Imperial Valley press., 1938-02-25

high level. Workers in building |
supply factories and in warehouses
and lumberyards are now being |
organized in some cities. Hence,
little reduction in material prices |
can be expected.
BUILDING UNIONS
UNPATRIOTIC
The worst handicap of all, how
ever. is the foolish and unpatriotic |
policy of building trade unions. /
believe in collective bargaining. The
entire nation can benefit from IT.
While profits of stockholders In
elder industries that were organlz-
ed years ago arc less today, Ger
tainlv their consumers have bene-
fitted Why? Because arrangements
were forced to become more etfi-
cient-to install labor saving ma
chinery. This. in turn. boosted the
output per man-hour.
The unionization of textile, shoe,
coal. and other lines mas lifted man
hour output in these industries. In
the building trades, unionizatlon
has not increased the man-hour
production Why? Because the
leaders of the unions have Sabo-
tagged their own men and their in
1ustrv by stupid and uneconomic
policies. They have put artificial
limits on the amount of work
man can do; while at the same time
they have held down the number
of skilled workers.
Slow workers must be paid as
much as fast workers. So the eff
cient lose their incentive to do
more than the inefficient. Brick
LAYERS in some cities get Sl3 per
day, while hundreds Of jobless are
exclu1ed from the building trades
. by the unions. Furthermore, in
highly unionized towns man cam
not give an unemployed neighbor
a little handiwork around his home
without fear of bombing or beating.
The result of these various union
tactics has not only been wage
scale out of all proportion to the
type of the job, but a tremendous
cost -per-unit of work done.
INTEREST RATE COULD
BE LOWER
Now what has the new Housing
Act accomplished in overcoming
high costs? The answer is: Not
much except to cut initial financing
charges somewhat Actually, ] think
lower interest rate could have
been made. Banks are chOked with
money. Better have it loaned on
homes and insured by the govern
ment at three per cent to create
more Jobs, than to give it away to
men for raking leaves. InSuring
loans up to go per cent of valua-
tion does not necessarily mean that
! banks will take such big mortgages.
The new regulations will let home
builders go ahead with a smaller
down payment, but it will not, all by
itself. produce biz construction
| boom.
so l feel that the new Housing
Act has done only part Of the JOB.
| President Roosevelt was on the
right track when he called for an
annual wage for building workers.
If some such scheme could be
mapped out maybe building work.
ers would drop their unreasonable
hourly scales. Even if an annual
wage scheme is not feasible. the
administration could do much to-
ward getting labor costs down by
insisting ON maximum hourly rates
based on an annual Wagc) on pub
lie works projects and on homes
built I'M Ter government insured
/ mortgages.
PICK UP IN
BUILDING AHEAD
Yet. regardless of all this pulling
and hauling. building is bound 10
increase over present levels. People
will do what is the cheapest thing
TO do. Just as soon as it is cheap
or TO build than to rent, people will
/ build Ten years of sub-normal
construction have created a trc-
mendous shortage of desirable rem
tails Rents have risen Al per cent
since January. 1884 Building costs
/ have skyrocketed, too, but there has
been a drop in the last several
months. Hence, despite all the
hindrances, I expect 1888 building
! to improve materially over the final
half of last year ami to come close
/ to eqUalling the entire 1887 level.