The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-12-01
PROGRAM FOR
SMALL HOMES
RECOMMENDED
Proposal Would Give Work
to Many Scores of
Unemployed.
ARCHITECTS TO BENEFIT
Building Trades to Get Out
standing Work Gains,
BaCkerS Say.

BIZ Scripps-HoCdrd Newspaper Alliance
COLUMBUS, o., Dec. Govern
ment encouragement for rehabilita-
ton and new construction of small
dwellings, under a plan designed to
provide relief Tor unemployed ar
ch1tects and to provide jobs and
orders for thousands of workers and
employers in the building industry,
has been recommended to President
Roosevelt by three Columbus men.
The sponsors of the proposal are
John M. Weed, assistant director
of the engineering experiment sta
ton OF Ohio State university: Ga
len F. Oman, teacher of architec-
ture at Ohio State, and Walter E.
Petit, a practicing architect.
Federal help i'll stimulating re-
modelling, repair and maintenance
work on millions of small residences
and also to encourage new con-
StructiOn are basic features of the
proposal. Added to the public works
construction program, this further
plan would assist recovery in the
building trades and in industries
producing building materials, the
sponsors argue.
Unemployed architects would
come into the picture through or
ganization of a large architectural
corps, at nominal salaries of per-
haps $50 a month, to enlist the CO.
operation of property owners and
help them plan and carry out re-
pair and construction projects.
No Direct Help
With only one in seven employed.
architects, architectural engineers
and architectural craftsmen have
been hit harder by the depression
than any other professional group,
the hackers of the plan say.
Present government programs. the
three Columbus men assert, provide
for extensive public building con-
Struction, for low cost housing de-
velopments under the "Slum clear
ance" plan and for financial aid
to distressed home owners facing
foreclosure, but offer no direct help
and encouragement for the great
middle class who are not in actual
distress and who would spend mil
lions for construction work if as
Sured that they could do so with
financial safety.
More than 100000 families in
the United States own their own
homes" the authors told President
Roosevelt in a letter outlining their
proposal. "A great many more
homes are owned as investment
property by persons of very mod
crate means.
IF money is advanced to keep
people from losing their homes
through mortgage foreclosure, it
also is advisable to make some pro-
vision to keep homes from de-
teriorating through lack of repair
TO the point where they are below
desirable living conditions.
Frees Private Funds
"a similar situation exists in the
case of those who have, with say
ing, acquired property on which
they hope to build. In the past the .
construction of small houses has
been a substantial part of the
building industry"
The architectural service corps of
perhaps 10000 men is declared bv
the authors to be analogous to the
Civilian Conservation Corp, al
though recruited from a different
class of the unemployed. These men,
under their proposal, would investi-
gate needs for repair, rehabilitation
and new construction in their COM
munities; carry the news of the
government plan to small property
owners; give advice on such work,
with actual designing where needed;
and make inspections Of work where
government loans are involved.
The suggestion is made that the
government program would en-
| courage the release Of private funds
for loans to finance similar work,
but that a limited amount of gov
eminent loans probably would be
needed perhaps as an adjunct to
the work Of the Home Owners Loan
| Corporation.