Pueblo chieftain., 1921-01-09
By Frederic j. Haskin.

Washington, d. c., Jan. 6.-Great
corporations in every city to build
houses for us in groups of at least 900,
and to retain the management and
administration of those houses as long
as they last.
That is the solution of the housing
problem which is proposed by John
Ihider, manager of civic development
for the Chamber of Commerce of the
United States. He offers it as his per-
Sonal opinion as to what should be
done, But about 100 of the local cham
| bers of commerce have already faith
cred housing companies somewhat
after this fashion, and the national
chamber is preparing to hold a series
of conferences. with Mr.. Ihlder as con-
sultlng specialist, to determine upon
a national housing plan. So it may be
safely guessed that the Chamber of
Commerce Of the United States will
attempt to solve the housing problem
by applying business organization
and efficiency TO it.
The move is significant. 1t seems to
be the first organized effort to solve
the housing problem in this country.
1t may be taken as the effort of Amer
lean capital to meet its responsibility
in this regard
The housing problem is worldwide.
In every country that engaged in the
war. building of dwellings practically
ceased for two to four years. In Eng
idHu IL was lIn1ltuldltiy retoSHiZeu
! that private capital was not COM
pctcnt to handle the problcm. 1t was
neither prepared nor willing to do
anything adequate. Neither could the
British workman pay the rents which
must be paid If nital is to get its in
terest and profit. Yet men and women
were dying fer lack of houses. The
British government decided that 1t
was necessary to save the British peo-
pic even If British capitalism suffered
something of setback in the process.
Therefore the British government pro-
cceded to build houses. 1t did build
and is building them by thu thousand
1t is renting them for less han they
are worth. The measure is n measure
OF state socialism, of what is com-
monty dGbbed paternalism in this
country. 1t is body blow at private
capital 1t seems to have hcen the be-
ginning of general process of social
ization in England. But 1t had to be
done. Capital couldn't do the work, so
government had to do 1t.
Government Houses
The same thing was true in this
country during the war. Dwellings, for
war workers simply had to be had at
once and at reasonable prices. So gov
ernmept had to build them. But after
the armisticc the government housing
corporation was quickly put out OF
business. 1t first demonstrated that
q no lSeS Tor wOrkmen can be made at
/ tractive and can be grouped into pretty
villages, and that workmen appreciate
such houses.
This country does not face so ser
lous a postwar housing problem as
. Great Britain. Yet il is more serious
than you realize unless you arc hunt
inE an apartment. We are about n
million and quarter short of the
number of houses we need in order to
ho Use our population as well as we
did before the war. This means that
there are at least four million more
neop.c in the United states than we
have comfortable housing room for.
That is bad CROUCH. But the worst of
II is that nothing adequate IS being
done to remedy the situation. Capital
has not met the emergency in this
i country, any more than 1t did in Eng
/ land. And government has not even
tried. Tho rcvulsion against govern
mcnt ownership. control and initia-
tive, which followed the war. made
that impossible. We have therefore
preserved intact our beloved system of
private enterprise. but tho said en-
tcrprise in the building trades has
not made itself conspicuous except in
the unsaTory ways recently revealed in
the New York Investigations.
The situation Today
You think you sec n good deal Of
building going on Then consider these
facts: For soyen years before the war
We built an average OF 10000 houses
Q