The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-05-25
BUILDING JUMPS
800 PER GENT
OVER 1914
Figures Show Extraordinary
Growth in Home Construction
Despite Labor Troubles.
By w. s. COUSINS.
(CopyriEht. 1928. by Cosmopolitan
News Service.)


NEW YORK, May 25.-Betwesn
January and May of this year
building contracts actually awarded
were more than 300 per cent
greater than In the same period IN
the last pre-war year.
Building statistics are somewhat
confusing. Comparative data IS
usually based upon total costs, and
from the standpoint the aggregate
of building contracts siPce 1913 has
been \steadily rising. Moreover,
great amount of Government build
ing was projected in the war years
Of 1917 and 1918, and, while some
Of these buildings have since that
time been transferred to civilian
use, the greater part have been
practically useless since the war.
The records of the F. w. Dodge
Company show that for the first
four months of 1923 total contracts
awarded in the. thirty-four States
covered by its report, representing
rs per cent of the whole country
amounted to 81 ,13S ,264.000 against
$599 ,231 900. in the same period IN
1921, $463 ,406, 900 in 1919 and $228.-
TO, 900 in 1914, the year in which
the war broke out in Europe.
For each Of the years since that
time, the record of building con-
tracts in that territory is as follows:
January to May LIST, 1923, $1,13S,.
OO0, 900; 1922, 1885 600. 00e: 1921, $685.
O00, 900; 1920, 81 OBS, 100000: 1919,
$463 900 900; 1918, $543, 000, 900; 1917,
$467, ZOO, 900; 1915, $4,000, 900; 1915,
$244, 000, 900 and 1914, $22S,000,000
Residential Buildings Lead.
BY far the largest percentage of
projected buildings this year to date
has been residential, the proportion
being 48 per cent, whereas public
buildings amount to Ia per cent,
business buildings, 10 per cent and
industrial plants, 10 per cent.
In 1921 the proportion of resi-
Dental buildings was 1875 per cent
and 1922, 1913 per cent. The large
proportion of residences is partially
accounted for by the so-called specu.
lative type of building, that is, the
building that is made by the mile
and sold by the foot" or the apart
ment house from which it is ex-.
pected to extract large profits in the
high rent period.
From the standpoint Of the rent
payer there is therefore peculiar
interest in any movement having
for it's object the sterilization of
costs In apartments of single dwell
ings. Perhaps in no department or
national activity have soLmany
hopes been blasted as in this mat
ter of rent adjustment.
The last "deflation period" with
it's attendant buyers strikes and
falling commodity prices, failed TO
exert any influence on house rents;
and, while many commodity prices
have long since descended from the
peaks of 1920, the nations rent bill
is as high today as at any time in
it's history. Moreover, there is lit
tie hope for the rent payer until
the unit of building costs is meas
urably reduced.
Check to Initiation.
It might naturally be asked: Why
the need for concerted action on the
part of contractors, builders, bank.
ers and labor leaders and all others
concerned to check this building in
flation?. Why not permit each man
to decide for himself and each bust
ness for itself as to the respective
needs and the ability to supply
them, in the same manner that pop
ular Judgment rules in the purchase
of silk shirt or an automobile.
The answer is that building,
both in it's financing and in its
usage is more directly related to
the future than to the present.
Structures erected in high price
periods carry a permanent burden
In the shape of a mortgage on
which interest payments represent
the inflated price conditions pre-
Vailinp at the time of building and
Is never adjusted without loss to
the owner in the low price periods
that surely follow.
When, at the end of March, Secre-
tary Hoover recommended that the
Government Initiate no new work
that is not eminently necessary
until after there is a relaxation of
private demands he submitted
estimates to show that private con-
struction alone would absorb the
supply of labor and materials.