Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-12-03
HOME CONFERENCE
STUDIES ARE BEGUN
President Outlines Problems
to Be Faced by Delegates
to Farley.

W ! al INJs
Continued From First Page)
creditably solved every other segment
OF the credit structure more effectively
than that OF the purchase of a home.
Our chief problem in finance re-
lates to those who have an earnest de-
sire for home. but whose initial re-
sources run TO only 20 or rs per cent
(of the cost of a home)."
Refers to Bank Plan.
These people, he asserted, are a
good risk" are willing to apply their
income and savings to home purchase,
and TO find a way to meet their needs
is one Of the problems the conference
should consider
President Hoover cited his recently
revealed plan for creation of a system
of home mortgage discount banks
which he said was brought forward
'in the confidence that through the
creation OF an institution of this char
acter we could gradually work out the
problem of Systematically promoted
home ownership on such terms of sound
finance as people who have the home
owning aspiration deserve"
The Chief Executive was presented
by Secretary of Commerce Lamont, CO.
chairman of the conference with Secre-
tary Of Interior Wilbur, who he'd
place also on the platform at Consti-
eution Hall, where the session was held.
AS one Of the first fruits Of the spe-
cialized sessions, the Committee on
Types Of Dwellings, headed by John
1hlder, executive director of the Massa
chusetts Housing Association, found
that overcrowding Is the basic evil in
bad housing and is closely associated
with high land values"
Evidence was found that the ratio of
the cost of a lot to the cost Of the house
to be built upon it remains fairly con-
slant and that the contemplated
density of land occupancy apparently
Is the chief factor in determining land
costs.
AS most Of the country's houses have
been built for the upper income groups,
comprising only half of the population,
the committee insisted on the necessity
of some plan TO meet the needs OF at
least some Of the less fortunate half OF
the population.
School As Focal Point.
A similar attack on overcrowding
came from the committee on city plan
ming and coming. headed by Frederic A.
Delano, chairman of the National Capt.
tai Park and Planning Commission.
The school should be the focal point
of the neighborhood, this committee
found Stores and commercial amuse-
ments belong at major traffic intersec-
tipns and the border streets should pro-
vide the best sites for apartment houses,
it reported. -
The committee found an evil now Is
that city planning in practice has been
predicated upon endless growth of the
city, that coming regulations have been
too liberal, with the result that popu
lations have shifted constantly and
caused unstable values, which, in turn,
has hindered home ownership.
Short-sighted methods employed in
the designing of homes was assailed in
the report of the committee on design,
headed by William Stanley Parker,
president of the Architects Small House
Service Bureau.
1t recommended adoption of a prac-
tice of designing houses as parts of a
community, rather than as individual
entities.
The committee vigorously con-
cemned the widespread practice Of
huilding IN practically unvarying repe-
tition of single standard" plan on
identical lots that are too narrow. This,
1t held, produces a depressing appear
ance and contributes to rapid neigh
borhood obsolescence.
above al, the committee felt that
horne financing interests should lend
money only on homes of sound design
instead OF taking only the casual inter
est in this subject which it said Is now
the rule
Single Family House.
,Dr. Joseph Hersey Pratt of Boston,
CORNER president of the American Gil
naatologicsl and Clinical Association, as
chairman Of the Committee on Housing
and the Community, reported that the
Ideal of the average American is home
ownership of a single-family house.
Home ownership tends to root citizen
ship, TO build man and his family
into the community" he asserted.
His committee listed among its mem
bership the following Washingtonians !:
DR.. Royd r. Sayers, chief surgeon OF
the Bureau of Mines; Miss Agnes L.
Peterson, assistant director of the Labor
Departments Women's Bureau; James
e. Ives, senior phyicist of the United
States Public Health Service; Morton
@. Lloyd, chief Of the safety standards
section OF the Bureau of Standards
Miss Alice L. Edwards, executive secre-
tary of the American Home Economics
Association, and DR.. James P. Peake,
senior surgeon in charge of the United
States Public Health Service.
DR.. Pratt explained that from & sur
vey made by the committee which COW
cred all phases of the medical and
sociological aspects of housing. re-
CARELESS Of the type of home a man NAV
accept, the weaving of the neighbor-
hood ties must not be neglected and
provisions must be made for restora-
ton facilities.
DR.. Pratt said the committee has rec
commended steps TO eliminate blighted
areas, and TO effect State legislation
which will make it legally and prac-
tically possible to assemble at reason
able cost sufficiently large tracts of land
Tor the development OF the neighbor-
hood unit.
The committee has recommended
that from the point of view OF health
that the size of rooms in modern
houses and the number of persons per
room are more significant than the
number OF persons per block or per
acre in q crowded district.
Crime and Housing.
A. group Of sociologists and criminol-
oglstS on the committee reported on a
careful critical study of the relations
of housing to delinquency. The con-
clusion drawn was delinquency is con-
centrated in the area of bad housing
and is associated with complex Of
conditions, OF which bad housing is
only one"
OF the 80 900 accidental deaths an
nualiy IN this country, about sc, 900 oc-
cur in the home, according to the COM
mittee. This number of fatalities al
most equals the 1900 attributed TO
automobiles in 1880 and exceeds the
$4,000 class Of industrial accidents
Non-fatal home accidents have been
estimated at 4,50o 900. AS to the causes
OF these accidents in the home, the COM
n1ittee said, falls rank first, about one
third OF which occur on stairwsys or
steps. The next most numerous type
Sliras,et-It annrc r.,crr