Organization.—(a) That there be created, subject to the following plan, a board of control, to supervise the work of the factgathering agencies.

(b) That this board be composed of four members, as follows: Mr. Gay, chairman; Messrs. Legg, Eidlitz, and Frankfurter, representing respectively the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation, the War Trade Board, the War Industries Board, the United States Housing Corporation, and the Labor Department.

(c) That the board appoint a subcommittee to work out all details relating to the conduct of the work of the fact-gathering agencies, reporting in detail to the board for its final action.

(d) That the subcommittee be composed of five members, as follows: Messrs. Peck, Potter, Otis, Meeker, and Guerin, representing, respectively, the War Industries Board, the Central Bureau of Planning and Statistics, the Labor Department, and the United States Housing Corporation.

(e) That Mr. Lamson should be the liaison officer to coordinate the different bureaus and branches of the Labor Department in the work intended, and to that end should report direct to the Central Bureau of Planning and Statistics.

Conduct of Surveys― War Industries Board.—(a) The Housing Corporation and Labor Department shall furnish the War Industries Board from time to time lists of information relating to the subjects within their respective jurisdiction which they desire in relation to manufacturing establishments throughout the country or in particular localities. The War Industries Board shall cause its questionnaires to be amended from time to time to embody in the form requested the information desired by the corporation and department, or it shall prepare special questionnaires for that purpose. The War Industries Board, through regional organizations, shall distribute and collect the questionnaires, returning same to the Housing Corporation and the Labor Department within the time required by said agencies.

(b) The War Industries Board shall construct its questionnaires in such form that they may be filled in on the typewriter, and carbon copies of each questionnaire received by it shall be executed by the manufacturing establishment and returned to the corporation and Labor Department as received by it.

(c) The War Industries Board shall collect said questionnaire from each manufacturing establishment in the country, whether the same is engaged on Government business or not.

(d) It should be the policy of all fact-gathering agencies to make their surveys simultaneously whenever such procedure be possible. No survey should be made by any of said agencies without previously notifying the other agencies that such survey is contemplated, and such notice should further state the time when the same will be made.

Appeals. (a) Should the War Industries Board, the Labor Department, or the Housing Corporation fail to furnish any department the information within the time and in the form requested by it or them as aforesaid that was or should have been obtained by the surveys of the department in default, the department desiring such information may appeal to the Board of Control.

(b) The Board of Control shall hear said appeal and determine which of said agencies, if any, shall make said survey, the time when the same shall be made, as well as the method to be employed. Labor Department.-(a) The Housing Corporation and the War

Industries Board shall furnish the Labor Department from time to time lists of the information relating to the subjects within their respective jurisdiction which they desire in relation to each community or from the country at large. The Labor Department shall cause its questionnaires to be amended from time to time to embody the information in the form desired by the corporation and department, or it shall prepare special questionnaires for that purpose. (b) The Labor Department shall construct its questionnaires in such form that they may be filled in on the typewriter, and carbon copies thereof, executed by the employer, shall be returned by said Labor Department, as received by it, to the Corporation and Board.

United States Housing Corporation.-(a) The Housing Corporation will conduct only such surveys of communities as may be necessary for the prosecution of its business. It will not appeal to any manufacturing establishments as such or employers of labor as such for information in relation to the several subjects or matters comprised in or that might be comprised in the general subjects covered by said questionnaires, distributed or to be distributed by said board and department, but will confine its investigations to housing conditions, transportation conditions, utility conditions, and kindred subjects.

(b) The Housing Corporation will furnish the War Industries Board and the Labor Department with such information relating to the several subjects covered by its investigations as they may from time to time request.

(c) The War Industries Board and the Labor Department should furnish the Housing Corporation from time to time lists of information relating to the subjects within their respective jurisdiction which they desire the Housing Corporation to furnish them and which relate to or can be obtained by the Housing Corporation in its surveys of the country at large or of any particular localities.

(d) The Housing Corporation shall cause its questionnaires to be amended from time to time to embody in the form requested the information desired by the board and the department, or it shall prepare special questionnaires for the purpose and shall deliver carbon copies thereof to said other agencies as received by it.

Compilation and dissemination of information obtained by surveys.— (a) Whenever one of said investigating agencies has concluded a survey, it shall promptly, by its Statistical Department and in such form as it desires, collate and compile the information for its benefit obtained by such survey. Immediately upon such compilation being completed, report thereof, in such form as may be prescribed by the Central Bureau of Planning and Statistics, shall be prepared in triplicate and delivered to the Central Bureau of Planning and Statistics, one copy to be retained by said bureau for its files and one copy to be transmitted by said bureau to each said other fact-gathering agency.

(b) All questionnaires used by said fact-gathering agencies shall be prepared by the Central Bureau of Planning and Statistics and no questionnaires not so prepared shall be used by any of said agencies. (c) All requests and requirements for special information to be furnished by one fact-gathering agency to another or to any department shall be made and cleared through the Central Bureau of Planning and Statistics.

NOTE. The methods of investigation utilized by the Division of Surveys and Statistics and the results obtained are submitted in the report of that division in Appendix IV of this volume.

THE PROBLEM.

The Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation in the early months of 1918 was faced with the problem of finding homes of a suitable character. for men and women working on Government contracts. It had to find or build such homes in order to induce both skilled and unskilled labor to stay and work on these emergency contracts and in order to keep labor contented and in the highest degree efficient. The problem was an emergency problem because war contracts could not be fulfilled on time unless an adequate supply of contented and efficient labor could be secured and kept at work. Failure to meet this problem would hold up the entire war program, owing to the dependence of each element of that program upon all other elements.

ASCERTAINING LOCAL NEEDS.

The first essential step in the program of the Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation was to investigate the housing problem in every city in which it was claimed that war contracts were being delayed because of housing shortage. The division of the bureau established for the purpose of investigation sent field agents to such communities, armed with such information as had been supplied by the War or the Navy Departments and by the communities themselves. The field agents were specifically charged with analyzing these alleged needs and instructed to get all possible data from public officials, manufacturers, chambers of commerce, civic organizations, Federal representatives, and others, particularly with reference to the following points:

1. Was the output of the war industries restricted by lack of labor or by excessive turnover?

2. If so, were these conditions due to shortage of houses or to inadequate transportation facilities?

The detailed methods utilized to secure answers to these questions are outlined in Appendix IV.

In brief, the investigator studied the contract dates for delivery, the probable dates of completion of existing contracts with the present force and with the desired increase in force, the number of employees before the war, the existing number, the number which the firm expected to employ during the coming year, the maximum number which could be employed if the plant were operated at full capacity, the labor turnover, and the shortage of labor among skilled and unskilled, among married and unmarried, among married men living away from their families, among male and female employees, white and colored, native and foreign born. Analysis of the causes of labor turnover was required, consideration being given to other elements beside shortage of houses. Brief studies followed concerning the prevalent living conditions, transportation, opportunities for recreation, available sites, and community facilities.

The investigator upon his return presented a full report, which was supplemented by the returns from questionnaires sent on to local factories and to local civic agencies by the Statistical Division. This report was presented before the staff of the Bureau of Industrial Housing at a conference at which there were representatives of the War and Navy Departments. In view of the findings of the investigator and on the basis of information submitted by the War and Navy Departments with reference to the relative urgency of their local contracts it was decided what assistance, if any, could be given to the community; whether the problem was so unimportant as to require no Federal assistance, whether the problem might be solved by saturation, by transportation, by encouragement of private building, or whether the Federal Government should take the preliminary steps toward securing the land and building homes.

In many of the more congested centers in which urgent war contracts had been placed it proved necessary to meet the local problem in each of the various ways described below.

PROMOTING MAXIMUM UTILIZATION OF EXISTING

HOUSES.

After demonstrating that war contracts were being delayed because of inadequate housing, the next essential step was to see that every existing structure within that community or its accessible suburbs should house as many persons as it could be made to house healthfully and with decency.

This process of saturation was left in charge of the Homes Registration and Information Division of the bureau. This division, through the cooperation of the local postmen or police, generally made a brief, quick survey of all vacant houses, flats, or buildings under the following classifications: street address, condition and type of building, nationality and race of district, sales price or rental.

VALUE OF THE VACANCY CANVASS.

This first vacancy canvass was used as a basis for determining the next step in the Federal program. For if it showed that there were no available

houses suitable for skilled married workers in the city proper, but that there was abundant suitable housing in the suburbs, the next step was to study the means of rendering that suburban housing available for skilled workers through improved transportation. If this survey showed an abundance of housing for unskilled labor and no housing suitable for skilled, either in the city or its suburbs, then a program of construction of houses of a type suitable for skilled workers was indicated. If the survey showed that practically all vacant houses were held for sale, then it was clear that measures should be taken to induce the owners, for patriotic reasons, to rent their homes to war workers, and in case they failed to respond to this appeal it would be necessary to consider the wisdom of commandeering the properties. This canvass might also reveal well-located vacant houses or buildings unsuitable for the use of families but of a type which could be converted for use as dormitories for single labor. In that case the need and advisability of converting these buildings for such use would have to be more closely considered.

The transportation, commandeering, and construction program of the bureau, therefore, hinged largely upon the findings of this preliminary vacancy canvass.

THE HOMES REGISTRATION SERVICE COMMITTEE.

The preliminary vacancy canvass above described. was supplemented in more than 100 cities by a more detailed and more accurate survey arranged for in cooperation with the national, State, and local councils of defense. A local committee known as the homes registration service committee was formed

with the help of the council of defense, but with representatives of the chamber of commerce, of the manufacturers engaged in war industries, of bankers, real estate boards, local civic organizations or housing committees, and, in the larger cities, with representatives of the Y. M. C. A., the Y. W. C. A., the War Camp Community Service, and similar organizations which might have an interest in war workers or knowledge of local housing conditions or which might have maintained room registries for the use of their own clientele.

By this local representative committee some local agency or group of agencies was found to make a thorough house to house canvass of the entire city. This canvass was generally made by the women's committee of the Council of National Defense, but sometimes by school teachers, by real estate men, by the police, by soldiers, by the Red Cross, or by volunteers secured through advertising or enrolling for service at the mass meetings held to initiate such a

canvass.

LISTING AND CLASSIFYING THE VACANCIES.

Investigation cards were supplied by the Housing Bureau, and the local citizens who volunteered their services to make this canvass were carefully instructed by field agents of the Homes Registration and Information Division. The canvass covered from one day to two weeks, according to circumstances. When completed and tabulated it provided the Housing Bureau with a practically correct statement of every available house and flat and, if necessary, every room in the city, which the householders could be induced to rent. As all the cards indicated the type, size, equipment, quality, and price of each of the available accommodations, it was possible to calculate from this canvass exactly how much the Housing Bureau could count upon local resources for meeting its problem.

This problem was not merely to secure housing, but to secure housing of a sort suitable for a particular class or classes of labor, within reasonable access of the plant in which they were employed and at a price which they could afford to pay out of the wages they received, and with further limitations, also, as to the district in which they could live, or the type of house which they would accept, due to racial or other peculiarities.

NEED OF A PLACEMENT AGENCY.

Owing to the failure in American communities to provide for central listing agencies, the incoming homeseeker, prior to the war, was forced to have recourse to the scattered and imperfect lists maintained by the few real estate agents whose offices

he visited. Though there might be vacant houses in the community which would amply meet his needs and those of his family, the chances were slight that such houses would come to his attention, even though he devoted many days to the search, and he often. had to put up with a house which was unsatisfactory. The war emergency, however, made it desirable not only to determine the number of vacancies in the community, but also to make sure that each incoming skilled worker should be helped to find the vacant house which would most nearly suit his needs and to find it with the minimum expenditure of time and effort.

ADMINISTRATION OF HOMES REGISTRATION SERVICE.

After the local committee had completed its vacancy canvass it was further assisted in forming a local placement office in which all vacancies of the city and its accessible suburbs should be listed. The chairman of the local committee was officially appointed local representative of the Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation of the United States Department of Labor, and was charged with "listing, conserving, and where necessary improving existing homes." To increase industrial efficiency and contentment and to reduce the labor turnover on war contracts he was to induce owners of vacant property to make their property sanitary and homelike and to list it with the Homes Registration Service.

An office was established in some central location accessible to the incoming war worker and his family. Desk room was generally granted free by the United States Employment Service, the city hall, the council of defense, the chamber of commerce, or some other civic agency. The local committee raised money within the community to pay for its clerical staff, standard supplies being provided from the Washington office, including the form cards used for investigation and placements, posters, and instructions. Local managers were trained by the field agents of the Homes Registration Service, and, by means of an ingenious filing system, were generally able in a few minutes' time to tell the applicant of every room or house in the city which answered his specifications as to size, quality, location, and price. The advice to applicants was free.

In the larger cities, where there were already one or more existing registries maintained by the Y. W. C. A., the Y. M. C. A., the War Camp Community Service, the traveler's aid, the board of trade, the real estate exchange, or other organizations, these were induced for patriotic reasons to merge in or clear through the central office. Thus all vacancies and all placements were recorded in one place as soon as made, so that

applicants would not be sent to rooms already rented by another agency. In this way much time was saved the incoming workman and his family, and the service was rendered vastly more efficient than it could otherwise have been. To keep the lists up to date rooms were solicited from time to time through the daily press, through appeals in the churches, moving-picture theaters, and elsewhere, and especially through posters.

In some cities a second or even a third vacancy canvass was made after the lapse of a few months to make sure that absolutely every vacancy in the city had come to the attention of the registry and that no quarters already rented were listed as

vacant.

STATISTICS OF HOMES REGISTRATION SERVICE.

Altogether vacancy canvasses were made in approximately 150 communities. Registries were established and placements made in 88 communities and the total number of recorded applicants for rooms. flats, and houses was 127,295. This represents, however, only the applicants who were provided with addresses, for a considerable fraction of the registries were unable to give any addresses of houses to applicants, due to the fact that the community contained no vacant houses of suitable type, but only dilapidated dwellings, expensive mansions, or rooms for single occupants. The total number of reported placements up to June 28, 1919, was 71,481. The actual number of placements traceable to the Homes Registration Service would, however, run well over one hundred thousand, due to the fact that its posters and advertising stimulated the citizens to take roomers of their own selection direct and not through the medium of the registry. Moveover, in three cities, Chicago, Asbury Park, and Long Branch, in which printed lists of all available vacancies were issued by the Homes Registration Committees, thousands of placements were made from these printed lists instead of through the registries.

SAVINGS EFFECTED BY HOMES REGISTRATION SERVICE.

By the above means it was discovered that many cities which requested the construction of dormitories could have housing provided for their single labor in private families through the Homes Registration Service after a careful canvass and a general solicitation for rooms had been conducted. It was possible, also, to reduce the number of houses to be constructed in several communities, because houses were found by the Homes Registration Service and made available through improved transportation service.

Millions of dollars in construction costs were unquestionably saved to the Government by means of the Homes Registration Service. As registries main

tained by the Federal Government would have cost the Government approximately $5,000 per annum each, on an average, hundreds of thousands of dollars additional were saved by persuading the communities, for patriotic reasons, to provide locally for the financing and operation of their registries.

IMPROVEMENT OF OLD PROPERTIES.

The local homes registration service increased the available supply of suitable housing also by inducing the local citizens to make boarding houses of large idle properties which were unsuitable for the use of industrial families but quite suitable for the use of unmarried male or female workers. In some of the cities many of the properties which were idle because of dilapidation or obsolescence were brought into use by inducing the owner to put them in good repair and modern condition and by assisting him in securing loans for this purpose. (See Appendix V, p. 97.)

All of the registries were instructed to place on the deferred list any houses which were unsuitable for housing labor because of poor sanitation, bad repair, defective equipment, poor maintenance, etc., and they were instructed to get in touch with the owners of such properties and induce them to put their properties in condition so that they would be suitable for homes for workmen, while at the same time they might be income-bearing for the property owner. It is probable that thousands of houses were put into condition as a result of this propaganda, thus materially increasing the efficiency and contentedness of the labor in the cities where this was done.

CONTROL OF RENT PROFITEERING.

One serious cause of discontent in the congested industrial cities was the practice of rent profiteering. In order to get and hold labor on war contracts it became necessary for the Housing Bureau to devise some means of preventing this practice. In the more congested communities, where there were few if any vacancies in the houses of a certain class, many landlords took advantage of the situation to charge exorbitant rentals, and rentals generally increased considerably. The Department of Labor, through the War Labor Policies Board, sent a special agent to New London, where such complaints were peculiarly serious, and established a committee of 24 persons, representing the employees, the manufacturers engaged in war industries, and the general public. This committee was charged with examining into alleged cases of rent profiteering, if necessary calling both the landlord and the tenant before it, the first aim being to find out if the landlord was charging an excessive rental for his property. If the rental was found to be excessive the committee would show the owner that

his high rental interfered with the fulfillment of war contracts by discouraging labor or making it difficult. for workingmen to find proper housing at prices which they could pay. He was then urged, on patriotic grounds, to reduce his rates to a figure which the committee considered would represent a reasonable rental on such property.

The New London plan was adopted by the Homes Registration Division to meet similar conditions throughout the country. In communities from which only a single complaint was received that complaint was generally referred by letter to the chairman of the local council of defense, with the request that he establish a committee of three or more persons which would represent the propertied class and the tenant class equally, but with a chairman mutually acceptable. Field agents of the Homes Registration Division were generally sent to the communities from which more than one complaint was received and a committee was established through the local council of defense, either independently or as a subcommittee of the local registration service, if there was one. Such committees consisted of equal representation of the propertied interests (in general real estate agents and builders) and of the tenants (generally represented by organized labor) with a chairman mutually acceptable. Frequently such committees consisted of only 'three persons and were seldom as large as the New London committee, except in cities where there was a committee for each ward or district. In this latter case the district committees occasionally met as a committee of the whole to compare notes, establish policies, and in a few cases to sit as a sort of court of appeals.

Though the practice of rent profiteering was national in its consequences, the Housing Bureau acted upon the theory that it could be handled best by the communities in which it occurred rather than by the Federal Government. The Federal Government, therefore, limited itself, with very few exceptions, to promoting the establishment of a committee on rent profiteering of a representative type and relied upon the good judgment of the local citizens, who were thoroughly familiar with the intricacies of the situation in their own community and who represented a balance of opposing local interests, to determine what might constitute rent profiteering and what might constitute a reasonable increase in rent. The committees so established unquestionably did an immense amount of good. They took their task very seriously, made an earnest attempt to settle the grievances out of court, and in the process did much to correct the prevalent misunderstandings. In many cases brought to their attention the landlord was obviously justified in his rental increase. It was very important that thẹ