New-York tribune., 1921-07-31
BY Harlow Lewis
Of Tacker & Le,Cis

Ever since the discovery of this cen.
tinent America has differed from the
rest of the world in one important
particular at least The resources OF
the country have been so unlimited
the extent of the country so vast that
the crowded Old World notions OF
things did not apply to conditions as
they existed here. With countless
acres of arabic land to be had for
little more than the asking, it did not
pay the farmer to cultivate any one
acre up to its capacity. He could &C
compllsh more with less labor by
scantily cultivating a greater acreage.
with thousands of miles of unde-
veloped country between the two
oceans the transcontinental railroad
systems could not afford to waste time
and money on permanently built rights
OF way. Their problem was to get
from ocean to ocean in the shortest
possible time, to cover as much mile
age as possible with their tracks, and
permanent construction naturally was
left to a later period
With gold lying in thc stream be Is
of California and Alaska waiting for
the 49ers and '89ers to scoop it up. it
did not pay the miners to wait for
small change when they made a pur-
chase. And so on down through the
whole list of the country's industries
Natures gifts were lavishly bestowed,
with the result that many of our in
dustrial methods, measured by Euro
pean standards, have been wasteful and
extravagant.
New Stage in Building Development
Observers of social conditions in
this country believe that we are enter
gta of o1c,,
ment. There is very little more addi-
tional mileage for the railroads 20
build. There are comparatively few
undeveloped sections of the country
for them to serve. Our program in
the future will be not so much on the
lines followed by the pioneers of the
last century as IN making permanent
Improvements and bettermenis in what
we already have
Two factors have contributed t. max
ing the typical American dwelling
house temporary structure, as com
pared with the more permanent dwell
ings which for many hundred of years
have been built throughout the old
universal availability of timber. The
second has been the movement cf the
population from the East to the West
mans house was not his permanent
home: 1t was simply a temporary
dwelling place on his travels from the
Atlantic seaboard down the Ohio and
Missis ssippi valleys, across the plains
and the Rockies to the Pacific Coast.
Under these conditions it was not at
all remarkab BILE that his primary con-
aideration in building his house should
be cheapness rather than permanence.
Pernanence New Building keynote
1t is probable that we are now be-
ginning to build for pelmanence as
we'll as cheapness. In the long run
this wil mean the elimination of tre-
mendous waste in dwelling house con-
struction. A house built twenty or
thirty years ago is considered an old
house and is usually an undesirable
house. 1t has tremendously depre-
tinted in value since it was built.
There is no reason why this should be
the case. When land values become
fixed, as they are becoming more and
more fixed throughout. the country
houses can be built which at the end
OF 100 and even 200 years should show
less depreciation in value than a
thirty-year- house to-day. 1t is all
q question Of the idea we have in mind
when planning the house Permanency
Of this kind can be secured in almost