's predicament is no
 worse than most of her sister cities, Tor | the majority of them came out of the
 war almost year behind in their homo | building Atlanta has never recovered from her disastrous fire and Mobile is | suffering from similar misfortune, and as stated above we are sadly in need of
 dwellings, this in spite of the fact that I for the past few years we have been most | fortunate in escaping from losses by fire l Now, get it out of your head that this "Buy-a-Home' movement is the pet child l of the Realtors, for it is nothing of the kind. To build homes here now is to
 supply a pressing need. Building is a basic industry. The construction of a house creates demands for diversified ma- l terials. AS has been pthily said, Tt l tends to stimulate business, from ditcn I digging to banking The material bene fits from home building activity are scat
 tered over the entire community
 | It is but an economic truism to say that America needs an immediate revival or
 normal business Every one knows that when extensive building is started in any
 community there is soon a rivalry that promotes wide activity. Something must
 be done and that quickly to stabilize bus mess. Government supervision and direc- l tion extended throughout the country in
 almost every activity, to serve the exi gencies of war, has been withdrawn. | f
 l Am r.
 ing of it's capacity to absorb labor Build l ing and it's correlated industries offer d logical field for providing buffer employ /, ment for labor while the country's in .
 dustrial organization is making the tram sition from war mobilization to peace pro-
 duction. This is not set down to safe
 guard capital or to bolster labor, but to
 show that it is to the interest of both to work together to tide over difficult sit-
 uation.
 l Artificial stimulation of business always brings about unhealthy reactions in the | financial world, ands hard headed busi- ness men are more anxious than ever before to discount inflations. Just for the moment let's see what effect the pro- posed campaign will have on the working man. A home building movement quick i ems the labor market in the community
 where the home is built, but it does more l than this; it provides the best insurance against the social ills which invariably follow in the wake of unemployment. l The fact that building is a local in- l dustry is one of the chief arguments in it's favor. 4- revival of home building here in birmingham would put new life into unused capital and new blood into idle labor. The working man would finu his chance to work, the owner of prop erty an opportunity to sell, the investor ! a safe way to lend, the material men customers for lumber, brick and stone, and the builders trades an avenue to un- load their shelves All of these enumer- ated and others not mentioned would soon be busy, for the promotion of building assures the most equitable distribution of work and a general speeding up of local
 trade of all kinds
 The proposition is sane and business I like and sound in it's economic phases.
 First, there is a real demand here for
 homes, second. building as set out, is a
 natural stimulus to business and com merce now halting and holding back.
 Third, the quicker there is resumption
 of building activity, the sooner will the