PREORGANIZATION ACTIVITIES.

During the months immediately preceding the passage by Congress on May 16, 1918, of an act providing for "Housing for war needs" substantial progress had been made toward determining the housing conditions and needs of the country in connection with emergency war work. These studies were made by Mr. Eidlitz, of the Council of National Defense, assisted by a little group of volunteers who had enlisted under his leadership.

The information thus obtained was naturally preliminary and purely tentative in character. Virtually the only material available when the investigations were started was that obtained during the preceding summer by Mr. Philip Hiss and Miss Harlean James, who of their own initiative, had visited a number of the most important industrial centers east of Chicago, and in December, 1917, had prepared a report, with recommendations. This information was supplemented by a list, compiled by the National Housing Association, of the cities and towns in which housing problems were known or supposed to exist, as a result of rapidly increasing war activities.

During these early months cordial relations were established with the War and Navy Departments, and informal meetings were held several times a week, at which Mr. Eidlitz and his unofficial staff discussed, with Mr. George H. Dorr, representing the Army, and Rear Admiral H. H. Rousseau, representing the Navy, the various phases of the industrial housing situation.

During this period such few field investigations as were undertaken were for the most part made by special agents appointed by Mr. Eidlitz and reporting directly to him.

THE PROBLEM.

The essence of the problem confronting this informal committee in these early days was the same as that which confronted the Housing Bureau later, and, stated in its simplest terms, was to determine which of the congested industrial communities were of the most vital importance to the Government in carrying out the war program. After May 16, when the first appropriation became available, the major problem was to determine how to distribute the limited and altogether inadequate funds among these plants and communities in such a way as to produce the most far-reaching results in speed, quantity, and quality of output.

When the organization of the bureau was completed it became the purpose and function of the Preliminary Investigations Division to obtain, discuss, and present for the consideration and action of the director and staff the essential facts arising in connection with each particular application for help and advice.

It was no easy matter to secure definite and reliable information regarding the location, character, amount, importance, and urgency of the various Government contracts for war material. The required information was so widely scattered, nearly every bureau or division of the Army and Navy being interested, that no one person or group of persons in either department, or elsewhere, was in a position to give authoritative advice regarding the relative importance of the work being done under the control of the various war agencies. For some time, therefore, the bureau was seriously handicapped, and had to base its conclusions and recommendations primarily upon conditions which it found and information which it obtained in the plants and communities investigated, supplemented by such further facts and advice in

connection with the particular plant or community under consideration as could be obtained from the officials in Washington of the Department of Labor, the Army, the Navy, the Council of National Defense, or the War Industries Board.

This method of procedure was cumbersome and unsatisfactory, and often led to irreconcilable facts or differences of opinion which hindred and delayed the work of preliminary investigations, and thereby the action of the bureau.

ORGANIZATION AND RELATION TO OTHER DEPARTMENTS.

In time, however, arrangements were perfected whereby the officials of the War and Navy Departments were permanently represented in the Housing Bureau by deputies who, by means of daily consultations with the various bureaus and divisions of the Army and Navy immediately interested, undertook the responsibility of determining priority ratings in connection with the plants and communities appealing for help to the bureau, or directly to the Army or Navy. These applications were rated and reported to the bureau as of "A", "B," "C,” or “D” importance, and so far as possible were investigated and reported upon by the Preliminary Investigations Division in the order of their importance as thus determined.

Much of the information obtained was of so confidential a character, and the recommendations of the bureau were so far-reaching and involved such large amounts, that it early became apparent that the investigations should be confined to as few persons as possible, and that these should be selected with the utmost care, and should include only persons of large experience, trained judgment, and proved reliability.

At no time did the Preliminary Investigations Division, as such, number more than six persons, including the manager and his secretary. Later on, however, when the secondary or final investigation teams were organized, the number of field investigators was considerably increased, and toward the end, when the work of preliminary investigations was virtually completed, and the division undertook, at the request of the Government, to investigate and report upon the possible conversion of plants from nonessential to essential war industries, its personnel increased under Mr. Guerin to over 160.

Another potent reason for confining the work of preliminary investigating to a few individuals was the fact that in this way only was it possible to secure results uniformly considered and presented, and thus to reach a reliable comparison of the conditions and claims of the various plants and communities investigated.

In view of the many-sided character of the problems to be considered, and of the fact that very little systematic thought had heretofore been given to such problems, and that such study as had been undertaken had, for the most part, been done by architects, or under their general direction, it seemed a fair assumption that, all things considered, the trained and experienced architect was better qualified than anyone else to examine the complicated facts and to reach reliable conclusions which would be useful to the bureau. Acting upon this assumption most of the investigators and special agents selected for employment by the division were architects.

SCOPE AND FUNCTIONS.

The scope and functions of the Preliminary Investigations Division as originally defined and as approved by the director were as follows:

The Investigating Division shall consist of a chief investigator (later called the manager of preliminary investigations) and such assistants (field investigators, etc.) as may be necessary.

It shall be the duty of this division, upon the request of the director, to make preliminary investigations of the housing and transportation conditions and needs of such cities, towns, and plants as may apply to the bureau for help or advice, and of such Government plants (arsenals, navy yards, etc.) as may be referred to it for investigation by the director or by the Department of Labor, the Army, or the Navy.

This investigation shall be made by the chief investigator or by such other member of the Investigating Division or special agent as may be designated by him or by the director. It shall take the form of a brief preliminary survey and written report, with recommendations, and it is intended to give the director, the staff, and the department immediately interested a comprehensive view of the situation.

In preparing this survey and report the investigator shall make a careful personal examination of the city, town, or plant under consideration, and for this purpose shall interview all such persons as in his judgment are in a position to give valuable and reliable information regarding the existing conditions and the war-housing needs of such city, town, or plant, and shall consult also such members of the Housing Bureau staff as the chief investigator may think desirable.

This report shall be made to the chief of the Investigating Division, who shall submit it with any alterations, comments, or recommendations that he may think desirable to the director, who at the proper time will discuss its contents with the members of the staff. The director will then determine whether modifications or further investigations are necessary, or desirable, and if so, the character and scope of such modifications or investigations and by whom the latter shall be made.

When the amended preliminary report has been approved by the director, and by any department or departments of the Government immediately interested, its recommendations will be submitted by the director to the Secretary of Labor for his approval or disapproval. If the proposed plan of relief is approved, it will then be turned over to the production manager (later called the manager of construction), who will arrange for a detailed study of the problem and for the carrying out of the general recommendations by the various bureau divisions or staff members interested, in conjunction with the architect selected to design and supervise the work.

The Investigating Division shall keep a complete list of all applications received for investigation, help, or advice; and whenever possible shall determine by reference to the proper Government officials, as well as by correspondence with the local authorities and the manufacturers engaged in the production of war products, the relative importance and urgency of each application, so that the investigations may be undertaken in their order of importance to the Government.

This program was closely adhered to, although as the work of the bureau developed, minor changes were introduced, and the division was called upon to assume new responsibilities. The main function of the division was, of course, to determine whether in a given locality a housing problem existed, and if so, in what way the situation could best be relieved, and what the proposed relief would cost. The tentative allotments were based upon its recommendations, although its suggestions regarding location, character, and amount of housing, etc., needed were reviewed and sometimes modified by the more specific findings. of the secondary or final team reports.

Later the division became responsible for the preparation and presentation of the data on which were based the budgets submitted to the Committees on Appropriations of Congress. These budgets showed in detail the location of the various projects, their products, the Army and Navy rating, the total number of employees before the war, the present number of employees engaged on war work, the additional number required (men and women), the monthly turnover, the total number of employees estimated as necessary after the war, the number of employees to be accommodated otherwise than by housing (by saturation, transportation, etc.), the indicated need for new housing, the type required and estimated cost, the immediate construction recommended and its estimated cost, the indicated deficiency to be made up as far as possible from further appropriations, etc.

Soon after the organization of the bureau all problems arising from inadequate transportation facilities were placed under the care of a special Transportation Division, and the consideration and acquisition of sites were referred to the Real Estate Division, which always worked in close cooperation with the Preliminary Investigations Division, as did also the Statistical Division and the Homes Registration and Information Division. The chiefs of these last three divisions and the executive secretary held frequent meetings to discuss and pass upon questions of policy and other problems arising in connection with preliminary investigations before the final reports were submitted, with recommendations, to the director and staff.

Later, when the list of places to be investigated was nearly exhausted, the Preliminary Investigations Division, at the request of the Government, undertook

the preparation of a list of places in which housing conditions were not intolerable and where there existed adequate power, suitable transportation, and a surplus of labor in combination with manufacturing or plant facilities capable of being converted to war use. Still later, under the new title of the Division of Surveys and Statistics, and the management of Mr. Guerin, the division, with the cooperation of the War Industries Board, greatly enlarged its scope and personnel to include investigations and reports on the possible conversion of plants throughout the country from nonessential, or less essential, to essential work, as judged from the point of view of the war.

BASIC PRINCIPLES.

Soon after the definite organization of the bureau it became evident that some definite principles should be laid down, fixing, within certain defined limits, the character and amount of work which it should authorize or undertake in a given locality.

It was finally determined that, as a general rule, the amount of new industrial housing authorized by the bureau in any existing locality should not exceed the difference between the amount actually existing and that which would have existed had the normal growth not been interfered with by the war, assuming, further, a total duration of war conditions for a period of five years. This rule was not applied in the case. of certain important industrial centers which were selected as preeminently suited for intensive war production, such, for instance, as Newport News and Bethlehem, nor in connection with new communities, such as shell and bag-loading plants, when these were brought into being solely as war necessities, predestined to abandonment or destruction at the close of the war.

It was also determined that the policy of the bureau should be to resort to building only when other means of relieving congestion and reducing the excessive labor turnover had been exhausted, such, for instance, as the discovery and proper listing of existing vacancies, the acquisition of existing hotels, institutions, or other buildings suitable for housing purposes, or the conversion of buildings for this purpose, the extension of the field of available housing in the vicinity of a given industrial center by the introduction of better means of transportation, etc., thus opening up new housing in outlying sections or near-by communities, the encouragement of local builders and capitalists to undertake necessary housing operations by securing for them preferential rates on materials and deliveries.

As the work of the bureau developed the importance was realized of bringing about a wider and more logical distribution of war contracts by withholding