The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-01-10

crease in the population :
housing situation, will almo..
tainly be worse . year frnss
than 1t IL today. Our buildt,.
dustry has fallen down on ~ 1.
OF course you cannot blsrs
building industry as q unit ~.
are high. People won't hmm
cause they feel that il they ~
year or two they can build -
cheaper. Contractors who ~
houses to sell find it hard !. -. ~
them. People cannot scr,s.
the money to make the initia,
ment. And the builder casnr! \
ford to build houses to rers 8
cannot scrape up enough mor.
keep himself going on that hss;.
The whole thing is . 6pe m.
tratton Of the way the indus....,
system does not work. Ths.s
plenty Of material. There a ~,
~ OF idle labor. There are 49,,
million people who need ham,.
And yet houses are not built S...
magical forces Of supply and demsss
upon which we SO implicitly III,
are simply not working.
Build Big Houses Oaly.
Most Of the houses You -
up are expensive houses. M !
them are the houses of men ~
made a stake in the war, and =.
now spending some Of It. Ths, i.
not care II it does cost a few a..
sand more. The modest hon. !,
seven or eight rooms, for The -.
who works for . salary, Is IN,
built in very small number. ~
the FIVE or six room housa n.
house for the wage Garner, Il ~
being built at all. Furthermo,
most of the houses being bum \,
rent and for sale are being bs;s
Of poor material. The woodvms
snd the hardware are Of the chs,A
est kind. The construction. =,
men who know. is not Of Z hi
calculated to last.
In this situation, You see Tie N.
portance Of any move that n,
chamber Of commerce may mai,
It is up to somebody to maie a
move. From somewhere must cun.
initiative and organization. So hi
as housing is concerned, Amefiu,
industry has fallen down. Let Wa
ever claims the responsibility ic,|
1t come forward and pick Il M I'd
capital claims that it can serve Ia,
! country's need for leadership, inKI
alive and organization in its indus
trial life, this is its chance to prov,
the fact, to gain and hold the cous.
try's confdnce.
It Is with some realization d
this fact that the chamber Of con
merce sits down to frame a houda,
plan. Naturally. it sees the solu.
ton Of the problem in big businsu
organization. It points out ths
the building Of houses Is one d
those industries which has to ,
great extent remained in the con-
troll Of the little fellow" Furthe.
more. the building Of the houe
the sale of it and the administrs.
tor of it. in case it is rented, haM
all devolved upon different indiNa.
uals or organisations. Respont'
! bility Is divided.
The Corporation Plan.
Mr.. Ihlder proposes in each tow
of good size several large building
corporations. These corporation
could buy land in large tracts md
build whole suburbs. They wouli
I seldom build less than 300 houss
in q unit. That there would b
great economy in such large-sua
operations cannot be denied. Fur
thermore, Mr.. Ihlder would han
these corporations retain the l&
ministration Of the houses PERM
nently. The occupants would v
shareholders in the corporate
rather than purchasers. In tbh
way all the economy and eficieu
Of large-scale operation and lafe
organization would be gained
These housing corporations ccua
employ the best architects. land.
scape gardeners and other spechl.
ISIS. They could make planned
artistic units of their suburbs, ID.
stead of hodgepodge growths.
Such a system would have al ID.
disadvantages Of large corporahc'
control. as we'll as its advantage
The housing corporations in . a.
en- town would soon dominate =
real estate situation. You would
have to buy or rent from I'm
housing corporation and ct 10
| prices.
But corporation control b On
system by which We live. tn
large corporation at least does "
work. This housing corporancs
would probably build the houses
Mr.. Ihlder would not have "
government supervision or co1ua
OF these housing corporation, y
he would have them limited-dM
dend companies. He points " 4,
that the occupant Of house voe'
further be protected against a,
ploitation by the fact that be a1a
his fellow-tenants would be sI0ei'
holders in the corporation.