Evening star., 1921-05-29

tRBEkT HtoN Err, Secretary
" OF Commerce. is o-gaizinC
ali parties at interest to
solve the housing problem in
much the same way that he organized
the food administration during the
war, that there might be sufficient
for all essential demands of the
American people and our Army and
allies overseas.
With the country suffering from n
shortage of houses as never before.
Secretary Hoover realizes that there
are two courses open-cithcr to sIIo-
sidize the building industry. as the
| railroads have been subsidized. by
government ownership and operation
and guarantees. or to organize the
building industry so that il can op-
crate with maximum economy and ef-
ing but prosperous.
Congress is about to do it's part to
solve the housing problem by pass
ing the Calder-Tinkham bill which
! Is soon to be reported favorably by
| the Senate committee. but Secretary
Hoover recognizes that legislation
| will not bring relief. 1t can serve
| only rs an agency in facilitating the
| relief. The real reformation must
| come from within. So he is building
line of careful consideration
| through all forward looking branches
of the industry.
Varying Building Codes.
! The first idea is TO cut of waste.
| Secretary Hoover believes that this
can be done by Improvement of the
building codes. He believes that
millions of dollars worth of costly
building materials are being dumped
| into economic waste with high-priced d
labor employed to do the dumping.
He finds that there are 265 building
| codes in the country, and a very few
| are determined on the strength of the
material. A contractor of national
| note has stated that he could erect
a better building outside of St. Louis
than in st. Louis and at IS per cent
| less cost, on account OF the build
ing code. So Secretary Hoover fig
ures out that probably about a half
billion dollars a year can be saved in
the industry by determining the
strength of the materials and using
only such width of walls and such
sized beams. etc. as may be required
to guarantee safe construction. The
big idea is to bring economy and
efficiency into the closest possible re-
lation.
Secretary Hoover has made up his
mind to have every industry affiliated
with the construction business come
forward and tell some responsible
agency what is the matter with the
laws now and how much good mate
rial is being wasted. But tell whom
Uncle Sam cannot pay the right sort
of men sufficient to make it worth
their while, and to hold the conf
dence of the industries the men must
be those whose names at once will
inspire confidence throughout the in
duStries.
Expert Views Invited.
He has invited such men of ma
tional recognition in the building in
dustry to serve as a voluntary COM
mission, as follows: Ira H Woolson.
chairman. consulting engineer ma
\ tional board of fire underwriters. New
York city: Edwin H Brown. archi-
| tect, Minneapolis. chairman commit
tee on small houses, American Insti-
tute of Architects: William K HIATT.
professor Of civil engineering. Purdue
University, Lafayette. Ind, specialist
in structural materials: Rudolph p.
Miller. superintendent Of buildings.
New York city. chairman OF building
oficials conference; J. A Newlin. in
charge Of timber tests. United States
forest products laboratories, Madi-
son, Wis: Ernest J. Russell. archi-
tect, st. Louis, Mo-, we'll known au-
thority on building construction. and
| Joseph R Worcester. consulting en-
| gineer. Boston. Mass. specialist on
structural steel construction.
The next move is to send out letters
to all the big national associations
related to the building industry. such
as lime, cement. brick, steel. lumber
and other basic building materials,
notifying them of the appointment of
this committee and asking them to
organize voluntary committees repre-
senting their particular industry to
form a point of contact between the
industry and the national committee.
This letter will also urge that due