The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1921-11-20
SAYS BUILDERS
READY TO ERECT
In COMING BOOM
Money for New Enter
prises Soon to Be Avail
able Once More.
LUMBER is NORMAL
Warns Prospective Home
Owners of Tendency Toward
Increased Costs.
LUMBER is NORMAL

The recession in the prices both of
labor and OF materials began sew
eral months ago and still continues.
Demands for new construction are
going up. Bradstreets compila-
lions, weekly reports by such trade
journals as the American Lumber
man, studies OF the general situa-
ton by architects and engineers, all
imply that the resumption Of build
ing ought not to be far ahead.
Money for new enterprises is likely
soon to be available once more.
Careful bankers have been unwill
Ing to make mortgage loans based
upon the inflated valuations of the
last three years; today, while they
are watching the descent in prices
and calculating where the new per-
mament level will be found, they
agree that 1t will be higher than
the level OF 1918, but much lower
than the dizzy altitude of the years
Immediately following the war.
AS to the cost Of materials: The
peak advances for materials of
every kind made an average of 240
per cent By the middle of the
present year the tendency to a gen.
eral lowering of rates had brought
the cost of materials down to an
average of ITO per cent over the
pre-war figures, and they have been
declining ever since that time. Con-
tractors even declare that lumber
is back to the 1914 level. Concerns
that in August, 1920, quoted re-en-
forcing steel for concrete work at
sos a, ton offered precisely the same
material in September OF this year
at $40 and SIS a ton. Barreled lime
"a hat
and July last, wood lath 10 per cent,
common brick IA per cent, stucco
board Is per cent A contractor
now can shop around" among his
bidders Few manufacturers these
days maintain the "take-it-or-leave
IL" attitude. Statesmen are anxious
to shade" their figures rather than
risk the loss Of even a small con-
tract The most astute student of
the oscillations Of prices cannot
guess precisely where the pendulum
will come to rest after the present
backward swing. The estimates of
200 architects, engineers and con-
tractors the country over range all
the way from 30 per cent to 100 per
cent above the 1913 level, and the
majority place the stationary point
at so per cent. This is a distinctly
hopeful omen, indicating an enor-
nous decline from the high levels
of 1919 and 1920 and the early ar
rival of conditions manifestly favor
able TO the person who wishes to
build either a home or a business
structure
As to labor: The peak advances
in the wages of labor in all the
twoscore building trades were ap-
proximately 80 per cent. A con-
spicuous factor in the present stu
alton Is the continuing dilution of
these excessive labor costs. Archi-
tects, having analysed the cost of
all the labor entering into the cree
tion OF a MISUNDERSTANDING not
only the labor on the job itself, but
the labor required for. the produc-
ton OF the materials, in mining.
numbering. manufacturing and de-
livering-conclude that labor makes
no less than IS per cent OF the total
cost Of an average construction. An
engineering expert employed in the
Hoover Survey of Waste in Ameri-
can Industries finds that far the
greater part of the 100 per cent by
which he represents the completed
building must stand for labor. The
balance he apportions between the
ORIGINAL state
and the use of funds for their de-
velopment He shows that three
hfths of the cost OF a brick and IS
per cent of the cost Of steel must
be charged to direct labor. With 10
per cent added for indirect labor in
tn. form of supervision and clerical
work, he peaches the same total as
does the architect and makes the
entire labor cost IS per cent Now
wages are declining. No one ex-
poets them to 60 back to the rates
paid in 1918. Americans want labor
in the building trades and all other
departments Of industry to be Justly
paid. and no one denies the propo-
sition that wages should keep in
ratio with the cost of living. As
an illustration of the prevailing
conditions, the members of such a
compact organization as the Plas-
terers' Union, who last January in
Boston struck for an advance from
81 to s1.50 an hour and fought hard
to get IL, are content today to work
for 80 cents an hour or less, and
their helpers are now receiving two
thirds OF that sum. Also labor is
more efficient and is responding to
that other American demand that It
Snall renOer just oay work for
the compensation II receives. Last
season multifarious jurisdictional
disputes between the unions, the as
signment of unskilled men to tasks
requiring technical efficiency, the
general and generally admit
ted practice of slowing down
the gang" to the speed Of
its least competent member. the
frequent recurrence of petty strikes.
and the Limitation of output that
these tactics caused. combined to
bring about an increase in costs
that competent investigators place
at $1,000 for every $4,000 of outlay.
The unions, in self-defense, II for
no other motive. tend toward the
abandonment of these policies to-
day. Owners now are paying lower
wages and getting better values for
their investments than at any time
in recent years.
Wisely, therefore. may one get
ready to build The grand average
Of prices of every kind in 1870 was
higher than IL was in 1850 and lower
>chan n was in 1863 So an absolute