they presented themselves to the Corporation, as the subject of its methods of investigation.
It must be clearly borne in mind—and the fact is all the more illuminating for the relevance of the methods in other circumstances—that the function of the Corporation has not been merely to build homes for industrial workers. Broadly stated, it has been, proof of the need being duly established, to find or to provide housing for the workers essential to munitions production, in whatever manner, building being resorted to when other means were exhausted. Its aim therefore was a war aim; its specific object to reduce a specific labor turnover; it was not a “welfare” organization. But inasmuch as the root of the trouble, no matter what the purpose or range of the remedy, was always the same—congestion; insufficient dwelling-places; living conditions ranging from unsatisfactory to intolerable, it had to take into account every single fact ascertainable, most decidedly including those relating to the communal facilities such as markets, schools, churches, amusements and recreation. This is, or ought to be, self-evident.
So the chief objects of an investigation, in the case of any applicant community, were to discover the number, kind and condition of all local industries, engaged wholly, in part, or not at all in war production; the number, classification and earnings of their employees, in war and in normal times, past, present, required, or expected; the rate of labor turnover in each plant, with evidence as to its cause; the residence of employees, local, or at a distance, with schedules, rates of fare and quality of transportation service; whether or not there was housing unavailed of in those other localities, and if so, how much, and of what sort; the quantity and classified quality of local housing, and the extent to which it was occupied; the organized efforts, if any, made to find living quarters for workers and their families; the sanitary conditions and the state of public utilities; average rents and purchase prices; land values; available building sites; facts as to schools, churches, stores, amusements, parks, playgrounds, recreation welfare organizations; amount of house building done or projected; condition of the banks and loaning companies, particularly as to building loans; and any other information that would aid in determining the nature of the community, its present condition, its normal state and, very specially, its quality of industrial prosperity as a stable thing.
Speaking upon personal responsibility, as one who made a considerable number of such investigations, and who is familiar with many made by others, it is not outside the facts to say that conditions disclosed over and over again were such as
in any fair view of human surroundings should he called scandalous and a disgrace to a people claiming the standards of civilization and some measure of idealism. The astonishing, and the degrading, thing is not that they were revealed by inquiry, but that such inquiry should have had to be made in order to disclose them. For they were not due to the war, but had been there for years under our eyes, plain to be seen had we cared to see them. The war pressure accentuated and intensified them, it is true; it was the fierce search-light that so displayed them that we could no longer be blind; it made the poisonous weeds grow so fast in the field from which we had to reap a speedy harvest that we had no choice but to do some clearing—but the weeds were there through our neglect.
The policy being as already stated, to resort to building when other means were exhausted, the obvious first of these means is to make use of all discoverable vacancies of proper character, local or within reasonable reach, by placing workers in those vacancies. This was the function of the Homes Registration Service.
The. object toward which it worked was the occupation of all fit living accommodations within reasonable radius of the plants by war-workers up to the point where all were suitably accommodated at prices commensurate with the wage earned. Various considerations enter in to render this a complex problem. One community might show a surplus of lodgings for single men and afford scanty opportunities for workers with families. A locality might supply a thousand rooms suited to the needs of the workers earning three dollars a day, and only a score of the kind sought by the six dollar or more a day artisan, or vice versa. Lodging houses might abound where the demand was heavy for complete boarding or housekeeping conditions; and hoarding places be the rule in the vicinity of a plant whose labor, for reasons of overtime, or high pressure work, required the other system.
Vacancy canvasses were made, covering all unoccupied houses, flats, and in the most pressing conditions, even rooms which householders might be induced to rent. Houses and rooms were graded, not only as to convenience and price, but also as to cleanliness and sanitation, and those not up to standard in the latter respects put upon a deferred list. Lists of all available accommodations were maintained in each community at the Homes Registration Office, and checked and kept up to date by daily reports and frequent inspection. Field Agents were appointed who visited and established Homes Registration Bureaus in about seventy cities in the United States, where need for housing existed.
It must be clearly borne in mind—and the fact is all the more illuminating for the relevance of the methods in other circumstances—that the function of the Corporation has not been merely to build homes for industrial workers. Broadly stated, it has been, proof of the need being duly established, to find or to provide housing for the workers essential to munitions production, in whatever manner, building being resorted to when other means were exhausted. Its aim therefore was a war aim; its specific object to reduce a specific labor turnover; it was not a “welfare” organization. But inasmuch as the root of the trouble, no matter what the purpose or range of the remedy, was always the same—congestion; insufficient dwelling-places; living conditions ranging from unsatisfactory to intolerable, it had to take into account every single fact ascertainable, most decidedly including those relating to the communal facilities such as markets, schools, churches, amusements and recreation. This is, or ought to be, self-evident.
So the chief objects of an investigation, in the case of any applicant community, were to discover the number, kind and condition of all local industries, engaged wholly, in part, or not at all in war production; the number, classification and earnings of their employees, in war and in normal times, past, present, required, or expected; the rate of labor turnover in each plant, with evidence as to its cause; the residence of employees, local, or at a distance, with schedules, rates of fare and quality of transportation service; whether or not there was housing unavailed of in those other localities, and if so, how much, and of what sort; the quantity and classified quality of local housing, and the extent to which it was occupied; the organized efforts, if any, made to find living quarters for workers and their families; the sanitary conditions and the state of public utilities; average rents and purchase prices; land values; available building sites; facts as to schools, churches, stores, amusements, parks, playgrounds, recreation welfare organizations; amount of house building done or projected; condition of the banks and loaning companies, particularly as to building loans; and any other information that would aid in determining the nature of the community, its present condition, its normal state and, very specially, its quality of industrial prosperity as a stable thing.
Speaking upon personal responsibility, as one who made a considerable number of such investigations, and who is familiar with many made by others, it is not outside the facts to say that conditions disclosed over and over again were such as
in any fair view of human surroundings should he called scandalous and a disgrace to a people claiming the standards of civilization and some measure of idealism. The astonishing, and the degrading, thing is not that they were revealed by inquiry, but that such inquiry should have had to be made in order to disclose them. For they were not due to the war, but had been there for years under our eyes, plain to be seen had we cared to see them. The war pressure accentuated and intensified them, it is true; it was the fierce search-light that so displayed them that we could no longer be blind; it made the poisonous weeds grow so fast in the field from which we had to reap a speedy harvest that we had no choice but to do some clearing—but the weeds were there through our neglect.
The policy being as already stated, to resort to building when other means were exhausted, the obvious first of these means is to make use of all discoverable vacancies of proper character, local or within reasonable reach, by placing workers in those vacancies. This was the function of the Homes Registration Service.
The. object toward which it worked was the occupation of all fit living accommodations within reasonable radius of the plants by war-workers up to the point where all were suitably accommodated at prices commensurate with the wage earned. Various considerations enter in to render this a complex problem. One community might show a surplus of lodgings for single men and afford scanty opportunities for workers with families. A locality might supply a thousand rooms suited to the needs of the workers earning three dollars a day, and only a score of the kind sought by the six dollar or more a day artisan, or vice versa. Lodging houses might abound where the demand was heavy for complete boarding or housekeeping conditions; and hoarding places be the rule in the vicinity of a plant whose labor, for reasons of overtime, or high pressure work, required the other system.
Vacancy canvasses were made, covering all unoccupied houses, flats, and in the most pressing conditions, even rooms which householders might be induced to rent. Houses and rooms were graded, not only as to convenience and price, but also as to cleanliness and sanitation, and those not up to standard in the latter respects put upon a deferred list. Lists of all available accommodations were maintained in each community at the Homes Registration Office, and checked and kept up to date by daily reports and frequent inspection. Field Agents were appointed who visited and established Homes Registration Bureaus in about seventy cities in the United States, where need for housing existed.