Читать книгу Industrial Housing - Andrew J. Thomas - Страница 7

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From the first the sponsors of the Bayonne Housing Corporation decided that a more rigid application of business methods in housing was needed in order to bring the ideal home which they had in mind within reach of the wage-earner. They knew that houses were being built everywhere in great numbers, especially in smaller centres, but too much of this housing was of inferior types, and was too expensive in both production and operation costs. The expensive character of this new construction served to set an exorbitant level of rent and sale prices, to which the prices of older houses must inevitably rise in the course of a few years. In fact, such a situation had already developed in the metropolitan area of New York City. There, in a number of instances people were paying for the privilege of living in antiquated, depreciated, insanitary, inflammable, dark,

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Breaking ground for the Bayonne wage-earners' homes. The Mayor of Bayonne and the officers and directors of the Bayonne Housing Corporation start the work

cheerless "cold water flats," as much as they would pay for the new apartments of the Bayonne Housing Corporation. When the rise in prices of old construction to the level of prices of new construction was finally complete, the wage—earner—even the high-paid one—would find that he could not afford a suitable home. He would accordingly be obliged to accept a reduction in his standard of living.

It was felt that capital, no less than labor, would deplore any reduction in the standard of living of the workers in industry, and the individuals interested in the Bayonne experiment were ready to lend a hand in placing the production of wage-earners' houses on a sounder business basis.

That the particular section of the real estate market which produces wage-earners' housing is careless of the social interest, and that it operates inefficiently, with heavy economic waste in many industrial centres of the country—this is a truth well known to housing experts. The fact is that housing suffers from a somewhat obsolete and primitive business system in which ​small-scale methods of operation, heavy overhead, inefficient production, and excessive speculation are the chief causes of failure. From an economic viewpoint, the great need in wage-earners' housing is efficient large-scale production.

The American worker enjoys his present high standard of living because modern business methods have been introduced into the manufacture of his food, his clothes, his household goods, his education, his recreation, even of his luxuries, and there is every reason why the same efficiency should apply in housing, which, next to food, is the largest item in the wage-earner's budget.