The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1921-09-16
GARAGES LEAD
H0MES IN 1920
Review OF Building Construction
Figures DiSClOseS Some In
tereSting Information.
HOME CONSTRUCTION DROPS
Money Spent on Moving Picture Thea
ters Equals That for Churches and
Hospitals-New Residences Fail
to Keep Pace With Marriages.

Washington.-Mor garages than
houses were built In the United States
last year and more money was spent
in the erection OF motion picture
thcaters than for churches and hos
pitfalls combined.
The discovery Of the orgy Of garage
building and the boom i'm the establish
ment Of new motion picture theaterS
was made by Secretary Davis in re-
viewing the figures on building con
struction for 1920 compiled by the
labor department for 196 cities in
the United States containing more
than 81 per cent of the total p0pula-
tiOn
Mr.. Davis perusal of the figures fur
ther showed that the outlay for
garages exceeded expenditures for
erection Of schools. He also found
that home building failed utterly to
keep pace with the number of mar
riages long considered an accurate
gauge by which tq measure the normal
construction of dwellings. 1t is the
opinion of the labor secretary that the
prospect of catching up on the hous-
Ing shortage is black indeed
81 t,2ol, ,4eo.764 Total Cost.
"The reports from 196 cities of more
than 5000 population each" said See
retary Davis, 'show that 81 .204 400. 49,
was expended i'm building construction
In 1920. The population of these cities
L.
family houses constructed at a
cost of s296. .124,663 or 24.6 per cent
>of the total amount of money spent In
all kinds of building. There were only
5.f02 two-family houses built; but
while i'm all the one and two-family
houses combined there were but ST.
1O3 families provided FOR. there were
93121 garages built.
"To be sure. an unknown number Of
families were provided for i'm the f.496
apartment houses that were built as
such and the 239 apartment houses
built with stores combined. Still
making liberal estimates for these
automobiles Jared better than families.
There were 426 moving picture and
other amusement places built in these
cities during the year at a cost of S4O-
80. 40. or considerably more than the
cost Of churches and hospitals com
bined: and while these cities CON
structed 547 school houses their cost.
SlOO23 40 was but little more than
half the money spent on the garages.
Ruildino 4 .rs
The Importance of these figures
from social point of view is that
they show that building construction
for the purpose of housing families
lags far behind the current increase
i'm the demand for houses. If We apply
the marriage rate that obtained i'm 1916
to the population of these 1876 cities
we find that in 1920. 362. 7S5 marriages
took place i'm the cities considered II
used to be that a marriage very gen
orally meant new separate family
and n new demand for a home either
through purchase or rental. Thus.
those conditions have somewhat
changed. but If only half of the newly
married couples seek homes to them
selves we are building not more than
half of the accommodations required.
So that instead Of catching up with the
result of the cessation of residence
building during the war we are not
providing for i'm housing more than
~ per cent of the newly established
families"