The Redwood gazette., 1935-02-21
Nature of Building Industry
Does Not Allow Mass
Production

PRODUCTION
''.lfG IS
] was very much interested in
An editorial IN your February 7th
issue of the Gazette, in which you
compare the cost Of a car and a
house Of today with the cost Of
them 80 years ago. You seem to
have the impression that Henry
Ford could reduce the cost of q
house, the same as cars.
I wish to say that the building
line has just as brainy men as the
auto industry, but a house, for
many reasons, cannot be fabricat-
ed and assembled in a factory.
No woman wants a house just
like her neighbor's no more than
she wants dress like her friends.
Then again, some want brick, 9TH
ers stucco, and some want frame.
There are many concerns who
fabricate a ready cut house. All
the mechanic has to do is set it up,
but We never found that any could
be erected without some changes.
A house is composed of many
things. The stone may come from
Ohio; the brick from St. Louis;
the lumber from the coast and the
fixtures from some other place.
The walls and the roof of a house
cost less than one-half of the en-
tire building with modern fixtures.
Sometimes two-thirds of the cost
is the finishing. In a factory you
have the same men for years. In
building a house you have to pick
them up where the houses are
built, or import them and board
them.
Many men of brains such as
Thomas Edison worked for years
on that subject. So did the great
steel factories in the east. At our
last World Fair there were sew
eral houses that were assembled
there of steel, brick panels set up
with derricks, etc., but nobody was
impressed as far as l know, and
not one was sold.
When people build house they
want their ideas, their character
and soul in it-at least real hu-
man people who love a home
better than a car. They want to
bring up their family in a home
better than a car. It's a terr-
ible indictment on young couple
who prefer a car in place of a
home to start out in life. Many
times I said: "The biggest coward
fights for a home when the big
gest hero will not fight for a
boarding house." l now say 'The
biggest coward will fight for "a
home when the biggest hero will
not fight for a car"
You say high taxes keep people
from investing their money in
homes and rent them. Truly so.
But is not a car taxed also, on
which you are paying taxes, in
surance, for tires and gasoline
daily, and in few years, about
the time some pay the last install
ment on it, it's obsolete. It's diff
ferent with home because it is
built for a lifetime.
No one that can figure will build
a home for rent because, finan-
cially, it won't pay; I am talking
about young people who enter
'Ife's journey" together. Why
don't they buy a home on the in
stallment plan like they do when
they buy a car? Join a Building
and Loan association, pay for the
home monthly the same as paying
rent and, when they are through
paying, they have a home that is
not obsolete like q car.
What a joy it is to have gard
en- to putter in at your idle hours
Plant little trees and see them
grow. They seem like the chill
dren of your own. That Immortal
song "Home Sweet Home"appeals
to a human being! How would
"Car Sweet Car" appeal to you?
You ask, why do houses cost SC
much more now than 80 or Sc
years ago? In the year 1888, DR.
Finn, who was at that time pres
ident of the Redwood Falls Schoo
Board, wired to Colonel Boblettel
of New Ulm. to send a man whit
was capable of building a brick
school house, as the contractor!
mind became deranged ere the
basement was finished.
Colonel Bobletter came to my
house and asked me whether
was willing to undertake that job
As there was no one else avail
able l told him would try. BEING
only 25 years old at that time,
was a little afraid to tackle tht
lob, but I went. When / got there
I begin to hire men. Got goot
labor at $1.25 to $1.50 per day
The very best bricklayers at $2.2s
a day while we now pay 4.OO fol
labor and $500 to $500 fol
bricklaying. Dimension lumber
was $40 per M and yellow pine
sawed flooring SIC per M.
At that time there were feV
bath rooms, heating plants o.
plumbing in houses built and TIT
first heating plant I know OF wa
the two furnaces I placed In thu
school building. At that time
there were no water works-con
sequently no sewage. I ventur'
to say that the plumbing ant
heating fixtures sometimes cos
more than the building itself.
I bought the brick from Mr
eI:I- - Now Him whIcl