The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-05-22
ALL BUILDING RECORDS BROKEN, FIGURES SHOW Contracts For First Three Months Indicate Great
 Activity New England Figures
 Not As High As Usual Middle West Outstrips This Section In New Build
 ing

Ing
 (By Morton c. Futile, Secretary
 Aberthaw Construction Co.,, Boston.) For some time it has been possible to forecast from the returns Of the first few months of the year the prob able building volume for the entire year. Each spring this becomes an absorbing item among those interest ed in building, and many figures are prepared indicating the probable ex- tent of construction work for the whole year.
 It happens that the building figures for the first three months, during the years 1910 to 1919 inclusive, have amounted on the average to 1928 per cent. of the entire years construction. If therefore, we take this figure as about what may be expected from 1920, and consider that the total con- struction contracts reported by the F. W. Dodge Company for the first three months of 1920 represents 1926 per cent. of what the entire years work will bring forth. we may expect the reported figure of $780, 40S,000 to be expanded to $4,270.- 00O,0O0 by Dec. 31.
 The magnitude of this total will be best appreciated when it is compared with building figures for preceding years There have been only four years where the total has reached one billion dollars, and only one year where it has exceeded s1,7Oo,000.0 900. the highest year completed being 1919, with s2,56o, o.oO0.
 But it does not have to be empha- sized that a million dollars of build ing today means far less than a mil | lion dollars of building meant five or ten years ago. Relative unit cost fig ures have been compiled, showing about how the comparison runs per unit bulk of building. And, to get fair com parison with the 1920 pro- gram, it will be necessary to increase all the other figures up to 1920 prices. This means that the 1919 figures must | be increased by about per cent, 1913 figures by about IS per cent, 1917 figures by 30 per cent, 1916 figures by | 54 per cent, and previous years by 80 per cent
 The completion during 1920 of the stupendous building program will de- | pend upon a number of factors. The press dispatches tell us that renewed strikes in Chicago have resulted in boosting the price of common build ing labor to one dollar per hour and Sklllou ldDOG to one COIldr ana twenty cents per hour. The same press dis patch tells us that, because of these 1 exorbitant figures, fully 50 per cent. 1 of the projected building construc- 1 ton in that city has been abandoned. Similar conditions throughout the | country would cut hundreds of mil | lions of dollars from the building op- erations which we might otherwise l safely expect | Even as it is, owners are hesitating | long before going to the high cost of building. unless the structure is so urgently needed that they find they | can recoup it's cost by profits within | a short period. As prospective profits l do not govern in residence construc- | ton, it is only natural that the build | ing of dwellings should lag far be- 1 hind that of industrial and commer- l cia1 buildings, because the monetary | return in the case of the residence is | not so easily traceable, nor can the l cost be repaid by business profits.
 Thirty years ago the United States
 had about no families to every 100 | residences. Three years ago the fig
 ure was about 115 families to every
 100 residences; today it is more than
 121. This points to heavy over
 crowding in some sections, and to the | substitution of apartments and two- 1 family houses for the single houses 1 of our forefathers To get back to | conditions of 1917. would require the l construction in the United States of l more than one million residences, and | this without making any provision
 for expanding population This | means that the one million would be
 in addition to the normal annual re-
 quirements of nearly four hundred thousand per year to take care of in-
 creasing population.
 Because of the conditions outlined
 above. much delay may be expected
 in making up this back work. On the other hand, large projects such as
 factories and comm ercial houses will
 go ahead, regardless of conditions, so
 long as the increased cost of building
 can be passed eventually to the "ul-
 innate consumer.M
 In New England, the history of the
 past ten years of building shows that ! 17.9S per cent. Of the total annua i contracts were placed during the first
 three months of the year. As the 1920 contracts placed prior to Apri 1 amounted to sS2.26o, 1000, it would appear that if 1920 is to follow its predecessors, the total building vol ume expected may be placed at s45S,-
 900, 900 for the year. This compares | Wflu 42oS'Ooo,UOO l515 5, WHICH Was
 the previous best year: S2o9, 900, ,00t
 in 1916 and less than $200,000, ,00t . in all other years.
 Obviously, 1t would be unfair to use , these comparative figures without 1 due reference to the present enhanc. ed cost of building.
 One significant feature of the situ , alton in New England lies in the ia c , that whereas, prior to the war, New , England provided some 20 per cent , of the annual building volume of the specified portion of the United States z with only II per cent. of the popula.
 ton, the figure during the past two or three years has fallen to below 1( per cent of the total The high fig
 ure of the earlier years was due un. ioubtedly to the fact that New Eng land represents a more concentrated E industrial population than other parts
 of the United States. There was no | only the building for dwelling Dur