SECTION ON RENT PROFITEERING.

HOUSING CONDITIONS AND THE WAR EMERGENCY.

The successful prosecution of the war demanded the maximum production of which the country was capable. This production depended not alone on factory and machinery, but also on laborers. These laborers had to be congregated in large numbers. It was highly important also that they be imbued with a spirit of contentment and loyal, enthusiastic devotion. Neither the requisite number nor the indispensable morale of the workers was obtainable, however, without a considerable amelioration of the housing needs and living conditions of the industrial population.

The demand thus was urgent for an increased and improved supply of housing. The most obvious way to meet this demand was through new construction. It was recognized, however, that construction. is costly; that it requires a considerable period of time, and must, therefore, be supplemented by other measures; that it involves the use of labor and material which during the war were greatly needed elsewhere; that, with the return of peace conditions and the possible efflux of large bodies of workers from certain war centers, it might leave these cities with an excess of housing which would represent an ecomomic loss; that the Federal Government should not engage in the building and operation of industrial housing, except in so far as there was absolute necessity.

These needs and conditions made it imperative that an organized effort be made toward assisting congested industrial centers to put to the fullest and best possible use such housing facilities as they already possessed. It was essential, moreover, that this be done in such a way as to give war workers and their families direct assistance in finding easily and promptly those existing housing accommodations which would most nearly meet their requirement in size, equipment, location, and rental, as well as in the human. associations which these would involve. The desire to accomplish these ends led to the creation, within the United States Housing Corporation, of the Homes Registration and Information Division.

HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION OF THE HOMES REGISTRATION AND INFORMATION DIVISION.

In April, 1918, Mr. Francis Mahoney, of New York City, laid before Mr. Eidlitz a plan for canvassing and listing vacancies in the cities suffering from a housing shortage. Mr. Mahoney was at once appointed to carry out this plan and was assigned to the Preliminary Investigations Division, and shortly thereafter to the Statistical Division.

In a memorandum dated June 13 the Secretary of Labor ordered the establishment of a division "which will deal with the question of utilizing all of the housing and boarding facilities of each community in order to reduce to a minimum the need for Govern89

ment housing." To comply with this order the Homes Registration and Information Division was created and Mr. James Ford, who since May 1, 1918, had been manager of the Reference Library and Publication Division, was made manager of the division. Mr. Mahoney was transferred to it to serve as its chief field agent.

The division has comprised the Homes Registration Service, in which there was a section on rent profiteering, the Information Section (see p. 112), and the Reference Library. (See p. 114.) (See p. 114.) It has also been in charge of the preparation of the report to Congress. of May 19, 1919, and of this final report. Its manager has served as chairman of the committee on requisitioned houses in Washington (see p. 312), and much of the work of that committee was handled in this division.

HOMES REGISTRATION SERVICE.

THE ORGANIZATION OF VACANCY CANVASSES.

In the summer of 1918 vacancy canvasses were needed in more than 100 cities. A staff of field agents was, therefore, assembled to promote such canvasses and to organize local room and house registries for the use of incoming labor. Immediate returns, however, were necessary, as the house construction. program and the transportation problem were dependent upon knowledge as to the amount and kind of available housing. The practice was, therefore, inaugurated of sending field agents to cities with instructions to secure the cooperation of the local postmaster to permit the postmen on their various routes throughout the city to record on forms supplied by the Housing Bureau the addresses and brief description of all vacant houses, flats, and buildings. By this means the postmen were able to supply a list of all available quarters of their city, often on the very day in which the request was made and with very slight additional work on their part. In case the local post office was overburdened the canvass was generally made by the police, though sometimes by students, real estate agents, and others. This quick canvass was generally followed by a detailed canvass, which often lasted for several days, and which covered vacant rooms as well as vacant houses and flats. This latter survey was made under the direction of field agents of this division by a local committee.

COOPERATION OF COUNCIL OF NATIONAL DEFENSE.

Community cooperation was essential to the successful prosecution of the above plan. The assistance of the national, State, and local councils of defense was, therefore, sought. The following appeals

elicited the generous and effective response of local councils throughout the country:

COUNCIL OF NATIONAL DEFENSE, Washington, D. C., June 25, 1918. STATE COUNCILS SECTION, STAte Council of Defense.

GENTLEMEN: The director of the Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation of the United States Department of Labor has written to the Council of National Defense a letter of which we inclose a copy. You will note that he asks your assistance and that of your local councils in..........

Insert names of appropriate cities.

in making a canvass of room vacancies and establishing room bureaus in order to provide for the better housing of war workers in these important centers of war industry.

The Council of National Defense urges you immediately to arrange for the conduct of this important task by your local councils in the areas designated. To this end will you send us at your earliest convenience the name of the person in each of the cities concerned who will be placed in charge of this work in order that we may forward them at once to the Bureau of Industrial Housing with the assurance that these persons will be responsible for the work in their respective areas? The agents of the Bureau of Industrial Housing will then call upon your State council to make plans with you concerning the details of this work and will then proceed to take up the matter directly with these local representatives.

As the work is of great and immediate importance, we ask you to give it your early attention. Very truly yours,

Director, Chief of Section.

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR,

BUREAU OF INDUSTRIAL HOUSING AND TRANSPORTATION. 613 G Street NW., Washington, D. C., June 19, 1918. From: OTTO M. EIDLITZ, director, Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation, Department of Labor.

To: Council of National Defense.

GENTLEMEN: Adequate labor supply can not be secured and held at the centers of ordnance manufacture unless the workmen and their families have comfortable and wholesome dwellings. The Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation has been established, therefore, to arrange for the housing of labor employed on Army and Navy contracts. This bureau provides for the housing of labor by discovering vacant dwellings and maintaining room registries, by opening up suburbs through improved transportation, and where these devices do not solve the local housing problem, by construction of new temporary or permanent dwellings.

A canvass of vacant dwellings in more congested communities having war industries is about to be undertaken by this bureau. As the appropriation of this bureau is altogether needed for new construction, it is necessary for us to ask for the cooperation of the State councils of defense and of the local community councils in order to make the necessary local surveys and to establish in each city a homes registration service.

It is important that the United States Homes Registration Service in each locality should be directed by the community council because the value of this type of service is strictly dependent upon its having a representative and disinterested management. A registry which covers but a small fraction of the vacancies of the cities, or represents sectional or class interests only, would fail to meet the needs of war workers, would fail to house them properly,

or fail to place them, and thus materially interfere with the production of war materials.

This bureau recommends, therefore, the following: That the local community councils in munitions centers be requested to cooperate with this bureau (a) in making a canvass of vacancies, (b) in the establishing of room bureaus. This bureau would send its official organizer to the industrial city in need of this service, who should get in touch with the local council through the State council of defense. The local council would arrange for a meeting of its district canvassers, which would be addressed by the representative of this bureau; each canvasser would receive the necessary number of investigation forms prepared by this bureau and would receive definite instructions.

The forms when filled would be compiled and would thereupon serve as the initial list of vacancies in the local Homes Registration Service. The registry would be supported by local capital, either raised directly by the council or from local manufacturers by the agent of this bureau, and would have a paid director and such office assistance and field assistance as are needed. The registry would be named United States Homes Registration Service, would be located in an appropriate community building, and would be directed by a subcommittee of the community council, but would be supervised by this bureau.

The Council of National Defense in its Bulletin No. 95 (State councils section) has already generously aided this bureau by urging local action to solve the housing problem. May we ask the Council of National Defense to render us further specific assistance by urging State councils of defense and the local councils in the States and cities where vacancy surveys and registries are needed to be ready to cooperate with this bureau?

Yours very truly,

OTTO M. EIDLITZ, Director.

PURPOSE OF VACANCY CANVASS.

The initial procedure of this division consisted in promoting vacancy canvasses. These canvasses served the following ends:

1. They revealed to what extent, if any, the housing facilities of a community were inadequate to provide for the increase in labor forces anticipated by the local concerns engaged on Government contracts. They also indicated, in detail, what shortages, if any, there were in the various types of accommodations, as, for example, in those suitable for families of skilled workers, for families of unskilled workers, for men, and for women. As illustration of the results of canvasses it might be said that in not a few instances it appeared that while additional houses were needed it was entirely unnecessary to construct the dormitories requested by local war industries.

2. They indicated the extent to which, through improved or enlarged transportation arrangements, the excess population of industrial centers could be housed in suburbs and neighboring cities.

3. They prevented the expenditure of funds for new construction in places where rooms or flats or houses were or could be made available.

4. They provided lists of vacant accommodations, through the use of which war workers could be assisted in finding quickly and easily such housing as would

best maintain their contentment, health, efficiency, and morale, and would thus reduce the labor turn

over.

5. They awakened communities to their housing problems. They brought about improvements by special appeals to owners, landlords, and tenants to render their houses sanitary, or to put their vacant properties on the market for rent, or to repair or convert unsuitable properties so as to make them available as residences for those classes of the industrial population which needed homes. They caused patriotic householders to rent rooms, in cases of emergency, to workers in war industries.

6. They brought to light communities which had abundant housing resources and were in so far suitable for the allotment of Government war contracts.

It is apparent, thus, that the information secured by the vacancy canvass was basic to the activities of the corporation as a whole and valuable to all the branches of the Government that placed war orders.

ESTABLISHMENT OF LOCAL REGISTRIES.

In numerous communities small lists of accommodations had long been kept by various social agencies, more particularly by the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. Each local real estate firm also maintained a small list of houses and flats to rent. This existing machinery, however, proved inadequate for the conditions attending the immense influx of workers to the centers of war industry, for there were many available accommodations which did not appear on any list. The lists were fragmentary, and the offices were often so widely separated as to make it highly inconvenient for house seekers to go from one office to another for the purpose of obtaining an address which gave promise of being satisfactory. Addresses sometimes appeared on more than a single list. As a result, applicants would visit addresses only to find that the accommodations were already taken by individuals who had learned of them through a different agency. These considerations led the Homes. Registration and Information Division to adopt measures looking toward a centralized registry or listing office for each congested city.

TYPES OF VACANCY CANVASS.

Quite frequently post-card canvasses were made. Forms were sent to householders and owners with the request that they fill them out and return them in the interests of themselves, of their city, and of war workers, as well as of the national cause.

Whenever there was need of accommodation which could not be met through the means above described, personal house-to-house canvasses were organized. The burden of this work generally fell on groups of

volunteer women, representing the Council of Defense, American Red Cross, Y. W. C. A., Civic League, or Women's Club, though in some cities canvasses were made by teachers, soldiers, sailors, policemen, or firemen. If the accommodations of the locality were inadequate, the survey was extended to cover neighboring cities, in case these seemed likely to have accommodations which could be used, either with the existing conditions of transportation or by arranging for commutation tickets, changes or increases in train schedules, practicable extensions of railroad or street railway tracks, or other modifications in transportation facilities.

For the purpose of the canvass, the unused accommodations were grouped into three divisions:

(a) Furnished and unfurnished rooms, with or without board, in homes and boarding houses.

(b) Flats, dwellings, or apartments suitable for the use of families.

(c) Emergency housing facilities, i. e., buildings erected and not used, which, if not at the time fitted for living purposes, might, without excessive expense, be adapted for temporary use. These structures were classified as hotels, summer cottages, lofts, factories, and stores.

A special form was prepared for each of these classes of accommodations, and, in the interests of convenience and of ease in filing, these forms were of different colors. The Homes Registration Service. aimed not merely to house war workers but to house them suitably and wisely. Hence the forms, though kept as simple as possible and of a convenient size for filing and handling, were made fairly comprehensive.

INSPECTION OF VACANT HOUSES AND ROOMS.

So far as possible, all the accommodations listed were inspected either by paid investigators or by volunteer workers. This was particularly the case whenever the accommodations were for the use of women. So important was this phase of the work esteemed that a special memorandum was issued covering the matter, as follows:

As a means of protecting girls and women war workers seeking rooms through the Homes Registration Service, a paid woman investigator should be stationed at each registry placing large numbers of women to personally investigate rooms designated as suitable for girls by the volunteer investigators in the general canvass. The volunteer investigators might be either (a) incapable of making careful inquiry, (b) unwilling to make such inquiry, or (c) party to a general plan to use the registry to increase rather than decrease immorality, thus reflecting discredit upon the registry.

Local organizations of the Y. W. C. A. and War Camp Community Service should be represented not only on the local committee of the Homes Registration Service, but should also be invited to have their own housing expert transferred to the central registry, remaining on the pay roll of their own organization if possible. This

plan is not intended, however, to relieve field agents from the obligation of making provision for clerks and paid investigators when making out an estimate or budget for financing the registry.

TESTING THE QUALITY OF THE VACANT HOUSE.

The rooms and houses were graded with reference to ten points: Light, ventilation, repair, cleanliness, sanitation, equipment, location, condition of premises, moral protection, and fire protection. To secure a measure of uniformity and accuracy in the grading, the investigators were provided with specific criteria for determining whether the conditions should be classed as good, fair, or bad.

METHODS OF MAKING PLACEMENTS.

Since the forms as returned by the canvassers and investigators were not in a condition to be filed and used conveniently, the data were transcribed to cards identical in size, wording, and color. The cards of places graded as bad with respect to any of the essential features were kept by themselves under the classification "deferred." No placements were made from this list except under necessity. The owners, landlords, and tenants, however, were urged to improve these properties so as to remove them from the "deferred list" and make them safe, wholesome, and income producing.

The cards listing the available acceptable accommodations were filed in such a way as to enable prompt reference to all the addresses of the sorts desired generally by the applicants. This purpose was facilitated by the use of guide cards, punched and placed according to directions indicated on their faces. By means of these standardized cards, which were supplied by the Housing Bureau at Washington, it was possible at any local registry to pick out of the local list every card which might interest any given applicant. Thus, if a four-room house was wanted renting for about $20 a month and located near a specific plant, every house card answering such description could be found in about a minute's time.

The manager in charge of the office was selected, so far as possible, because of his or her familiarity with the city and with housing conditions, and because of special competence to advise applicants where their particular requirements would most probably be best met. Assisting the manager were such clerks and investigators as the needs might require.

After an applicant had made known his wishes the manager or clerk wrote on the back of a postal card addressed to the office of the local registry a number of the most suitable addresses. This card was given to the applicant with the request that, as soon as possible, though at most within 24 hours, he cross off all the addresses which he did not take and drop the

card in a convenient mail box. In the meantime these addresses were placed by the manager in a suspended file, or were specially checked or marked, in order that later applicants might not be referred to places already taken or under consideration. If the applicant failed to return promptly the card given him, a card was sent to him at his place of work with. the urgent request that he report at once which accommodations he had selected, inasmuch as a failure to report kept needed addresses in supense.

As a further check, addressed post cards were also given to householders and owners, with the request that they mail them whenever there was any change with reference to their accommodations listed with the United States Homes Registration Service. The response on the part of both applicants and householders was, in most instances, very gratifying, as might be expected in view of the patriotic fervor which had been stirred and of the fact that they were receiving benefits without any cost whatsoever to themselves. Through the post cards just described, therefore, supplemented by the use of the telephone, it was generally possible to keep the files comprehensive while yet free from addresses where accommodations were no longer available. In cases of necessity or doubt, clerks or inspectors made personal visits. Occasionally fresh canvasses were made, particularly of those districts within which the greatest number of demands fell.

LOCATION OF REGISTRIES.

The files were kept in conveniently located quarters. Sometimes an office was secured exclusively for the purpose of the registry. Often, however, the lists were placed in the room of the Council of Defense or the War Camp Community Service. In many cities it was found desirable and possible to locate the files in the office of the United States Employment Service, so that a worker could find a house or a room at the same time that he found a job. There were instances in which it seemed most feasible to maintain the files in the city hall, the public library, the Red Cross building, or in the quarters of the chamber of commerce, the Manufacturers' Employment Association, or the board of trade.

COMMUNITY RESPONSIBILITY.

In the matter of organization and policy, the two pre-eminent aims of the United States Homes Registration Service were cooperation and democracy. Every effort was made to avoid any semblance of paternalism. A system was adopted and increasingly perfected whereby local communities were not discouraged but, on the contrary, were stimulated to initiative, responsibility, and self-direction, while yet

given the benefit of the supervision and the expert knowledge of the Federal agency.

Upon request the Washington office sent field agents to such congested centers as had important war contracts. The initial duty of the field agent was to promote the organization of a local committee so chosen as to be widely representative in order that it might profit by the experience and the interest of the whole community. The agencies which very generally had representatives on the homes registration committee were:

Council of defense, real estate exchange, commercial club, manufacturers' association, central labor union, United States Employment Service, community labor board, housing association or committee, civic improvement society, room registry, federation of welfare agencies, War Camp Community Service, Y. W. C. A., Y. M. C. A., and Knights of Columbus.

Within

The committee was organized with a chairman, who received a letter of authorization from the president. of the United States Housing Corporation. the general committee there were frequently included an executive committee, a survey committee, a finance committee, and a committee on rent profiteering (with duties as indicated on page 102 of this volume), a transportation committee (to further the utilization of such housing as would be inaccessible under the existing conditions because of its location), and a priorities committee (to induce local capital to build houses for industrial workers, and to secure for the same, or for any engaged in such building, priority orders for the necessary material from the Federal Government). As indicated by this list of functions, the local organization of the United States Homes Registration Service assumed the full responsibility for the work within its community, including the survey, the selection of personnel, and the raising of the necessary budget. Their support came from a very wide range of local sources. In many instances the registries were given free use of office space or equipment or of automobiles for the making of inspections. The officers, clerks, and inspectors frequently served without pay; sometimes their services were loaned, without charge, by industrial firms. The necessary funds were in several cases provided by the firms having war contracts, sometimes in proportion to the number of employees engaged by them. Financial assistance came also from civic welfare and charitable organizations; from city and county funds; from war chests; from councils of defense; from real estate associations; from chambers of commerce; from boards of trade; and,

1 Except for Washington division of the Homes Registration Service, see p. 326.