The Washington times., 1930-04-05
FOUR PROBLEMS
FACE BUILDING
INDUSTRY
Special Committee to Act for
Realty Men to Bring About
Healthy Condition in Field

sA~SthSy VVtINtkiVH Iu tStN
The establishment of special
committee to act for all mem
bers Of the nations building in
dustries will be an important re-
suit Of the recent Chicago meet
Ing of the National Building Sur
vey Conference, cacosding to a
statement by the National As
sociation of Real Estate Boards,
Of which Leonard P. Reaume,
y Detroit, is the president.
This committee which will be
appointed by a group of key men
in the building industries will
have the power to act on the
various matters brought before
the conference for consideration
and on their shoulders rests the
burden of bringing about and
maintaining a healthy condition
in the American building field.
The membership of the commit
tee will constitute a true cross
! section representative of all the
many interests which go to make
up the building industry.
Four Major Problems
Out Of the conference likewise
came a clearly defined statement
of the four major problems
which must be solved to facilitate
home ownership for the man of
modest means.
The four points essential to
the widening of home ownership,
as brought before the meeting by
the National Association OF Real
Estate Boards, were cited again
by Julius Barnes, chairman OF
the United States Chamber Of
Commerce and of the National
Business Survey Conference. as
eminently practical suggestions
toward the successful progress Of
the nationwide movement to pro
mote construction, now being ad-
vocated by President Hoover.
These suggestions, included in
the address made by Reaume,
constituted plea that the coun-
try's leaders in the construction
and building industries should ap-
proach In laboratory and re-
search spirit the following four
problems which face building and
allied interests in this country
today; taxation: the economic
use of land; financing costs for
homes and some method of eco
romic Standardization of build
ing processes, so that homes for
people of average means can be
constructed at costs substantially
lower than are at present posi-
Bile, and, at the same time, offer
increased convenience and be de-
veloped without monotony OF de-
sign.
Decreased Building Costs
In urging the necessity for
new building methods which
would decrease building costs,
Reaume decried the fact that the
construction of moderate-priced
homes has never advanced from
the slow, made e-by-hand process.
"Building materials are still be-
ing made to fit the size OF a
mans hand" he explained. They
! are transported to the building
site and assembled in the course
! of two or three months by the
most expensive methods of hand
labor that the world has even
seen. IF the local garage man
were to buy the parts of an auto
mobile and attempt to asSet1 bile
them in his own garage and thus
slluply his customers. we should
have a process which compares
with the home building meth. IDS
of today. There is no good
reason why. if the problem is
studied, we cannot develop new
technique in home building. More
and more portions of building
can be fabricated in factories so
that a finished dwelling could be
assembled in a few days, instead
of a few months.
will Not Mean MOnOtOny
'There are those who object to
such an idea on the ground that
we should have monotonous and
standardized houses, but we have
those now to a great extent. The
automobile industry probably
$>>sakes more extensive use of
mass production methods Than
ANY other commodity, yet it. is
possible for the buyer to chuose
between some six or seven hun
dred models made by approxi-
mately so different companies.
There Is a wide range of choice
here, and the same could be true
of fabricated dwellings. M0re-
over, fabricated inexpensive homes
need not foreclose the possibility
. of individually designed homes
for those who can afford them
Annual Waste of Fuel