Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-01-20
Labor and Building

(The following interesting article
was written by M. c. Buttle, eNecu-
tive representative of the Aberthaw
Construction Company, and appeared
in the Boston Transcript November
%, 1921
America continually gives itself
surprises about itself. From time 70
time, it learns that it does some inter.
esting thing. or omits to do some in
teresting thing, on a scale elsewhere
unequaled. The latest discovery,
seemingly emanating from the able
Secretary of Commerce. is the dis
covery of the American building
trade. Suddenly it is becoming clear
that the building business is, next to
agriculture, the largest single Ameri-
can industry. Its Importance has be-
come apparent as the unemployment
situation has developed and become
understood. Obviously, If it is posi-
BILE to stimulate a business that en1-
pIoys several million men, the whole
labor situation will promptly improve.
Equally obviously, the labor situation
lin the subdiary branches that supply
steel, lumber, cement, glass brick,
stone and marble, will promptly inn
prove when building starts.
Accordingly, there has been an ex-
tended publicity given to the desira-
bility of starting public works. The
assumption has been pretty generally
made that the building business is
stagnant, and that public works alone
are possible under present business
conditions. As the matter has been
studied, however, it develops that the
situation for the building trade is far
better than has been thought, and to-
day many industrial concerns, home
| builders and investors in speculative
real estate are realizing that the
present cost of building operations is
either reaching or has reached about
| the lowest point that it is likely to
| reach for the next few years. Ii may
be interesting to consider some of the
facts on which this statement is based.
Turning to the cost of materials en-
| tering into building construction, TAX
ing 1914 as 100, the price of strue-
tural steel, the great war necessity,
rose in 1917 to 400. This was prompt
" taken under control by the govern
| ment, with the result that in 1918
| it had dropped to 260. 1t rose again
in 1919 to $50 and since that time
has declined to about las. Spruce
lumber, brick, cement, hard pine,
glass, all rose by various stages TO a
peak of about 2S0 in 1920, since
when they have all tobogganed to be-
tween lao and 100. The United States
department of labor wholesale COM
| modify index during this period rose
to about 272 and has dropped at the
present time until it reached 148 In
July of this year, and since has risen
a point or two.
There is an increasingly substantial
belief that the general commodity in
dex is likely in the period of the next
two or three years to rise rather than
to fall. Assuming that it remains sta
tionary, or even drops slightly, IT Is
hard to reason that the price of build
ing materials will in general drop
| much further. Certain items may
drop a little, but unless there is a
| general decline in all commodities II
is reasonable TO assume that building
material will follow the general trend
of other prices.
The cost of industrial buildings rose
to a peak of about go in July, 1920,
and has since declined until it stands
at the present time at about 157.
| Again, unless the assumption Is made
that the general commodity prices
are to decline markedly, there is moth
Il ing in this figure that indicates a
large margin for drop In costs.
|