Private Building Enterprise is the Answer to Better Housing, Says \(/ilson Compton

Washington, January D.-Private enterprise is capable of providing better housing for more peopie at lower cost than any public building program, Wilson Compton, secretary and manag'er of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association, told the Eighth Annual National Public Housing Conference, meeting at the Hotel Commodore in New York City.

"Except for the families of extremely low and insecure income, I see more likelihood of progress toward decent housing through private-enter,prise building at $50O, $600. and $700 a room, than through public building at $1,000 or $1,200 a room," he declared.

Stating such progress would not be accidental, but rvould have to be reached by intelligent cooperation of the buildir.rg material and equipment industries, distributors, and buiders, finance institutions and appropriate public agencies, lVIr. Compton said the building industry had a "clear recognition that the major housing opportunities today are among families which know and want modern housing but can afford to own or rent modern homes onlv if available at lower cost.

"An activity among the major home building industries whose sole objective is to develop decent housing for more people at lou'er costs is the National Small Homes Demonstration. It includes over thirty of the principal national industries including my own-the lumber industry-producing building materials and equipment. Through it a number of these industries collectively are exploring the possibilities, through standardization, of further partial pre-fabrication and pre-assembly, of building equipment parts and through ner'v methods of building and new uses of materials of reaching lower costs; of developing for the inexperienced and comparatively helpless consumer an easier way to the orvnership or rental of a modern home, with structural and financial safeguards founded in the integrity and good faith of many of the country's greatest industries.

"There are men of rvide knowledge and of great name .ivho say that families with anriual incomes not over $2000 must look to the public for decent housing. About 75 p,sy cent of American families now fall within that income classification. Now, when a good, modern, five-room home can be buiit in suburban New York, or in Flint, Michigan, or in Los Angeles, for $250O on a $500 lot, and can be paid for at 65 to 75 cents a day; or a good four-room house can be built in Eugene, Oregon, or Macon, Georgia, at $1800

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Lodge Brothers

They were trying to get a jury to try a criminal case in a Southern court room, and the attorney for the state was examining a colored prospect.

"Do you know the defendant, Andrew Jackson Brown?" asked the lawyer.

"Well suh," replied the colored one, "Ah'se got a logical acquaintance wid him."

"Well, what sort of an acquaintance is a logicd acquaintance?" the lawyer wanted to know.

"We bofe of us belongs to de same lodge," explained the witness.

A Clearing House

The world is just a clearing house in which we gain experience. We are here to work out something, and we go on from where we leave off. For myself, I'm certain that I have lived before, that I stored up considerable experience before the present stage, and that I will proceed to the next stage when this one is finished. ft's all trial-and-error, but based, I guess, on certain fundamentals.

-Henry Ford.

Still Better

Sambo: "Gal, does you dance?"

Liza: "Sho do. Ah loves to."

Sambo: "Good gal. Dass bettern dancin'." *rf*

FRANKLIN'S FAITH

'We are spirits. That bodies should be lent while they can afford us pleasure, assist us in acquiring knowledge or in doing good to our fel'low creatures, is a kind andl benevolent act of God. When they become. unfit for these purposes and afford us pain instead of pleasure, instead of an aid become an incumbrance, and answer none of the intentions for which they were given, it is equally kind and benevolent that a way is provided by which we may get rid of them,. Death is that way.-Benjamin Franklin.

Begin Today

Dream not too much of what you'll do tomorrow, How well you'll work perhaps another year, Tomorrow's chance you do not need to borrowToday is heret

Boast not too much of mountains you will master' The while you linger in the vale belovtr, To dream is well, but plodding brings us faster To where we go.

Talk not too much about some new endeavor, You mean to make a little later on. Who idles now will idle on foreverTill life is gone.

Swear not some day to break some habit's fetter, When this old year is dead and passed away i If you have need of living wiser, betterBegin today ! rl.**

She Wanted Help

The old maid called down to the room clerk of the hotel, and she was quite excited. "Send the house detective up here quick. Hury! I just got back to my room and found three men in it. I want two of thetn thrown out at once." ***

Felt Alike

"Doc," said the man on the table, as they got the anaesthetic ready. "I'm scared to death. This is my first operation."

"Mister," said the young doctor, "I know just how you feel. You're my first patient." **rt

A Philosopher

Bill, who is noted for his homely wisdom and philosophy, says he always arrives at a party two hours late, not because he likes to make a noticeable entrance' but to give the liquo,r a chance to age.

Private Building Enterprise is the Answer to Better Housing

(Continued from Page 21) and can be paid for at 45 to 50 cents a day, to say that threefourths of our people, for decent housing, must rely upon public enterprise is simply untrue. To be sure, what, in modern small homes, can be done, for example, on Long Island cannot be done at so low a cost in Westchester County; what can be done in Eugene, Oregon, cannot now be done in Detroit;and what can be done in Flint, Michigan, or Macon, Georgia, cannot be done at the same cost in Chicago or in Louisville. But the exceptions do not make the rule ! Furthermore, something can be done, and is being done about the exceptions.

"The greatest handicap to low-cost small home building today, whether private or public," he continued, "is due partly to differences in costs of building materials and equipment and of building trades labor; partly to arbitrary and often excessive building code requirements and public charges for utility connections; partly in many places to restrictive union rules as to which the builder. if he builds. has no choice. These deterrents to lorv-cost building, in so far as they are arbitrary and represent no commensurate benefit to public safety, or public health, can be corrected. In the meantime they stand as a needless handicap to building, whether private or public.

"The National Small Homes Demonstration seeks to encourage a spirit of determination to undertake collectively the manufacture, distribution and installation of the materials and equipment of modern, safe, comfortable and convenient homes at costs compatible with the incomes of those millions of families which need and want more but can afford less. It is being done. At this very moment four of these latest Small Homes, of two stories, five rooms, with a porch or a built-in garage, well insulated, with modern equipment and a construction cost, including builder's profit, are being built for a little less than $250O; and two four-room, one-story at a construction cost of $1300.

"The building industries can provide better housing for more people at lower costs, but for the decent housing of people whose income is very low, insecure and irregular, or who have no dependable income whatsoever. there is onlv one choice, that is, public housing." TRADE.MARI{ED SF.LECTED FIRM TEI(TURED BATAAN has been the Celotex distribution poticy for years -that policy h right. Dealers keep on selling Celotex products to the same customers, Celotex has done a" flational advertis- year after yet-tbe products are right. ing job-that is being continued. The right Polic!, the right products, and plenty of aduertising-those are the answers to the dealer's toughest problems and the way to rnore

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