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LETTERS OF TRANSMITTAL.

MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT:

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR,
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY,
Washington, January 3, 1920.

I have the honor to transmit herewith, in accordance with section 6 of the act of May 16, 1918, "An act to authorize the President to provide housing for war needs," a final report of the operations and transactions under and by virtue of the terms of that act.

Faithfully yours,

The PRESIDENT,

The White House.

W. B. WILSON,

Secretary.

BUREAU OF INDUSTRIAL HOUSING AND TRANSPORTATION,
UNITED STATES HOUSING CORPORATION.

SIR: In conformity with section 6 of the act of Congress approved May 16, 1918 (65th Cong., H. R. 10265), I have the honor to transmit herewith Volume I of the final report of the Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation.

This volume contains a general statement outlining the organization, policies, and working methods of the Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation and the United States Housing Corporation, followed by reports of each division, describing in detail their transactions. The work of the Architectural, Engineering, and Town Planning Divisions is covered in more detail in Volume II.

Respectfully yours,

The honorable the SECRETARY OF LABOR,

LEROY K. SHERMAN, Director.

Washington, D. C.

IX

EDITOR'S NOTE.

The purpose of this final report of the United States Housing Corporation is to present a statement of the transactions of the Housing Corporation, in accordance with the terms of the act entitled "An act to provide housing for war needs." The organization, policies, and working methods of the Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation and of the United States Housing Corporation are covered in so far as is necessary to explain these transactions.

The report is submitted in two volumes. The first contains a general statement of the work of the bureau and the corporation, followed by reports of each division and of the more important committees established within the bureau. The second volume deals with the planning of houses, sites, and utilities, and contains architectural drawings and descriptions of each of the projects designed by the United States Housing Corporation.

The appendices of Volume I have been written by the managers of the divisions or the chiefs of sections. As there have been two or more managers of several of the divisions since the armistice, the names and dates of service of each are given. In such cases, unless otherwise stated, the division reports have been the products of successive or joint authorship. Generous assistance of past and present employees of the corporation in the preparation of tables and special statements has been so frequent that individual acknowledgment is not possible.

The files of the United States Housing Corporation contain valuable original material on many significant phases of housing policy which could not be covered in a report of limited scope and purpose such as this. A careful analysis of this material by competent authorities and a continuation of intercepted studies would be of use to the American public in formulating a wise housing policy for the future.

JAMES FORD,

Editor of Volume I.

X

CHAPTER I.

HOW THE HOUSING OF LABOR AFFECTED THE PRODUCTION OF WAR ESSENTIALS.

War needs and industrial organization-The need of adequate and efficient labor-How housing affects production—
The housing shortage-Bad housing reduces output-How housing affects health-Housing conditions of war
workers in the spring of 1918-Evidence of the effect on war industries-The gravity of the problem.

WAR NEEDS AND INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION. When the United States Government became involved in the war upon the Central Powers it was forced immediately to arrange for the production of colossal quantities of war essentials. To win the the war quickly and with minimum loss of life it was necessary to produce ships, munitions, and supplies not only in vast quantities but of superior quality and with utmost speed. It was necessary, therefore, to organize all the economic and social forces of America for maximum effectiveness.

Contracts of unparalled magnitude for the manufacture of munitions and supplies and for the building of ships were entered into by the Federal Government. These contracts were made largely with firms already handling similar contracts for our European Alliesfirms which had the technical experience and organization which would make possible a vast expansion of output. The activities of government arsenals, proving grounds, and navy yards were simultaneously increased by several hundred or even several thousand per cent.

THE NEED OFf adequate AND EFFICIENT LABOR.

The efficiency of fighting forces is absolutely dependent upon the efficiency of the industrial organization which supplies and transports their food, clothing, munitions, and other equipment. Defect at any point in the industrial organization meant the postponing of victory and a needless waste of human life. It was indispensable, therefore, that all plants engaged in the production of war essentials should have an adequate supply of labor. It was equally indispensable that such labor should be in the highest degree efficient.

As the plants which produced the war materials were largely concentrated in a relatively restricted area, and as a large proportion of them also (because of the dangerous character of the material handled, or for other strategic reasons) were inevitably placed in regions remote from large cities, the problem of supplying the labor in the quantity needed was exceedingly difficult. Unskilled labor could frequently, but not

always, be drawn from the cities located nearest the plant. Skilled labor was secured with immense difficulty from all parts of the United States.

HOW HOUSING AFFECTS PRODUCTION.

Labor could not be held at these plants unless adequately sheltered. The quantity of labor was dependent upon the quantity of housing of suitable types available for any particular project. The quality of work performed was absolutely dependent upon the health and contentedness of the laborer. The health and contentedness of the laborer were in turn dependent upon the conditions under which he lived. The Federal government was, therefore, forced to consider both the quantity and quality of housing of all labor engaged, directly or indirectly, in the production of war essentials.

THE HOUSING SHORTAGE.

The housing shortage occurred in two types of communities. These were, first, cities such as Bridgeport, New London, and Erie, where huge contracts had been placed, and where the increased labor supply quickly exhausted all the available housing facilities. Second, there were remote communities where proving grounds, bag-loading plants, or other dangerous industries were necessarily placed and where no housing facilities whatsoever were available.

In the cities referred to the increase in the labor supply was very rapid, as, for example, in Bridgeport, where the increase had been continuous since 1914 because of the war orders placed by the Allied Governments. Under normal conditions housing for an existing or anticipated increase in population will be provided by private capital, but the rapidity and volume of the increase were under war conditions too great for private capital to compass. The difficulties of operative builders in meeting this situation were accentuated by the fact of a rapid rise in the cost of labor and materials and by the withdrawal of capital for other forms of investment. In the early days of the war there was a great deal of scattered private building, but the volume continuously decreased as the war

progressed. In the year 1918 after the establishment of the War Industries Board and the subsequent issuance of restrictions upon construction and transportation the volume of private construction became negligible. With each year of the war the housing shortage became more general and more acute, so that by the end of 1918 practically all American cities had failed to replace buildings lost by fire or obsolescence or to provide for the natural increase of population.

The manufacturers of war materials in nearly a hundred American cities found they would be unable to maintain a labor force sufficient to fulfill their contracts in time unless housing should be provided for their labor. In the more remote plants there was a shortage or absence of houses for all classes. In the cities unskilled labor could generally be recruited from the local supply, but no accommodations were available for skilled labor, which had to be brought in from outside. Many plants were able to find housing for unmarried men, but needed new construction for woman labor. Often employers were able to get labor by the promise of good wages, but were unable to retain it because they could provide housing only in quarters already overcrowded.

The shortage of houses also led to profiteering in rents, which was a source of serious discontent and caused vast numbers of employees to leave their jobs and return to the cities from which they had migrated.

BAD HOUSING REDUCES OUTPUT.

Not only was the available quantity of housing grossly inadequate but the quality of such housing as was available was also inadequate. Crowded and insanitary housing was responsible not only for a heavy labor turnover but also for inefficiency and discontent on the part of those operatives who, attracted by high wages, put up with unwholesome conditions and remained on the job.

HOW HOUSING AFFECTS HEALTH.

In cities where the housing shortage was acute the incoming laborer was forced either to crowd into dwellings already occupied by other families or to live in buildings which under normal conditions could not be rented because of poor construction, defective. sanitation, or neglect. Such dwellings may affect the health of the laborer and his family in the following ways:

Through improper location on wet and imperfectly drained land the buildings, especially the lower stories, may be damp, and dampness tends to lower resistance to disease.

Through defective structure or bad repair there may be continuous danger to life and limb from accident.

Winding stairs take their annual toll in broken limbs; rotten flooring, insecure railings of stairs, and piazzas or fire escapes insecurely attached are the cause.of many accidents and of consequent illness.

Through defective orientation, with reference both to the points of the compass and the neighboring buildings, tenants may be deprived of sunshine and even of adequate light. The absence of sunshine generally means dampness, cheerlessness, and for those thousands of flats which have no sunlighted room, reduced resistance and an increased exposure to disease, for sunshine is an effective germicide as well as a promoter of improved metabolism.

Through the crowding of many families in the same building, sharing the same halls and perhaps the same toilets, the chances of exposure to certain infectious and contagious diseases are increased.

Through crowding of population within the tenement, block, or district physical resistance is lowered, for, whether among rich or poor, density of population further adds to ill health by the nervous wear and tear which it entails. Where there is a large population there must be considerable traffic of persons passing in and out, and such traffic means noise, which in turn means nervous fatigue and sleeplessness. As sleep is essential to the repair of the body after the fatigue and wear and tear of the day's activities, the sleeplessness caused by crowded living must be considered one of the most serious of the sources of reduced resistance or ill health on the part of the tenement dweller.

Through the crowding of many persons into small rooms efficiency is also diminished. Crowding may be due to shortage of housing, poverty or ignorant racial habit. It almost inevitably means increased opportunities for communication of disease. Where there is crowding of lodgers in the same apartment with a family there are reduced opportunities for privacy and perhaps for the accepted decencies of life. This may be an occasion in conjunction with other causes for immorality with its train of sexual diseases, or for excessive sexual stimulation, especially on the part of the adolescent, resulting in perversions or neurasthenic tendencies.

Through inadequate plumbing or the use of undesirable or defective fixtures, cleanliness may be reduced and opportunity for transmission of diseases may be materially increased. Lack of water supply within an apartment makes personal cleanliness and house cleaning difficult. Broken or imperfectly trapped fixtures mean that the occupants must continually breathe sewer gas. Though sewer gas has been determined to be free of bacteria, its presence in an apartment may lead to discomfort, reduced appetite, and imperfect nutrition, and in extreme cases to nausea. Where fixtures must be shared by several families

there is danger of transmission of venereal diseases and of body parasites.

Through poor ventilation due to the habitual use of windowless rooms, of rooms on narrow closed courts, or even of rooms having only one window, where for reasons of privacy the door must be kept closed, there is at least discomfort from hot, humid, stale air, and probably reduced resistance to disease.

Through poor lighting ill health may be caused in a variety of ways. In the first place a room which is dark is likely to be dirty, because the dirt can not be seen. Such dirt may contain disease germs and may contaminate hands or throat and lungs. Families living and working in imperfectly lighted rooms are likely also to suffer from eyestrain. When members of the family do housework, sew, or read in such rooms for long periods there may result permanent impairment of the vision, of which chronic headaches are the usual symptom. Careful experiments by the Boston Board of Health have demonstrated also that the germs of tuberculosis can retain their virulence in such rooms for a period of more than two months. As one-tenth of the deaths in America are from tuberculosis, and as there are at least three living cases in our population for each death, and as also the industrial population changes residence frequently, the chances of transmission of this disease from one family to another should not be considered negligible, though other methods of transmission of this disease may be more common. If, as is frequently the case, all of the rooms of a tenement are gloomy, the resistance of those members of the family who are forced to pass their days in the home is almost certain to be reduced, for human beings, like plants, need sunshine for vigorous growth. Experiments seem to indicate that living in gloomy quarters, especially where accompanied by lack of exercise, results in a reduction of the phagocytic power of the blood, that is, the power of the blood to destroy germ organisms. An anemic condition may be occasioned by dwelling in gloomy quarters.

Defective or imperfect equipment may injure health in a variety of ways. A sink which is set too low means back strain for the housekeeper. A leaky stove or flue may endanger the lives of the tenants. from carbon monoxide. Defective gas fixtures may cause poisoning and defective electric wiring may cause danger to life from fire. Careless insertion of plumbing or heating fixtures may make it possible for vermin and insect pests, which are disease carriers, to pass from the apartments of careless tenants to those of careful housekeepers. Lack of screens or defective screening may expose tenants to mosquitoes, which are bearers of malaria, or to flies, which in cities where modern plumbing is not universal may be car

riers of typhoid fever or carriers of the intestinal infections of infants.

Finally, the proximity of the tenement to factories which poison the air by chemical gases, mineral dust, or soot, exposes the occupants to throat irritations and reduced resistance to respiratory diseases, and means increased work for the overburdened housewife in keeping her house clean and free from dust.

The effects of the discomfort of an uncongenial environment are cumulative and may produce irritability, anemia, and lassitude, or what is popularly called the "Slum disease."

HOUSING CONDITIONS OF WAR WORKERS IN THE SPRING OF 1918.

The majority of laborers employed on Government contracts prior to the construction of houses and dormitories by the Government were forced to put up with many of the unwholesome conditions above described, with the consequent impairment of health. The married unskilled workingman lived in the slums of cities, or crowded with other families into houses which had been built for the use of a single family. The unmarried unskilled laborer either lived in a crowded bunk house or shared a room in an already overcrowded house, with from two to ten other persons. Skilled married operatives could generally find no accommodations whatsoever for their families, and left them behind in the cities from which they had come, crowding with other skilled workers, single or married, in the homes of private families. As their standards were higher than those of unskilled labor, and as the family bond was strong, this class of labor, which was indispensable to the fulfilment of war contracts, suffered most, and was most discontented and most difficult to retain.

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