The Washington times., 1937-11-30
Housing Message Old Hash

- President Roosevelt s housing message to Congress
is little more than warmed up hash 1t is the old Fed
eral Housing Administration, served up with few
trimmings and gamishes
The trimmings are all to the good but the message
completely fails AXE into consideration the fact that
the old FILA basicay ndigestble and will be made
onv slightly more palatabe by being warmed with
additional seasoning.
The seasoning proposed by Roosevelt includes the
ducton of payments mortgages from 7a per
cent to around 52 per cent which is all to the good and
will put stop to the tremendous profits being rolled
up bv the FHA Loans also are to be made up to 80
per cent of the value of house, thus permitting home
D1J;u Cooto owner to purchase for down
payment of only 10 per cent
O""eS""' Most important of all, RFC
mortgage company will finance large scale apartment
and suburban village projects enabling real estate
panes to develop low cost suburban
But while useful and undoubtedly mild incentive to
home construction these notifications do not begin to
touch the two chief features of the old Federal Housing
Administration program which made it so ndigestible
for the American public. These are:
I The fact that when the public starts building
L" houses, the price of building materials immedi-
atels goes up.
3 The fact that our industrial and social system has
I'D" changed in such way as to discourage home
buying.
Let's look at the first of these-the rising cost of
struction during building boom-and see what the
British did about it. They began their housing pro-
gram back in 1924 and have pulled themselves out of
d depression through its efficient and large scale
operation.
But before undertaking it, Minister of Health Wheat
ley called in representatives of the building contractors
building material manufacturers, and labor unions and
Poo,,1of N;nrod obtained from them guarantee
- that prices and wages would not
By Rising Prices be increased after the govern
ment launched it's housing program. Wheatey also OBJ
tanned agreement from the labor unions to admit
apprentices to the building trades in order to avoid
scarcity of labor.
Only after this did the British government proceed
with its huge building program.
The Roosevelt administration on the other hand, has
obtained such agreements A few young Brain
Trusters have talked to representatives of different
sections of the building industry and said: "Now of
course, We'll expect you to keep prices down if this
housing program is launched" But there has been
general agreement throughout the industry.
Illustrative Of this is the fact that yesterday rep
resentative of the wholesale lumber dealers informed
the retail lumber dealers that the former had agreed
not to increase prices but the retailers replied that
such agreement was Dlndlng upon them.
It was rising costs in 1887 which nipped the small
building boomlet which started in 1886. And if the
Administration does not get price agreements immedi
ately, this is almost sure to happen again.
Defect No. 9 however, is far more important It goes
down the roots of economic and social structure
The real fact is that the old urge of every to
his own home has changed.
Four factors have changed it: Easy divorce, smaller
families, the automobile and the machine age.
Today there is less permanency of family. More
families pulled apart by easy divorce by economic
necessty-he fact that the husband can get employ
Des;ro IN O,,u ment in city while the wife
Homes Fading family in another
Probably important is the shift from handi
craft to industrial production. Today when factory
shuts down, the worker gets in his automobile and
moves to another city looking for work Sometimes
he may load his entire family and household belong
ings into the with him. home of his own on which
he is still paying instaments is the last thing he wants.
Drought in the Dust Bowl the tenant farmer system
in the South has brought this mobility to