The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-01-31

ErSt Mortgage COrpOraCloH, Ol as president of the Nationa Boards.
 Kniskern told the closing session of the South Central Regional Con- ference of the Association at the Hotel Roosevelt that he felt "thiS work should be sponsored equally by the government and by indus try"
 Citing the ghost industries and housing which resulted from the World War, he asserted that a repi- tition of this could be largely pre- vented If we will but plan todya."
 Why not research laboratories within each war plant" he asked, "where men and women will work with only one aim-the seeking ot peacetime products which that par ticular plant could manufacture? "If we would even off, perhaps prevent, the depression which us- ually follows a war, we must work and plan tody-plan for the immed- fate conversion of plant-ot-War to plants-of-peoce so that men may continue working. At that time we also will have the demobillzed sol diers as well as our plant workers seeking steady employment, with unemployment compensation and bread lines the alternative. We want to avoid all that. believe that much of it can be prevented through care ful planning-today.
 1T ~k fhof FfIrnnpon competition will be most keen after the war. We shall have to compete with what may be essentially slave labor" granted a mere pittance for its sweat. If we meet this competi- tion and preserve our standard ot living, it will have to be by mech anical and plant efficiency"
 In an address which called for "cool. calm and collected thinking" and "the frank recognition of facts" with an end to wiShful thinking and hysteria, Kniskern pointed out that while the important problem facing the nation today was that of na- tional defense, it must not complete ly overshadow domestic questions.
 The Home Front
 On the home front, he called on the epuntry's Realtors, as better in- formed than "any legislators or Soc- ial workers" to work out an equit- able basis for fair rentals which would prevent rent profiteering or gouging. He pointed out that the Reaitor was a disinterested arbitra- tor, ont who knows the principles and has the facts by which to es- tabl,sh a rental fair to both owner and tenant" and who should create a complete understanding on both , sides, thereby insuring equity all around a fair rental satisfactory to both owner and tenant, making legislation unnecessary"
 Kriskern asserted that the Ma tional Association of Real Estate Boards had advocated slum clear ance and low-cost housing. The bot tlenecks which are preventing ac- complishment of these objectives through the use of private initiative, he said, can be removed. But, he pointed out, Government by inac- tion or desultory legal procedure must not permit the continuance of correctible conditions that precent action by private enterprise and then raise its voice with a 'holier than thou attitude saying that pri- vate industry won't Our big draw back has been the failure of muni- palities to cooperate by definite ac- tion."
 He called upon Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia of New York, as preSl- dent of the National Conference of | Mayors to appoint committee of ] mayors to meet with committee Of the Realtors flor the purpose of studying the situation honestly and frankly in a spirit of true coopera- ! tion and arriving at recommenda- tions and conclusions that will per- init nationwide program of build- ing sound housing for the lower in- once groups at price they can af- ford to pay without loss of tax revenue to the community - and without taxing the already over burdened tax payer-and do it by private enterprise"
 nc DCICIlSc TTOub
 On the defense front, Kniskern pledged the complete support of the nations Realtors to the rearmament program. However, he reserved the right of being "agressively and con- structively critical during the for native period" but promised "our complete, full and energetic support and cooperation after policy or plan has been adopted" He called on the Realtors to awaken the pub lie to the urgency of the situation and to arouse them to act when action is needed; to bring about a real spirit of national unity
 He volunteered the aid of the Ma tional Association of Real Estate Boards. by co-ordinating the CO., operative work of member boards, to help in meeting the defense plant and housing needs of the Office of Production Management.
 Every local board, I believe, should have or immediately accum- ulate statictics as to housing as to the characteristics of available io- cations and as to industrial space in it's community" Kniskern said Many of our boards have already begun this work. We should be be- lorehand, ready for government request before it comes. One of our great faults as nation and one resulting in great waste is that we do not take intelligent inventory of our available supply, but, instead, we foolishly build much of what we already have somewhere nearby. Every local real estate board can do a real job along this line--in prepar- ing and anticipating defense plant and housing needs"