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 América 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.

These operations will employ upward of 25,000 men for their construction, and after their completion it is estimated that between 4,500 and 6,000 permanent employees will be required.

The housing facilities at present existing are entirely inadequate to provide for this large influx, and while a large number engaged in construction work are housed in cantonments at the site of the works many are living in the towns under congested conditions which, in addition to the potential dangers from overcrowding, are causing discontent and dissatisfaction. This is clearly reflected in the large labor turnover estimated at 400 per cent which obtains in spite of high wages.

Statements made by members of the Sheffield committee to Mr. P. R. MacNeille, Industrial Service Section of the Ordnance Department of the War Department, on May 24, 1918:

The housing facilities for Government employees in these tricities are utterly inadequate. Not only do many of the men live in tents and some in remote outlying districts, but practically none of them can bring their families in. Local housekeepers have yielded every possible space and the saturation point has been reached in spite of the fact that very many individuals are building houses in the three towns. Competition among tenants has put many rentals to improperly high figures, being the same condition which we hear has occured in the great Capital of the United States. There are happy exceptions to the rule and the blame in bad cases can not be wholly charged to landlords. Some tenants with funds in hand bid high against others and profiteering results. Some cottages that used to rent for $12 a month now bring $60. As another example, one woman has put two beds in her kitchen and gets $1.50 a night for them in spite of the fact that she continues to cook there. As high as 21 men live in a house that was built for five people.

Letter of Mr. George Land, executive secretary, State of Alabama Council of Defense, to Mr. Lloyd M. Hooper, chairman, State Council of Defense, Montgomery, Ala., dated July 16, 1918:

The normal population of the three cities named is 15,000. Of this number one-third are negroes. The added population due to the nitrate plant is about 30,000. It will be seen at once how inadequate housing conditions must be. The tri-cities, having no notice in advance of the coming of the nitrate plants, were not in a position to make any great preparations. They have done what they could under the circumstances, and have been very diligent in making the best of the situation which confronted them. The chamber of commerce in Florence has been especially active in trying to meet the condition fully.

As many as five, six, and seven persons are now sleeping in one room. This is not true very largely, of course, but indicates the general inadequacy of sleeping accommodations. In the rooming houses every available space is occupied, and these rooming houses are not only overcrowded in most instances, but in several cases are undesirable for occupancy under any circumstances.

The sanitary unit has done good work in making epidemic unlikely, but necessarily their work can not very well take supervision of every nook and corner in the thickly crowded places. It is just here that there is very real danger. When it is considered that barns, stables, coalhouses, and garages are being used, it will be obvious how much danger there is for the health of the community.

In addition to the question of health, there is also the question of the effect such conditions have on the stability of labor. I was informed by several of the employers that labor could not be held, nor kept satisfied, as long as such conditions obtained. Under any

conditions there would be some movement of labor. Just now the movement of labor is confined very largely to two classes- the most unskilled labor and the best skilled labor. The former works long enough to get some satisfactory sum of money and then moves away to spend it. The work is too exacting for lengthy employment. The latter, with higher tastes and accustomed to better conditions, can not remain satisfied. These two classes remain anywhere from a week to three months in the employ of the plants there. As large a crowd of workmen get on each entering train as get off. The expense of labor agents is therefore a very big item, and if labor would be made satisfied and held this item of expense could be greatly reduced.

ALTON, ILL.

Report of C. Grant LaFarge, dated June 25, 1918:

Everything habitable pressed into service. There is one bad slum, called "Dog Town," just east of glass company, in bottom land and subject to flood, and some inferior tenements and residences in the older streets along the bottom. Last year a smallpox epidemic broke out in the slums and because of the congestion was spread rapidly and controlled with difficulty; there were over 1,000 cases. The slum conditions are a constant menace and a disgrace. Housing shortage declared itself five years ago and began to be acute two years ago; advent of Laclede Steel Co., Standard Oil Co., Federal Lead Co., and Alton Box & Paper Co., before the war, produced a shortage independent of war pressure. There is a large demand here for female workers already and will be far more when shoe company starts factories; large garment concern has lately wanted to come here and has asked what housing can be had for women, but none is available. It is held that proper housing for families will be most effective way to supply this labor and at the same time, as it will afford rooms for single laborers, will relieve the present intolerable congestion in this respect. There is a bad shortage in Wood River, where throughout a large tract there are two families to the single house. The Illinois Plant Line there have had to build a camp to take care of their people somehow. Alton is full of furniture in storage. Haight knows himself 150 married men without their families. Congestion cases quotedhouse suitable for 10 to 15 has 64; five-room house has 26 men in it, sleeping in three shifts; East Third Street, 3 and 4 families are living per single house; Cherry Avenue, in a 12-room house, there are 12 families; similar conditions in other sections. There were five houses to rent in Alton last spring; now have five single beds and four double beds to a room. Bell street, "Mack's Flats," three and four families where one would be crowded. living, sometimes two and three, in basements. one house. Many other such cases.

BATH, ME.

Families are Six families in

Letter of William T. Cobb, president, Bath Iron Works (Ltd.), to the United States Emergency Fleet Corporation, dated January 31, 1918:

This corporation is engaged exclusively in the construction of torpedo-boat destroyers for the United States Government. All through the summer, fall, and winter we have found it increasingly difficult to secure an adequate supply of labor on account of lack of housing facilities in this city. We feel that the situation here, so far as securing labor is concerned, is as difficult as in any other place where yards doing a similar work are located. Men come here, apply for work, and then leave because of their inability to secure suitable homes for their families or even for themselves.

Excerpt from letter of board of investigation to commandant, navy yard, Boston, dated March 25,

1918:

There are four shipbuilding companies prosecuting Government work at Bath, Me. Since last summer employees of these yards have to go as far as Brunswick to get accommodations, and both housing and transportation have been so poor that in addition to a large turnover experienced by the companies the men who do stay on the job do not care to work continuously. From data obtained from the shipbuilding plants and the city of Bath housing league, there should be at least 1,500 houses built for married men and their families and lodging accommodations for at least 1,000 single men.

Mr. Blakeley stated that even if it were not for the new shops the housing problem would be acute on account of the turnover. Citing No. 4 shop, manufacturing 3-inch guns, as an example, it was explained that the day turn had 2,000 men; the first night turn, 300; and the second night turn, 300. The shop could employ 700 on each of the night shifts. That means a need for 800 men and a 70 per cent efficiency. Mr. Blakeley said that the men liked the work at Bethlehem, that he had applications from all over the country, but that the men who had come during the year and reported for work had stayed only a short time and gone away because of the lack of living accommodations. Many of those would come back if houses were provided, but for machinists it was necessary to have good houses.

Statement of Bethlehem Steel Co. to Bureau of Industrial Housing on April 10, 1918:

company reported a turnover of 50 per cent a month, or at the rate of 600 per cent a year. Employers interviewed, without except ion, consider that housing shortage is a very important, if not the principal, cause of the high turnover.

* * *

*

*

*

Employers stated that if they could reduce their labor turnover to reasonable proportions, they could with their present equipmen increase their production anywhere from 10 to 30 per cent. We spent a part of one afternoon and all of two evenings in personal investigations of crowded districts in the city. Our investigation brought out the following points: (a) The districts in Bridgeport occupied by foreign-born people and by the unskilled and semi-skilled classes of workers generally are very seriously overcrowded; (b) very many of the buildings occupied are in such a bad state of repair as seriously to menace the health of the occupants; (c) basements below the ground level and so damp as to be inoldy and utterly unfit for human habitation are quite commonly occupied ; (d) rents are very high and have been rapidly increasing for some time.

The court and the police records show a distinct increase in crime since the crowded conditions have become prominent; that is, during the last three years.

BUTLER, PA.

Statement taken from preliminary report on housing needs, May 27 and 28, 1918.

men.

Spang & Co. (Mr. Spang and Mr. Cross) -Having greatest difficulty in finding housing for men and particularly so as to married Have a large number of men living four to a room, in two shifts. Now have over 1,000 men. Constantly losing men who come and want to work but who can find no homes for their families. The draft is taking more and more the single men. Records show heavy falling off in production on Saturdays, due to so many men being obliged to live at a distance.

* * *

Standard Steel Car Co. (Mr. Allman at chamber of commerce meeting and brief visit to his office).-Made in general same statement as to overcrowding and difficulty with married men. Company has 66 blocks of four houses each (four-room houses). For these, there is a scramble; some have 10 boarders, four men to a room, two at a time.

CHESTER, PA.

Report of Bernard J. Newman, sanitary expert, Safety and Sanitation Branch, War Department, to Capt. A. D. Reiley, September 25, 1918:

Room overcrowding and the congestion of population in small buildings has reached an extreme point. The chairman of the local registry board stated that one house, containing six bedrooms, had registered 54 men for the last draft. Another house, personally visited, had accommodations for and was said to house 42 men in eight bedrooms. Another building, converted from a moving-picture hall into a lodging house, had 100 beds in 87 rooms. Eight of these were double beds. Of the 87 rooms, 43 were dark interior cubicals, impossible of ventilation. An old garage had been converted into a dormitory and had 105 cots on the first floor, 78 cots on the second floor. One row of buildings, four houses of which were visited, totaled 26 rooms and 54 people. Still another building, which had served as a dance hall, had been converted into a tenement; a mezzanine floor had been built in, the ceiling of which was less than 7 feet from the floor. Entrance to each mezzanine room was via a stairway from the room on the first floor. Each suite housed a family and some also housed boarders. These illustrations are typical of conditions in many parts of Chester. New tenements have been erected with light wells 28 inches only in width.

In all probability the majority of tenements in Chester are old buildings, formerly serving as dwellings, but converted to such new uses. The lodging evil is also associated with the old dwellings. In many instances there are day and night shifts of lodgers. It was commonly reported that there were buildings wherein three shifts of lodgers occupied the beds daily.

There is a large labor turnover, attributed by the plant managers to the inadequate housing accommodations and a very strong feeling among such persons, as well as among the officials of the city, that the turnover will be increased unless immediate relief is obtained.

Statement by Mr. William F. Sefton, chairman of the Manufacturers Association, Elizabeth, N. J., at a conference of the Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation on April 24, 1918:

Standard Aircraft Corporation.—The turnover here is 360 per cent per month.-550 per cent unskilled and 130 per cent skilled labor, the men brought to Elizabeth have to pay such high rents. There are tenements available, but they are in such poor condition that they are practically uninhabitable. The company has built dormitories, but they are overcrowded. It is taking on 100 men a day. In the next three months 8,000 men are needed. The woodworkers must be brought from the West and South. The mechanics come from the East. The company has stopped advertising for men because it can not help them.

Report of Mr. Austin W. Lord to Mr. I. N. Phelps Stokes, manager, preliminary investigations, on June 15, 1918:

Manufacturers report that the turnover of labor is high and attribute it, in large part, to lack of housing and transportation. From the information obtained, turnover rates of from 12 to 25 per cent monthly appear to be common. The Standard Aircraft Corporation reports 360 per cent. Skilled workers and other workers continually come to the city but remain only a short time because no quarters are available for their families.

Mr. O. L. Dosch, manager, the Singer Manufacturing Co., stated no housing available in vicinity. Forty per cent of the present workers engaged in war contracts, irrespective of the new $9,000,000 Army contract for plant extension and recuperation already signed up, and to be completed by January next. Twenty-five hundred workers needed to complete present Government contract in the time demanded by Government.

ILION, N. Y.

Report of Mr. D. F. Howe, supervisor of community work, Rochester district, to Mr. F. C. Butler, Ordnance Department, on July 24, 1918:

It is my recommendation that Ilion be given immediate attention by the Housing Section as lack of quarters is affecting production now and will continue to do so in proportion to the strength of the force employed. Indifferent housing facilities are affecting Ilion to-day, first, through congestion, and second, through the lack of light housekeeping quarters, a leading inducement required by the most desirable man-the family man. * * * Many of the beds have day and night shifts; that is, one man occupies it by day and one by night, and both on Saturday and Sunday. One house showed eight bedrooms with six in family and 34 roomers. This house in addition feeds 50 mealers." Many houses show two beds to a room and all these figures will show worse as the force of men at the arms company increases. It should be stated here that hundreds of householders in Ilion take roomers through patriotic motive solely.

To sum up, practically every house has its full quota of roomers or workers; some beyond the point of safe sanitation. The congestion will be more dangerous in winter, when these men must make their bedrooms their living quarters.

KENILWORTH, N. J.

Statement taken from report of investigation made July 1, 1918, to Mr. I. N. Phelps Stokes, manager preliminary investigations:

It will be seen from the above that the plant since November, 1917, has increased to about 1,800 workers, of whom 700 are girls from the surrounding country. It will be seen that the number of skilled workers in the ordinary sense is low (5 per cent), but practically all the workers require considerable training and great care in the prosecution of their work.

This increase in population of town from 1, 500 before the war to 2,000 at the present time is due largely to the needs of the American Can Co., and practically 75 per cent of the present population are engaged in industrial work. The influx of workers has caused the shortage in housing, and with the works improved there will be very inadequate transportation, both steam and trolley. The plant is located in the country, about 6 miles from Elizabeth, and can draw, therefore, only to a limited extent from Elizabeth and surrounding towns, where the workers are engaged in other industries. The present labor turnover of 60 per cent is due to lack of transportation and lack of housing.

Statement from letter of Mr. E. V. Dexter, of the American Can Co., to Mr. I. N. Phelps Stokes, July 2,

1918:

Our present capacity for shrapnel is 30,000 per day, but this capacity is not always reached, due to variation and shortage of labor. Our high-explosive plant will have about the same capacity and the production at or near these capacities will depend almost wholly on our success in securing labor. We estimate requirements of 400 houses at Kenilworth, or facilities for a minimum of 1, 200 employees.

LOWELL, MASS.

Statement taken from report of June 3, 1918, to Mr. I. N. Phelps Stokes, manager, preliminary investigations:

Mr. James C. Reilly, president, board of trade, gave general and detailed information concerning United States Cartridge Co., and