Evening star., 1939-09-26
Boom Forecast
In low-Cost
Housing

Major Revival Likely
Soon, Cormody
Tells Architects
A prediction Of major revival Of
low cost housing projects, under
impulse Of professional and indus
trial organizations who would re-
ceive money for work connected with
construction, was made today by
John Carmody, Federal Works ad-
ministrator, in an address before the
American Institute of Architects,
meeting in convention at the May
flower Hotel
Il think more will be accomplished
in the next year or two than has
been done for many years in the
direction OF getting architects,
builders, realtors and other groups
convinced that their interests lie in
great low cost housing projects" he
said. IF my prediction is correct,
then We will soon experience a
tremendous building program"
Mr.. Carmody said he had been
surprised to discover when appear
ing before congressional appropria-
tion committees that private busi-
ness interests who would benefit
under the appropriations were rarely
present.
Later they come to US Govern
ment officials who have been asking
all along for the appropriations and
complain because they did not pass
Congress- he declared.
He said his agency will soon
translate into pay roll figures and
data on probable purchase of ma
terials all appropriations now out
standing for Federal works-so that
private agencies can be more intel
ligent in their decisions"
Congratulates Architects.
Mr.. Carmody congratulated the
architects on their enthusiasm for
housing, declaring, "Incongruities
hang like barnacles on a system
which does not provide adequate
shelter for its people.
1T is a travesty on our whole
| system of industry if those who work
in it cannot get back its product
| in the form of housing"
President Charles D. Maginnis
promised Mr.. Carmody he can
count confidently on the co-opera-
ton of the institute"
Edwin Bergstrom of Los Angeles,
Calf. was nominated without op-
position to succeed Mr.. Maginnis as
president, following petitions from
AZ chapters of the institute through
out the country. Mr. Bergstrom
has been treasurer since 1927.
Dean Walter R. Mccormack of
the Massachusetts, Institute of Tech
nology was noninted for vice presi-
dent; Charles T. Ingham of Pitts
burgh for secretary and John r.
Fugard of Chicago as treasurer.
The only contest in elections will
be for the post of regional director
of the Gulf States, for which j.
Frazer Smith of Memphis. Tenn,
and Joseph w. Holman of Nash
vile, Tenn, will contend. Other
regional directors will be Rudolph
Weaver of Gainesville, Fla, South
Atlantic district; Benedict Farrar
of St. Louis, Central States. and
Gordon B. Kaufman of Los Angeles,
Sierra Nevada district.
Ask 100000 Homes.
rr;+;c;e,,, fo~ &Lo afo;l,,ro,, ,,,t; ~.
faces the American housing program
was directed at diverse groups today
by the Architects Committee on
Housing.
Requesting a 50-year plan to erect
10000 900 new homes for the poor. the
committee, headed by Dean McCor-
mack, made public report which it
will present to the institute conven-
ton, meeting in the Mayf1ower Hotel.
The report tersely. distributed re-
sponsibility for hardness in the pro-
gram to the following groups:
Labor-"It has shown too little
eagerness to cooperate as was done
in England, in the substitution of an
annual income for the hourly wage
practices, such as the jurisdictional
strike, which retard building pro-
duction and increase its costs"
Landowners-"High hurdles to low
costs remain in land prices, due to
the persistence of a speculative
rather than an investment attitude
toward real estate"
Few Important Changes.
Manufacturers of materials-In
most fields of building materials few
important changes have been made,
despite the recommendation of COM
petent investigators such as the Ma
tional Bureau of Standards. Patents
have been obtained for many i'm
proved and more economical mate
rails and appliances, but many of
these have been purchased by the
manufacturers of inferior materials
and kept out of competition. Costs
are greatly increased by advertis-
ing methods which overstate and
mislead the public and add nothing
to the value of production. Failure
to liquidate obsolete plants and dis
trlbutlOn methods is more certainly
| a serious handicap"
Congress-"Such legislation as
was proposed and defeated in the
last Congress, particularly the sub
sidy provision, would make decent
housing attainable. Housing should
no longer be regarded as means Of
unemployment nor based on emo
tional thinking" There is for
gotten group" of unemployed whose
relief payments are insufficient to
permit their paying even the low
rent of present new housing. For
this class there remains no decent
shelter unless the Government
should undertake housing of a
Spartan simplicity yet well organ
lied and attractive in grouping and