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 The Housing Problem 
 In War 
 
 1918 
 
 THE jOtfRNAL OF THE 
 AMERICAlSr INSTITUTE QF ARCHITECTS 
 
 The Octagon, /WashingtorijD.C, 
 
 pifeM 
 
The Housing Problem 
 In War and in Peace 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES HARRIS WHITAKER 
 
 Editor of the Journal of the American' Institute of Architects 
 
 FREDERICK L. ACKERMAN 
 
 Architect, of New York City 
 
 RICHARD S. CHILDS 
 
 Secretary of the Committee on Industrial Towns, New York City 
 
 EDITH ELMER WOOD 
 
 Expert in Housing Legislation, Philadelphia 
 
 191 8 
 
 The Journal of the American Institute of Architects 
 THE OCTAGON 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 

 Foreword 
 
 Why has the provision of shelter for workmen 
 come to be called "housing"? 
 
 Why has housing become a problem? 
 
 Why cannot workmen build their own houses? 
 
 Why will nobody build houses at the present 
 time? 
 
 It is intended that these questions shall be 
 fully answered in the following pages. 
 
 When we acknowledged that we were un- 
 prepared for war, did we realize that the back- 
 bone of modern war-making is decent housing? 
 That the weakest spot in our armor was the lack 
 of decent houses for millions of the workmen 
 upon whom the burden rests? 
 
 Now that we have found this out through the 
 costly and dangerous delays in building ships — 
 and in every other industrial activity — do we 
 not see that we have never been prepared for 
 Peace? 
 
 Of all the nations of the world, the United 
 States stands alone in its tenacious adherence to 
 the policy that decent houses can be provided 
 by rigid "tenement-house laws." Such an 
 archaic policy is about as well calculated to 
 produce good houses as a regiment of archers 
 
 would be useful in France at the present 
 time. 
 
 For months, we have blundered and muddled 
 over the housing question raised by war. The 
 full story of what this has cost will be written 
 at some future time. Now, Congress has appro- 
 priated ^50,000,000 with which to make a start 
 toward housing the workers in our shipyards. 
 Other millions — many and many millions — will 
 have to be spent for this purpose, and this 
 book is intended to provide the information by 
 means of which the people of the United States 
 may form their own conclusions as to whether or 
 no our attitude on this vital question shall be 
 as enlightened as that of the rest of the world, 
 or fall back on a par with the intelligence of the 
 dark ages. The illustrations are published, 
 not as suggestions for the solution of our prob- 
 lem, but as examples of the scope and thorough- 
 ness with which others have already dealt with 
 the question. 
 
 All of the material which follows, with the 
 exception of a few illustrations, is reprinted from 
 the Journal of the American Institute of 
 Architects, issues of September, 1917 to 
 February, 191 8, inclusive. 
 
What Is a House? 
 
 By CHARLES HARRIS WHITAKER 
 
 I 
 
 SINCE the war began, the British Govern- 
 ment, under such financial and industrial 
 pressure as never before befell a nation, 
 has spent millions upon millions in building 
 houses of all kinds for its workers. It is one of 
 the most remarkable and deeply significant 
 transformations wrought by War. While her 
 vast industrial expansion and its accompany- 
 ing congestion of workers are the undoubted 
 causes of England's huge expenditure for better 
 homes, the deeper significance may be found 
 in her plans for carrying on this program as 
 a measure of post-war prudence. War has raised 
 the standard of the house in England for all 
 time. It has given a new meaning to the word. 
 
 Great was the pressure under which England 
 labored and pressing was the emergency 
 with which she had to cope. The life of her 
 armies, upon which her own life hung in the 
 balance, was in the keeping of her factories and 
 workshops. Yet as the old ones doubled, 
 trebled, quadrupled their size over night, as new 
 ones larger than any the world had ever seen 
 sprang up like magic, there also grew the 
 parallel need for more houses in which the 
 workers could live. And there also grew the per- 
 ception that if the workers were to give their 
 utmost in skill and energy they must be given 
 the utmost in home life. The renewal and con- 
 stant maintenance of vitality meant more ships, 
 more guns, more ammunition. And then came 
 the miracle ! 
 
 With sound economic foresight, England 
 determined to build permanent houses, except 
 in cases where the emergency was so dire as to 
 compel temporary expedients. She found that 
 taking into account the expense of applying the 
 utilities (streets, water, gas, sewage), the 
 difference in cost between temporary and per- 
 manent houses was so little as to be negligible 
 in her calculations. Rather than accept a 
 questionable post-war salvage from temporary 
 structures, with the inevitable temptation to 
 continue their use as slums, she resolved to 
 create a permanent national asset. Thus there 
 
 have grown up in an incredibly short time 
 whole new towns and villages which will not 
 only remain after the war but which will compel 
 a generally higher standard for workmen's homes 
 — for permanency is only a part of the miracle. 
 Having come to this decision, it became neces- 
 sary to ask what kind of houses to build, in 
 other words, "What is a house?" During the 
 last hundred years of industrial expansion the 
 definition of a house has been sinking slowly to 
 a level where it included almost everything 
 which could claim walls and a roof. The per- 
 centage of unsanitary, disease-breeding struc- 
 tures inhabited by men, women, and children in 
 all the so-called civilized countries of the world 
 has be5;n a sad blot on their escutcheon. With- 
 out exception, all the great nations except the 
 United States — even the newer lands of 
 Australia and New Zealand are ahead of us — 
 have recognized this condition and accepted 
 the duty of attempting its amelioration by 
 financial aid of different kinds, as a legitimate 
 and just governmental function. It may be 
 said without hesitation that the application of 
 science and governmental aid to home-building 
 for workmen in Germany was one of her vital 
 steps in the great scheme of war preparedness. 
 Her model villages have been cited the world 
 over, while her cooperative home-building and 
 land-owning associations, fostered by the gov- 
 ernment, have been studied with profit in all 
 other countries. England had begun to deal with 
 this question, of late years, so that when she 
 was compelled to undertake an immediate indus- 
 trial expansion which should outweigh and out- 
 shoot Germany's highly organized machine, 
 the accompanying problem of house-building 
 was not an entire novelty. She had dealt with 
 it before. Her garden cities were among the 
 pioneering movements of modern housing re- 
 form. All her communities have large powers 
 in dealing with the question, and the model 
 tenements of London, Liverpool, Glasgow, 
 and other cities, though far from solving the 
 question of "What is a house?" were long steps 
 forward. Of profound significance is the fact 
 that since war began, London has demolished 
 
 387560 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 acres of slums and erected model tenements 
 thereon. In order to bring the rentals of these 
 within reach of workmen, she has charged off 
 the entire cost of the land against her more 
 prosperous areas ! 
 
 But in the middle of war, with the deter- 
 mination made to spend millions in new houses, 
 England asked herself fairly and squarely, 
 "What is a house?" Perhaps her answer will 
 do more than anything else toward solving the 
 social, economic, and political problems which 
 the end of the war will lay before every nation 
 with a new and sterner emphasis than ever 
 before. The houses she has built would not do 
 for the United States. They are built in full 
 recognition of certain long-established traditions 
 and modes of life. They have no central heat, 
 for example, but are generally heated with 
 fireplaces, while their interior planning is 
 not after our methods. They range in size from 
 two to five rooms, with bath, with rentals 
 varying from |i.8o to I3.60 a week. For such 
 sums it probably is impossible to rent their 
 equivalent elsewhere in the world, although it 
 is no doubt true that these low rentals are only 
 made possible by governmental willingness to 
 accept a rate of return on the investment such 
 as would not satisfy private capital. It is also 
 possible that England may have to write off, 
 as a war expense, the difference in cost of these 
 houses, at war-time prices and those normally 
 obtaining. Curiously enough, many people ex- 
 claim at the idea of such a possible waste, for- 
 getting that war is nothing but a process of 
 throwing away money, and that it does not 
 matter whether it goes into ships, guns, aero- 
 planes, or houses, so long as the end is attained. 
 But England finds a return on her investment 
 in houses which cannot be measured in money, 
 and it is highly probable that of all her vast 
 expenditures the houses she has built for her 
 workers will remain as one of the very few 
 revenue-producing factors after it is all over. 
 
 Private capital failed to provide England 
 with the houses she needed in order to wage a 
 successful war. Building costs were higher than 
 normal, and private capital feared that if it 
 built in war time, it might be left with houses 
 on its hands which could afterward be duplicated 
 for much less money. It also shared in the 
 general uncertainty as to how reconstruction 
 might affect industries expanded under war 
 
 pressure. The war might leave these, tem- 
 porarily, without usefulness and the houses in 
 such a locality tenantless. But the Government 
 could not allow any such doubts to jeopardize 
 its success in war. At no matter what cost — 
 or what loss — it had to have houses. In this 
 recognition lies the kernel of a hope that the 
 definition of a house is to be permanently 
 revised. 
 
 War has shown the full meaning of the house 
 as a factor in national preservation, for war 
 brings nations face to face with national 
 death, and it is then that nations see themselves. 
 Can it be doubted that Peace will ever again 
 allow the house to sink to the low level of the 
 last hundred years? Can it be possible that the 
 plain business value which has been found to 
 lie in the good house will be ignored by Peace? 
 The measure of a nation's prosperity and 
 strength is shown to lie, not in the size of its 
 factories, the elegance of its public buildings, 
 the luxury of its hotels, but in the small thing 
 known as a house. Germany learned this before 
 the war and applied her knowledge on a vast 
 scale, dastardly as was the end she pursued. 
 Other nations have learned through the need 
 of defeating that end, and will not forget. But 
 woe to the nation which forgets to learn ! 
 
 In the United States today our industrial war- 
 time expansion, upon which so much depends, 
 is hampered and impeded by the lack of houses. 
 It is further restricted by congestion in the 
 hideous structures which pass under that name. 
 Our expansion has been so rapfd that this con- 
 dition grew up almost unnoticed. Under the 
 pretense of shortage of workers, there come 
 increasing requests for permission to work men, 
 women, and children longer hours than the law 
 permits. The answer, in almost every case, 
 lies in the fact that the real shortage is in houses 
 and rooms. In such cases, increased production 
 is possible only by overworking those who can 
 house themselves, and the end of that would be 
 deplorable. Many factories making war neces- 
 saries are not running full because they cannot 
 house the workers. Wherever men and women 
 are working in these centers, their vitality 
 frequently is impaired by the conditions under 
 which they live. 
 
 Private capital is failing here as it failed in 
 England, and for the same reasons. The 
 situation has assumed alarming proportions 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 and the approach of winter will render intoler- 
 able many of the present makeshifts used for 
 houses all over the country. The conditions in 
 Cleveland, Akron, Bayonne, Bridgeport, Nor- 
 folk, Newport News, in fact wherever one turns, 
 are fraught with elements of unrest and dis- 
 content which are finding frequent expression. 
 As a consequence there is delay in that industrial 
 production which is so vital — a delay which 
 costs so huge a sum. For every day the end of 
 the war is put off, we may charge ourselves with 
 something like $50,000,000! In the presence of 
 this fact, how shall we answer the question, 
 "What is a house?" 
 
 The administration at Washington is fully 
 alive to the importance of these conditions 
 and is preparing to cope with them. If it answers 
 the question wisely and with foresight, the 
 United States will learn a great and valuable 
 lesson, for we shall learn that if a decent house is 
 essential to war, it will be equally essential to 
 our economic life after the war. Upon no vital 
 question affecting human welfare and human 
 progress toward that larger democracy for 
 which we are giving our blood and our treasure 
 will the light of war beat with a more enduring 
 flame than upon the one, "What is a house?" 
 
 II 
 
 In building her new towns and villages, 
 England did not treat the house as an isolated 
 factor. In the first place, she embodied in its 
 design the traditions of that rural domestic 
 architecture which has so much delighted the 
 thousands of Americans who have roamed the 
 English countryside. She arranged them,whether 
 singly or in groups, to form a harmonious whole 
 and to avoid the deadly monotony of straight 
 streets lined with houses of one pattern, on one 
 differing from any other and known only by 
 a number, each possessing as much outward 
 atmosphere of inviting appearance as a row of 
 freight cars. Nothing has contributed more to 
 the slowness with which we respond to 
 questions of civic import than this deadly 
 monotony. The man of means builds a home in 
 which he may give expression to his tastes and 
 inclinations. Slowly, but surely, this kind of 
 domestic architecture has lifted itself out of the 
 slough of the Victorian era and the slavish 
 copying by architects too lazy or too ignorant 
 to study their problems, and begun to claim a 
 
 place as a distinctly national development of 
 value. But this applies only to an infinitesi- 
 mally small proportion of our house-building 
 operations. In the main, our towns and cities, 
 and even our rural districts, are made hideous 
 by the multitude of tawdry houses and the 
 ugliness of surroundings which that tawdriness 
 inevitably breeds — bill-boards, dumps, shanties, 
 with waste paper and refuse scattered in indis- 
 criminate profusion. Slowly, but surely, we 
 become accustomed to it; we tolerate it; we 
 ignore it. But all unconsciously we never forget 
 it, for we flee it as a plague. We flee it for the 
 country when we can. We flee it for anything 
 which offers a distraction. And when men, 
 women, and children unconsciously begin 
 to flee the neighborhood of their home, what 
 chance has the community to develop civic, 
 social, or even economic progress? Such flight 
 is the unconscious surrender of a political ideal, 
 the precursor of revolutions. 
 
 Yet against the ugliness of our miles and miles 
 of desolate, monotonous streets, we can only 
 point to the one-time picturesque quality of 
 thousands of European communities by remind- 
 ing ourselves that we have made progress in 
 several important directions. 
 
 But why were we willing to accept advances 
 in sanitation, comfort, convenience, with so 
 little thought of the preservation of those other 
 qualities of charm and picturesque attractive- 
 ness which we so much admire when we visit 
 Europe, or still find untouched here and there 
 in our own country? The answer involves a long 
 study of our industrial and social transforma- 
 tions, wherein ruthless competition, unchecked 
 by any community foresight, has raised land 
 values unequally, destroyed them by the same 
 ruthless method, and made highly speculative 
 that which should of all things be permanent 
 — realty values. 
 
 The full answer, taking cognizance of these 
 things yet denying them their right to lower the 
 standards of a nation by steadily reducing, first, 
 the size of the lot, then the size of the house, then 
 the size of the room, enunciates the warning 
 that this ever more and more relentless compres- 
 sion also squeezes out the moral and physical 
 values which are the only source of national 
 progress. 
 
 In her wartime house-building, England has 
 recognized this as a fundamental principle. 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 Her houses have ample lot-room and a maximum 
 of light and air. Instead of being monotonous 
 they are as varied in their picturesque character 
 as any of the ancient towns of England. These 
 new villages are striking examples of what may 
 be done when the size of lot and house and room 
 — and their design and arrangement — are not 
 arbitrarily and ruthlessly sacrificed to the 
 financial limitations of private capital. And 
 this is no indictment of the little-understood 
 thing we call capital. It is an indictment of the 
 community and of the nation which is so short- 
 sighted as first to permit and then to compel, as 
 a measure of business salvation to the owner, 
 the erection of structures, houses, tenements, 
 that quickly decline in value through deteriora- 
 . tion, ultimately diminish the taxable value of the 
 neighborhood in which they stand, and always 
 lower the standards, moral and physical, of 
 those who inhabit them. 
 
 This is the civic crime of the ages — the accept- 
 ance by the community of a business principle 
 which every good business man would reject 
 in his own business without the slightest 
 hesitation. Against this condition, of what value 
 are architects and building codes? Their efforts 
 must be directed to cheapening the cost of 
 construction, both by reduction in space area 
 per family and by the use of the least expensive 
 materials and methods of construction which 
 will pass the code, either honestly or by con- 
 nivance. Today we are in the grip of this in- 
 exorable condition; tomorrow, how long deferred 
 we know not, we shall begin to emerge from it, 
 or else one lesson of the war will be lost. 
 .- The building of houses is today a speculation, 
 /whether a man builds with the hope of a profit 
 / through sale, or rise in value, or with the hope 
 I that he will not sustain a loss, does not matter. 
 The speculative idea is there; it cannot be 
 escaped. Worse than this, one man bent upon a 
 speculation which promises large profits to him 
 by taking advantage of the helpless community 
 ! can erect a type or structure which will so 
 damage a neighborhood as to force others to 
 put their property to the same use. This is 
 only a temporary expedient. In the end the 
 community loses. It suffers the loss in taxable 
 values which is the anxious consideration of the 
 financial authorities of all our cities, and it 
 suffers the moral loss of a descending rather than 
 an ascending scale of life. It is idle to condemn 
 
 speculative builders and so-called private capital 
 for these practices. The fundamental fault,which 
 must and will be corrected, is the neglect of the 
 community to see that the longer it gives carte 
 blanche to the individual to convert land values 
 to his private gain by no matter what means, 
 the larger will be the bill which the community 
 will have to pay in undoing his misdeeds. This 
 is becoming so increasingly evident that the 
 zoning or districting law, which governs the 
 character and occupancy of new structures in 
 a city, is being applied in several of our American 
 cities. New York City welcomed it with open 
 arms, as the only measure of conserving the 
 city's taxable values, and giving any permanency 
 to realty. It undoubtedly offers a large avenue 
 of relief. European countries have applied it 
 successfully, and while it may have a tendency 
 temporarily to diminish the volume of building, 
 in the end it encourages the erection of good 
 buildings as a permanent rather than a specula- 
 tive investment. 
 
 "What is a house?" It is the prime element 
 of national growth. It is the soil whence springs 
 that eagerness in the heart of every man for a 
 home of his own. It is, after all, the physical 
 attribute of life upon the possession or retention 
 of which most of our energy is directed. Be- 
 cause of these things, it is the backbone of the 
 nation. By the quality of its appearance, its 
 convenience, its durability, one may infallibly 
 determine the real degree of a nation's prosperity 
 and civilization. 
 
 "What is a house?" It is not a solitary entity 
 by any means. Let us not forget that. Just 
 houses, no matter how well they answer our 
 question, would not sufiice. With houses go 
 other things — good streets, for example 
 (although our blind adherence to the old street 
 idea wastes acres of land and involves costs of 
 upkeep which are rapidly challenging atten- 
 tion), gas, water, light, fire protection (which 
 ought to be needed less and less, rather than 
 more and more), garbage removal — all of these 
 things are indispensable in any modern com- 
 munity. But, in addition to these purely 
 physical attributes, there must be provided 
 opportunities for social recreation, for play, for 
 the influences of the school, the drama, music, 
 the dance, the arts in general. That is why 
 England, in building thousands of homes for 
 her workers (as Germany did before her), has 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 had the foresight to build, wherever the existing 
 community was incapable of meeting the need, 
 schools, churches, halls, recreation grounds, 
 laundries, and even public kitchens. There are 
 large open areas for the children — and for 
 grown-ups, too. 
 
 "Socialism," says somebody. "Fad," says 
 another. "Paternalism," cries a third. But, 
 mark this well, the least important thing about 
 it is the name by which it is called. Those who 
 live principally for the pleasure of hugging 
 words to their bosom long after all spark of life 
 has left the letters which they spell glibly over 
 and over, may continue the pursuit of this 
 childish pastime. Men who have sense enough 
 to recognize human forces and currents — who 
 know that the world is moved by these and that 
 progress comes through them and not by the 
 names they are called — such men will under- 
 stand that England is putting her house in order 
 by putting the houses of her people in order. In 
 other words, she is getting ready to pay her 
 debts by organizing her commerce and industry 
 on new lines, far in advance of anything else (as 
 Germany did before her). She is preparing for 
 her reentrance into world markets on a larger 
 scale than before, for it is from those markets 
 that all the nations must collect the money for 
 paying their interest charges and debts. Such 
 an economic measure will be precedent to the 
 payment of national debts by all nations, our- 
 selves included. And in the working out of that 
 program, the house, as a giver of rest and con- 
 tentment, source of satisfaction, emblem of true 
 community growth, and forerunner of sound 
 community values, will play a part which Eng- 
 land seems to understand, at last. 
 
 Shall we learn? — 
 
 III 
 
 In the great and wonderful epic of America 
 we have been thrilled with the first coming of 
 the pioneer. As he took his way westward into 
 the depths of the wilderness, we have journeyed 
 with him, breathless, in the great adventure. 
 Is there not then a profound significance — a 
 deep reproach — in the fact that where we once 
 tingled with joy over the picture of the rude 
 "home," the family "fireside," the welcoming 
 "hearth-fire," the sheltering "roof-tree," we are 
 now content to dismiss the picture from our 
 minds and utter platitudes about "housing"? 
 
 We even include it in our philanthropies and 
 consign to the pathetic field of charity that 
 which we once glorified as the very essence of 
 our American spirit and courage — the quest of 
 a home! 
 
 Bearing these things in mind let us glance 
 at the Thirteenth Census, and particularly at 
 the chapter entitled "Ownership of Homes," 
 for here we are confronted with facts which 
 seem to be a denial of one of the elements that 
 once helped to make up our national ideal. For 
 a whole century at least the United States was 
 the goal of the landless and the houseless of all 
 nations. Some weeks since Mr. Roosevelt 
 uttered a warning over the decline in the num- 
 ber of owned farms and the consequent increase 
 in tenant-farmers. No one who has studied this 
 question in the last decade has ignored its deep 
 significance, but the same fact is equally patent 
 when we study the house. Here, ownership by 
 the occupant has declined in a far greater pro- 
 portion than has farm ownership. The Census 
 of 1 910 tells the story in the table on the follow- 
 ing page. 
 
 The figures for Alaska and Hawaii are of the 
 greatest interest, because they reveal the swifter 
 strides of the same transformative process of 
 ownership in an earlier stage. The difference in 
 the ten-year periods is marked by great descents. 
 In the United States we note a slight increase in 
 home ownership, other than farms, for the period 
 from 1900 to 1 9 10. This is traceable to the 
 middle sections of the country and is probably 
 due to economic causes connected with the 
 first stages of industrial expansion. 
 
 As to the causes which have produced this 
 result there can be but one general answer. 
 Under our economic system we have denied the 
 political and social ideal upon which the nation 
 was founded. We have refuted democracy by 
 beguiling ourselves with crude attempts to solve 
 it in political terms, the while we gave ourselves 
 unbridled license to exploit our land and all 
 that it contained with no thought of what might 
 be the ultimate effect upon ourselves as a nation 
 and upon the democracy we professed to seek. 
 The result we shall have to reckon with. Land- 
 lordism has steadily increased until we are in a 
 fair way to actually repeat the very cycle from 
 which men of other nations wished to escape 
 by coming hither. It was an inevitable outcome 
 of the individualism which has passed current 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 
 ALL HOMES 
 
 
 FARM HOMES 
 
 
 
 OTHER HOMES 
 
 AREA AND CENSUS 
 
 Per cent of total 
 
 Per cent of 
 owned homes 
 
 Per cent of total 
 
 Per cent of 
 owned homes 
 
 Per cent of total 
 
 Per cent of 
 owned homes 
 
 
 Own- 
 ed 
 
 Rent- 
 ed 
 
 Own- 
 ed 
 free 
 
 Own- 
 ed en- 
 cum- 
 bered 
 
 Free 
 
 En- 
 cum- 
 bered 
 
 Own- 
 ed 
 
 Rent- 
 ed 
 
 Own- 
 ed 
 free 
 
 Own- 
 ed en- 
 cum- 
 bered 
 
 Free 
 
 En- 
 cum- 
 bered 
 
 Own- 
 ed 
 
 Rent- 
 ed 
 
 Own- 
 ed 
 free 
 
 Own- 
 ed en- 
 cum- 
 bered 
 
 Free 
 
 En- 
 cum- 
 bered 
 
 UNITED STATES 
 1910 
 
 45.8 
 46.1 
 
 47.8 
 
 54,2 
 53.9 
 52.2 
 
 34.8 
 19.2 
 
 86.9 
 80.9 
 
 43.3 
 
 30.8 
 31.7 
 34.4 
 
 64.2 
 80.5 
 
 11.4 
 17.6 
 
 55.1 
 
 15.0 
 14.5 
 13.4 
 
 1.0 
 0.3 
 
 1.7 
 1.5 
 
 1.5 
 
 67.2 
 68.7 
 72.0 
 
 98.5 
 99.7 
 
 87.3 
 92.3 
 
 97.3 
 
 32.8 
 31.3 
 
 28.0 
 
 1.5 
 0.3 
 
 12.7 
 
 7.7 
 
 2.7 
 
 62.8 
 64.4 
 65.9 
 
 37.2 
 35.6 
 34.1 
 
 42.5 
 44.5 
 47.3 
 
 20.3 
 19.9 
 18.6 
 
 67.7 
 69.0 
 71.8 
 
 32.3 
 31.0 
 28.2 
 
 . . .^. . . . 
 
 9.5 
 
 7.8 
 
 4.5 
 
 38.4 
 36.2 
 36.9 
 
 61.6 
 63.8 
 63.1 
 
 25.7 
 24.7 
 26.7 
 
 12.7 
 11.5 
 10.2 
 
 66.9 
 68.3 
 72.3 
 
 33.1 
 
 1900 
 
 31.7 
 
 1890 
 
 27.7 
 
 Alaska 
 1910 
 
 65.2 
 80.8 
 
 13.1 
 19.1 
 
 56.7 
 
 90.5 
 
 (') 
 
 30.1 
 69.9 
 
 88.5 
 
 9.5 
 
 0) 
 
 69.9 
 30.1 
 
 11.5 
 
 90.5 
 
 0) 
 
 27.3 
 64.4 
 
 84.5 
 
 . . .^. . . . 
 
 2.9 
 5.5 
 
 4.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 (») 
 
 90.5 
 92.2 
 
 95.5 
 
 65.0 
 80.7 
 
 11.9 
 17.1 
 
 45.4 
 
 35.0 
 19.3 
 
 88.1 
 82.9 
 
 54.6 
 
 64.0 
 80.5 
 
 10.3 
 15.8 
 
 44.7 
 
 1.0 
 0.2 
 
 1.6 
 1.3 
 
 0.7 
 
 98.5 
 99.7 
 
 86.7 
 92.3 
 
 98.5 
 
 1.5 
 
 1900 
 
 0.3 
 
 Hawaii 
 
 1910 
 
 13.3 
 
 1900 
 
 7.7 
 
 Porto Rico 
 1910 
 
 1.5 
 
 
 
 (1) Per cent not shown where base is less than 100. 
 
 for freedom, and constitutes a national accept- 
 ance of the doctrine that the whole welfare of 
 the nation is subservient to the right of the 
 individual to pursue his path as he pleases. We 
 have struggled to curb this individualistic wil- 
 fulness by legislation, but without appreciable 
 effect. War comes to us with a flaming warning. 
 
 In this struggle of mechanism against mechan- 
 ism, victory will lie with the side which puts forth 
 the greatest industrial energy. It is our discovery 
 of the colossal need of ships and more ships, of 
 guns and more guns, which also discovers to us 
 the fact that our abihty to manufacture is limited 
 by the conditions under which workmen and 
 their families live. 
 
 If we ask whether it is best, in any country, 
 that the land and the buildings should be owned 
 by a minority which inevitably grows smaller 
 and smaller, we may safely answer that it has 
 never yet yielded national stability. If, how- 
 ever, we assume, as so many do, that it is the 
 unavoidable result of the struggle between men 
 whose abilities are so unequal in carrying on 
 business, industry, and commerce, then we must 
 admit that life consists merely of an endless and 
 hopeless repetition of cycles, each with its 
 debacle and rebirth. But does the faith that 
 these cannot and ought not to be prevented still 
 claim so large a body of adherents, now that 
 we are in the throes of the most violent convul- 
 sion the world has known — when we can see 
 more clearly than ever before through eyes to 
 which science has lent a new visionary power? 
 
 It is upon our answer to this question that 
 
 the problem of building houses for workmen 
 depends for the right solution, and it is this 
 which also gives such emphasis to the import- 
 ance of dealing rightly with the present dire 
 emergency of shortage in houses and the con- 
 sequent congestion to which so many thousands 
 of our workers, with their wives and families, 
 are condemned. War has made this so vital a 
 question that we must now face it whether we 
 will or no, but we cannot in any way find the 
 right solution without asking ourselves these 
 questions; they weave themselves into the fig- 
 ures in the Census with an insistence which 
 almost implores us to find the answer. 
 
 Can it be true that the instinct for possessing 
 a house has become a declining factor in our life? 
 Has the acceptance of the rented substitute, in 
 a steadily increasing measure over a long period 
 of years, supplanted that desire to an extent 
 which indicates its permanent passing? Do we 
 admit that the "efliciency" of our life demands 
 subservience, for the great majority, to a land- 
 lordism which cannot be escaped? Must we 
 pursue to its cataclysmic end a system which 
 decrees that the workman must relinquish his 
 wish to own a home in order that he may con- 
 serve to himself the largest possible measure of 
 economic freedom? The facts off^er relentless 
 evidence of the condition to which we have 
 arrived, and the right solution of what we have 
 pathetically termed the "industrial housing" 
 problem depends utterly upon our resolve to 
 study the problem with open minds and with 
 all the facts squarely before us. 
 
Government Housing Scheme, 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 191 5. 
 View in ARSENAL ROAD Looking South. 
 
 H. M. Office of Works, 
 JVestminster, 
 London, S. W. 
 
Government Housing Scheme, 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 191 5. 
 Junction of CONGREVE ROAD and MAUDSLAY ROAD Looking North 
 
 H. M. Office of Works ^ 
 Westminster, 
 London^ S. W. 
 
 10 
 
Government Housing Scheme, 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 1915. 
 Fiew in CONGREVE ROAD Looking North. 
 
 H. M. Office of Works 
 Westminster, 
 London, S. W, 
 
 U 
 
Government Hoising Scheme, 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 191 5. 
 Group of Houses in DOWNMAN ROAD. 
 
 H. M. Office of Works, 
 Westminster, 
 London, S W. 
 
 \1 
 
Government Housing Scheme, . 
 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 191 5. 
 
 Fiew in WELL HALL ROAD Looking North. 
 
 11. M. Office of Works, 
 Westminster, 
 London, S. W. 
 
 13 
 
Government Housing Scheme, 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 1915. 
 Entrance Group in WELL HALL ROAD, East Side. 
 
 H. M. Office of Works, 
 Westminster, 
 London, S. W. 
 
 14 
 
Government Mousing Scheme, 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 191 5. 
 View in ROSS WAY Looking East. 
 
 H. M. Office of Works, 
 Westminster, 
 London, S. W. 
 
 15 
 
Government Housing Scheme, 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 1915. 
 Fiew in ROSS WAY Looking fVest. 
 
 H. M. Office of Works, 
 JVestminster, 
 London, S. W. 
 
 16 
 
What Is a House? IV* 
 
 By FREDERICK L. ACKERMAN 
 
 Introduction 
 
 THIS study is the result of a visit to England 
 in October, 1917, the primary purpose of 
 which was to gather information relating 
 to the operations of the British Government in 
 providing adequate houses for a vast army of 
 munitions workers, to her program for building 
 a still greater number of workmen's houses as 
 a measure of post-war reconstruction, and of 
 discovering how these undertakings were to 
 affect the future social and economic structure 
 of Great Britain. It was, and still is, my hope 
 that information thus gleaned would be of value 
 to us in the formulation and execution of a 
 program to meet, not only a shortage in houses 
 quite similar in many respects to that which 
 faced the British Government at the outbreak 
 of the war in 1914, but to help us in grappling 
 with our own inevitable problem of economic 
 reconstruction. 
 
 The house problem which confronted England 
 at the outbreak of the war does not differ in any 
 material way from the problem which faced the 
 United States when she entered the war in the 
 spring of 1917. In both cases there existed a 
 shortage of houses and dwellings which had, 
 prior to the war, given rise to no little concern. 
 It is not of material value to consider the 
 relative shortage in England and America at 
 the time when each entered the war; and if it 
 were of value, the actual figures representing a 
 shortage are not available, for no accurate sur- 
 veys of conditions had been made. We knew 
 quite as well a year ago as England knew in 1914 
 that this problem under conditions of peace was 
 one requiring drastic and immediate action. 
 
 During the first year of the war it was made 
 manifest to England in a most emphatic way 
 that effective measures were imperative in deal- 
 ing with the ever-increasing seriousness of a 
 fundamental problem of national welfare and 
 stability. Modern warfare had shown, as Peace 
 could not do, the vital part played by health 
 and living conditions in industry, tor it quickly 
 
 *This is an unusual serial story. The author of the preceding chap- 
 ters now retires and a new author takes his place. — Charles Harris 
 Whitaker. 
 
 became evident what part industry today plays 
 in the winning of battles at the front. This 
 compelled a complete acknowledgment that 
 the first factor contributing to maximum pro- 
 duction and national supremacy (a fact already 
 acknowledged in many quarters but not recog- 
 nized in positive action) is the living conditions 
 of the worker. 
 
 In setting forth in detail the British method 
 of dealing with this problem during the war, I 
 shall go somewhat afield from the narrow con- 
 fines of technical "housing and town planning," 
 with their by-laws and legislative enactments, 
 and consider the reasons why England had ad- 
 vanced so much more rapidly than had we in 
 this field of activity prior to the war; and how 
 it was that, when the war made the unforeseen 
 demands upon England, she was able so rapidly 
 and effectively to translate the will to do into 
 actual accomplishment. 
 
 English and American Similarities 
 and Differences 
 
 As I have already suggested, if we consider 
 merely the numerical aspect of pre-war con- 
 ditions in England and America, and likewise 
 the similarity as regards the urgency of war's 
 demands, the two problems appear to be prac- 
 tically identical. 
 
 But with these two points of similarity the 
 identity ends. For as soon as one enters upon 
 the field of technique and attempts to make a 
 direct application of British methods to the 
 solution of the American problem, one is im- 
 mediately confronted with a long list of values 
 which must needs be first interpreted and then 
 translated into equivalent American usages and 
 terms. 
 
 With our laws, broadly speaking, based upon 
 British tradition, we have assumed that we 
 could continue to borrow quite freely of Eng- 
 land's modern technique of "housing and town 
 planning." This does not follow. Due to strik- 
 ing differences in social and economic life, laws 
 in our country which appear similar in form and 
 expression to those of England have in practice 
 totally different values. 
 
 17 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 THE BRITISH BACKGROUND 
 
 Twenty years ago the average American 
 traveler in England would have found com- 
 paratively little beyond things of an historic 
 interest to arrest his attention. His itinerary 
 would have taken him through the larger cen- 
 ters, the cathedral towns, a few villages of an 
 unusual historic interest where the flavor of 
 Old-World tradition still remained. These are to 
 be seen today; the larger centers have but 
 slightly changed; the historic places of interest 
 for the most part remain, but they are dwarfed 
 by the widespread evidence of a new develop- 
 ment, for, scattered throughout England, and 
 to a certain extent in Scotland, are unique and 
 interesting twentieth century communities quite 
 unlike the old villages, which, while recalling the 
 old tradition of form, are decidedly unlike the 
 twentieth century communities one sees in 
 America. They mark the beginning of a new 
 era. 
 
 The reason for this momentous transfor- 
 mation is derived from a background of experi- 
 ence and tendency; the contrast is too great to 
 have been achieved by an architect or a school 
 of architects, or a school of city planners; and 
 those of us in America who have desired passion- 
 ately a more integrated expression must fully 
 acknowledge this, for these villages of England 
 could not have been produced in America, not- 
 withstanding the fact that it is quite possible 
 for the American architect or town planner to 
 project them upon paper. 
 
 The houses in a town, the arrangement of a 
 town, the quality of life made possible in a town, 
 serve as an infallible barometer whereby we may 
 read the state of social, physical, economic, and 
 moral development of a people. It is therefore 
 of vital importance to us to find the underly- 
 ing reason for our failure to produce examples 
 comparable to these modern English commu- 
 nities. It is not enough to understand the elabo- 
 rate legislative technique surrounding the British 
 operations, nor will mere graphic descriptions of 
 the schemes suffice. We must understand fully 
 the forces which brought about this new con- 
 dition in England in order that we may deter- 
 mine what phases of English methods are appli- 
 cable in America. Above all, in this connection 
 we must consider our capacities, for we shall 
 find tendencies in American life and factors in 
 
 our political and social institutions which must 
 needs pass through a process of education simi- 
 lar to that of England before it is possible for us 
 to apply even the most elemental principles in- 
 volved in the success of British housing and 
 town planning effort. That we have not been 
 able to produce comparable results is a clear 
 indication that our social institutions are not 
 sufficiently developed, that our political mech- 
 anism is not properly adjusted, and that we lack 
 unity of purpose. Unless we remedy this lack 
 of integrated purpose we shall fail to keep pace 
 with Europe in the fields of industry and finance, 
 notwithstanding the terrific handicaps which, 
 we assume, will be her heritage from the war. 
 But, to return to the question of cause — the 
 background. All that I propose is an indication 
 in outline, or rather, in silhouette, which will 
 focus attention upon the fundamental difference 
 between British and American directing factors 
 or forces. Of these there are four points to be 
 considered: 
 
 1. Conditions surrounding the ownership of land. 
 
 2. Conditions which obtained in Great Britain during 
 the Industrial Revolution of a century ago, and which 
 period may be said to have ended with the passage of the 
 Reform Bill in 1832. 
 
 3. The remarkable social and political development in 
 England during the last three-quarters century, which 
 period might be said to have ended at the beginning of 
 the present war, but during the latter part of which a 
 remarkable list of social reforms were, by legislative enact- 
 ment, put into effect — some of them affecting in a profound 
 way England's progress in housing and town planning. 
 
 4. Architectural tradition in Great Britain and the 
 development of a group of town planners, architects, and 
 engineers, keenly sympathetic and most active in the 
 development of processes whereby the general tendencies 
 of the day could be crystallized, so to speak, into material 
 expressions of permanence. 
 
 Land Monopoly and Landlordism 
 
 It may appear paradoxical to say that devel- 
 opment along the lines of integrated social 
 effort has been hastened more rapidly in Eng- 
 land by the fact that progress has there been 
 more difficult. Our apathy has been due to the 
 fact that conditions have not been so bad as to 
 develop a united movement with a definite pro- 
 gram of amelioration. We have been content to 
 drift. We have failed to realize that we were 
 contending with the same condition which has 
 surrounded the ownership of land in Great 
 Britain. There a landed aristocracy has been 
 
 18 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 determined to maintain the status quo; here the 
 ownership of land has been passing steadily into 
 the hands of fewer and fewer owners. 
 
 In England the profits from the great estates 
 have been invested more and more in com- 
 mercial and industrial enterprises, thus bring- 
 ing about an intimate relation with a common 
 interest in opposing social and labor legislation. 
 Not only this, but with the ownership of land 
 confined to a few whose main purpose in life 
 had been to maintain their holdings and pass 
 them on to the next in line, it has been exceed- 
 ingly difficult to secure land for small-estate 
 developments or for purposes of rural or urban 
 housing. 
 
 Before any material degree of social reform 
 could be obtained it was necessary to break down 
 this great land monopoly. The effort to accom- 
 plish this resulted in many general legislative 
 enactments which have been most advanta- 
 geous to housing and town planning reforms. 
 But these measures in nowise solved the prob- 
 lem. The problem of cheap land still remains. 
 And, as clearly shown by Mr. Whitaker in 
 Chapter III* of this series, we now see that we 
 have arrived at a condition which parallels that 
 of Great Britain. By regulations made under 
 the Defense of the Realm Acts, the British 
 Government insures that the home-building 
 operations adjacent to munition plants shall 
 not be burdened by the unearned increment. 
 That is to say, when it becomes necessary to 
 build more homes, the land adjoining an exist- 
 ing development can be taken at its pre-war 
 value, and not at the higher value which has 
 been added to it by the initial home-building 
 operation. Unless this be done, each succeed- 
 ing operation becomes more costly, with a cor- 
 responding increase in rent and a diminution in 
 the size of house and lot, and thus we endlessly 
 repeat the vicious cycle of congestion. Reference 
 to this will be made later, for it is the most im- 
 portant factor of all, looking toward national 
 well-being. 
 
 In America we are now experiencing the same 
 profound change that resulted in England from 
 what is termed the "Industrial Revolution." It 
 was during this period in England that we wit- 
 nessed the very rapid changes which transformed 
 an agricultural society into one of industry. We 
 
 ♦Journal of the American Institute of Architects, November, 
 
 1917. 
 
 see the rapid settlement of a vast working-class* 
 population outside of the limits of the then exist- 
 ing small towns, the development of industrial 
 centers in which the living conditions of the 
 workers were wretched beyond words to express. 
 We see also the poverty and utter helplessness 
 of this vast population. In contrast to this con- 
 dition of the poor, witness the rapid accumula- 
 tion of wealth and capital by a small group of 
 individuals who accepted the wretched con- 
 dition of the worker and the state of inequality 
 as a condition actually contributing to national 
 prosperity. We see how it was that unfair laws 
 were framed and how unfairly justice was dis- 
 pensed, and by what unfair means was order 
 obtained. We also witness the very slow awak- 
 ening of the industrial laborer to the unfairness 
 of the existing conditions, and we witness also 
 the slow and labored birth of a new spirit. It is 
 this new spirit brought into being by the intoler- 
 able conditions imposed by our economic system, 
 the utter indifference of the rich to the conditions 
 of the poor, which developed into the directing 
 forces of the latter half of the nineteenth century. 
 
 New Forces at Work 
 
 Coexistent with the spirit of revolt on the 
 part of the laborers against these intolerable 
 conditions, there developed a most remarkable 
 and profound change in the entire fabric of 
 society, not confined to England alone, but char- 
 acteristic of western Europe, Australia, and, to 
 a limited extent, of America. This change was 
 particularly marked in England, and something 
 of its nature must be understood before it is 
 possible to grasp the full significance of the 
 housing and town planning movement, for this 
 latter is not a small, isolated movement, but a 
 part of a world tendency which is sure to accu- 
 mulate force and power for years to come. This 
 is expressed by the recent tendencies in social 
 politics and the resulting legislative enactments 
 of the British Parliament, but its scope, how- 
 ever, includes an almost limitless field of activity 
 and interest. We can no more escape this move- 
 ment than we could have escaped our entrance 
 into the war. 
 
 To consider the nature of this world move- 
 ment may seem a needless digression from the 
 topic under consideration, but if it is our hope in 
 
 *"The Town Laborer," by J. L. Hammond and Barbara Ham- 
 mond. London, 191 7, Longmans, Green & Co. 
 
 19 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 America to move forward after the war, we must 
 recognize this force which is pushing forward 
 with continuous and ever-increasing accelera- 
 tion. Ours must be a program of reconstruction 
 having as its basis a full recognition of the great 
 change which has taken place during the last 
 century and which has been tremendously 
 accelerated by the present world conflict. 
 
 In the essay "Toward Social Democracy,"* 
 by Sidney Webb, is traced the silent revolution 
 which has taken place in ideas during the last 
 three-quarters of a century and which brought 
 us to the state of flux in which the western world 
 found itself at the outbreak of the war. It is 
 pointed out how little appreciated or understood 
 is the great change which has taken place in 
 England and the purpose of the essay is to 
 throw greater light upon the "persistent stream 
 of tendencies" which have brought about this 
 change and to show more clearly the direction of 
 the course of this world movement from the 
 point of departure. 
 
 The New Application of Government 
 as an Association of Consumers 
 
 It is pointed out how, a century ago, before 
 the reform of municipal corporations, men had 
 for centuries grouped themselves on the basis 
 of their occupations as producers; how this old 
 grouping of men as producers stood stolidly in 
 the way of social reform; how the slow begin- 
 nings of a diflFerent grouping took place when 
 local bodies with broader functions were formed 
 in municipal government, the purpose of which 
 was to provide for the needs, not of a special 
 group but for the needs of all of the local resi- 
 dents; and how it followed that these new groups 
 — local governing bodies — by nature of their 
 interests and duties gradually took on the char- 
 acter of an association of consumers. It is 
 shown how the form of administrative govern- 
 ment has expanded during the last century as a 
 result of this new concept of its function; how it 
 is that we have become, in a way, accustomed to 
 this change; how we fail to recognize the extent 
 of the service which the Government actually 
 
 '"Toward Social Democracy," London, 1916. The Fabian Society. 
 A study of social evolution during the past three-quarters of a century, 
 by Sidney Webb, prepared in 1909 for the Cambridge Modern History, 
 and reprinted in 1916, and also in a series of three supplements to 
 "The New Statesman" by the same author, published in 1915, one 
 finds a concise presentation of these changes. The three supplements 
 referred to bear the titles of "Cooperative Production and Profit 
 Sharing," "The Cooperative Movement," and "State Municipal 
 Enterprise." 
 
 renders — which service is organized upon the 
 theory of primarily benefiting the public — the 
 consumer, who is likewise benefited as a pro- 
 ducer. 
 
 It is significant that these functions of govern- 
 ment which we accept as a matter of course, 
 and which form such a large part of the activi- 
 ties of the Government, are almost wholly the 
 creation of the last century. We do not appre- 
 ciate to what extent this new idea has been 
 developed; but one has only to examine in 
 detail such activities as those related to com- 
 munication and transport, public health, land 
 improvement and development (urban and 
 rural), conservation, education and recreation, 
 banking, insurance and exchange, the produc- 
 tion of light and power, housing, agriculture and 
 forestry, or mining, to realize to what extent 
 this concept of government as an association of 
 consumers has developed. Beyond this aspect 
 of governmental activity one finds a tendency, 
 particularly emphasized in England, and ex- 
 pressed in the powerful cooperative societies. 
 America has but slight knowledge of the extent 
 of this movement nor the power which it wields 
 in Europe. Even in England the significance of 
 this movement is not generally recognized; there 
 the middle and upper classes scarcely grasp the 
 import of these organizations. But they are 
 none the less powerful; for so great a shifting of 
 the control and management of the production of 
 commodities by which men live cannot fail to pro- 
 duce far-reaching social and economic changes. 
 
 As a result of this tendency toward the col- 
 lective organization of consumers, one finds in 
 England, during the last quarter of a century, a 
 series of legislative enactments which are 
 destined within a few years to change utterly the 
 general aspect of British government and in 
 turn alter the entire aspect of British life and 
 British physical environment. 
 
 Outstanding among the many measures one 
 notes the Acts relating to workmen's compensa- 
 tion, trade unionism, child welfare, old-age pen- 
 sions, the unemployed, sweated labor, the hous- 
 ing and land problem, national insurance, and 
 the "Lloyd George Budget." While these are all 
 interrelated and part of a single program of 
 social amelioration, our interest must be con- 
 fined but to a single phase — the housing and 
 land problem which we will consider under 
 "British Pre-War Measures." 
 
 20 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 Attending the gradual change in this concept 
 of government from that in which its two prin- 
 cipal functions were the dispensing of justice (a 
 limited concept as we now see it) and the con- 
 duct of war, to that new concept in which the 
 central idea of government is an organization of 
 consumers, there went on a gradual and inter- 
 esting change in the form and structure of 
 government itself. Especially is this true of 
 municipal government in Europe and partic- 
 ularly in England. Here we see a development 
 which offers a striking contrast to our methods — 
 a development which those who are interested 
 in housing and town planning should study most 
 carefully, for a knowledge of British municipal 
 government is necessary to an understanding of 
 housing and town planning in Great Britain. 
 This subject, however, will be left for a more 
 detailed treatment under "British Pre-War 
 Methods." 
 
 The Age-Old Problem of Housing 
 
 Thoroughly to grasp our problem, we must 
 realize that the housing of workers is not a prob- 
 lem peculiar to ourselves or a result of war; it is, 
 and for generations has been, a Western World 
 problem growing out of industrial systems, and 
 practically the entire Western World, with the 
 exception of America, has recognized it as either 
 a municipal or a federal problem demanding for 
 solution more than restrictive legislation. We 
 must be brought to recognize that the countries 
 of Europe have had this problem to contend 
 with for a much longer period and that their 
 present methods represent the result of a long 
 and painful period of experimentation. We 
 must also recognize that there is a world ten- 
 dency toward the amelioration of the conditions 
 surrounding workmen; that the present ten- 
 dency is born of a practical experience which 
 has shown the tremendous value of physical 
 environment upon industrial production. No 
 longer is welfare work confined within the fac- 
 tory or to the region immediately adjacent; 
 now it extends to the housing of workers, and 
 with the housing of workers the inclusion of the 
 amenites is given a dominating emphasis-. 
 
 However vaguely we may grasp the problems 
 confronting us in the days of reconstruction to 
 come, we are absolutely certain of these things: 
 that nation which is most fully organized and 
 wherein every element of its social and economic 
 
 structure is conserved — that nation in which the 
 vision of a great social and economic democracy 
 is expressed in the broadest program of national 
 organization and conservation — that is the 
 nation which will achieve national prosperity 
 because it puts the welfare of the whole above 
 the welfare of any individual or group. There is 
 no other way to national stability. 
 
 Now is the time, as never before, when we 
 must scrutinize our ultra-individualistic ten- 
 dencies, our relative lack of accomplishment along 
 broad social lines of cooperative undertakings, 
 our trembling fear of governmental control, and, 
 above all, of materialistic aims. For these ten- 
 dencies, unless overcome, will inhibit us abso- 
 lutely from keeping pace with those nations 
 whose suffering and loss have been much greater 
 than our own, but who, through the integrated 
 effort resulting from war, have learned to realize 
 something of the meaning of social democracy. 
 
 BRITISH PRE-WAR METHODS. I 
 
 For some time past, we, the architects and 
 the town planners, have taken the position that 
 our lack of success must be due to a want of 
 appreciation of esthetic values on the part of the 
 public, to the dominating commercialism of our 
 day and people, to an excessive spirit of indi- 
 vidualism; and we have been, as a profession, 
 content with that exceedingly superficial 
 answer. 
 
 We have endeavored to awaken a public in- 
 terest in housing and town planning, first, through 
 the spectacular and later the beautiful; then, as 
 the pendulum swung, by a narrow financial 
 assessment of its worth. We have striven hard 
 to promote better housing, primarily by restric- 
 tive legislative enactments and through our 
 small-house competitions. 
 
 Notwithstanding these activities and the vast 
 amount of propaganda, we have completely 
 failed to bring about anything which approxi- 
 mates a national solution of this problem. Few 
 have acknowledged the reason for our failure. 
 
 When you discuss the problem of the housing 
 of workmen with an architect, a social reformer, 
 an engineer, or a corporation with whom the 
 question has become a serious factor in the 
 output of a factory, the discussion revolves 
 about the type, the size, and the cost of houses — 
 the financial aspect and the problem and method 
 of construction. These are apparently in 
 
 21 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 America the dominating factors to be con- The Broad Scope and Powers of the 
 
 sidered and dealt with. Local Government Board 
 
 England's Advanced Position as to 
 Policy and Public Opinion. 
 
 But, on the other hand, when you consider 
 this same problem in its various aspects with 
 Englishmen in parallel fields of activity, you 
 very soon discover that the problem is viewed 
 from the angle of a general policy in which they 
 make constant and repeated reference to Local 
 Authority and Local Government Board. They 
 think of the problem in terms of these authori- 
 ties and the functions exercised by them. 
 
 For it is these two bodies that exercise most 
 important powers and functions in connection 
 with housing and town-planning operations in 
 Great Britain. This constant reference to these 
 two bodies is a little confusing to one who 
 attempts to translate British methods into 
 American terms. We may understand that 
 what is represented by the term "Local Author- 
 ity" corresponds in a very general way to our 
 own executive and legislative municipal bodies; 
 but we can find nothing in the structure of our 
 government even to approximate in function 
 and authority the British Local Government 
 Board. 
 
 While the Local Authority occupies a posi- 
 tion which in a way corresponds to that held 
 by the "government" in our municipalities, yet 
 the method of electing members to the Council, 
 the mayor, the aldermen, the counsellors, the 
 appointment of officials, their terms of office, the 
 powers which the authorities derive from their 
 charter, from Parliament, from the Local Gov- 
 ernment Board, and their methods of administra- 
 tion, differ so widely from conditions surround- 
 ing municipal government in America that it 
 would be futile to assume that similar legislation 
 could be applied in America without a material 
 modification of government itself. Broadly 
 speaking, the greater trust in which municipal 
 government has been held in Great Britain since 
 the passage of the Reform Bill in 1832 has not 
 only broadened its powers as an effective instru- 
 ment working for the common good, but that 
 trust has made government far more effective in 
 meeting the actual needs of a democratic 
 community. To develop such a trust is one of 
 our prime duties in loosening democracy from 
 the political grip which now strangles it. 
 
 Interesting as is the work of the Local Author- 
 ity in Great Britain, the work of the Local 
 Government Board is still more interesting. An 
 understanding of its relation to Parliament and, 
 in turn, to the Local Authorities is necessary, 
 and I therefore make reference to *"The Govern- 
 ment of European Cities" wherein the subject is 
 set forth with particular reference to American 
 readers. 
 
 The Local Government Board is, in a sense, 
 a part of the ministry. It derives its power from 
 Parliament, exercises control over the work of 
 Local Authorities, and has a wide range of sub- 
 legislative powers. "It may issue to the Local 
 Authorities a General Regulation which is 
 binding throughout the whole country, or an 
 order which affects a single union only." "It is 
 the central supervising authority in all matters 
 relating to local sanitation and the care of 
 public health." "It may even in some cases 
 compel the Local Authorities to provide water- 
 supply or appoint medical officers or improve 
 the drainage system." It should be clearly kept 
 in mind "that the Local Government Board may 
 issue orders only upon the express authority of 
 Parliamentary statute." Its legislative powers 
 are delegated to it by Parliament solely for the 
 purpose of making sure that the statutes of the 
 realm shall be accurately interpreted and ap- 
 plied in the local jurisdiction. 
 ' From the standpoint of housing and town 
 planning, the jurisdiction exercised by the Local 
 Government Board in vetoing or amending 
 ordinances and by-laws made by Local Author- 
 ities is very important. This is a vital preroga- 
 tive, and it has operated to secure a closer ap- 
 proach to uniformity in municipal rules relating 
 to public health and welfare, for the Board has 
 adopted the practice of publishing "model" by- 
 laws which the Local Authorities find it safe and 
 advantageous to follow. 
 
 Compare the custom in America, where a 
 municipahty drafts all sorts of building laws 
 and ordinances, often without the aid of any 
 expert knowledge, with the British custom of 
 having such local by-laws prepared by the ex- 
 perienced and well-paid experts of the Local 
 Government Board in London. Not only does 
 
 *Thc Government of European Cities. By William Bennett 
 Munro. New York, 1909. The Macmillan Co. 
 
 22 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 this minimize the chance of such laws being suc- 
 cessfully attacked in the courts, but it insures 
 that the laws shall express both knowledge and 
 experience. 
 
 A danger may be cited in the power of the 
 Board to disallow or amend an act of Local 
 Authority. There is, as a matter of fact, no 
 such danger, for the Local Government Board 
 may not thus interfere, "except in the event 
 that the local ordinance is unlawful, and never 
 because it may appear to be unwise or inex- 
 pedient." 
 
 "So long as the Borough Council keep within 
 their legal powers, they are free from inter- 
 ference." 
 
 "More important than the legislative author- 
 ity of the Local Government Board are its ad- 
 ministrative powers." These powers exercised 
 in matters relating to public health and sanita- 
 tion and the raising of funds have a vital rela- 
 tion to the question of housing and town plan- 
 ning. 
 
 *"Here its influence is at once apparent; for, as will be 
 seen a little later, the boroughs are required to secure its 
 approval of their borrowing projects, and the board, in 
 granting approval, may impose various conditions as to 
 the manner in which the borrowed funds may be applied. 
 If, for example, a borough council decides to adopt the 
 permissive provisions of the acts relating to the housing of 
 workers, and to undertake the expropriation of lands for 
 the erection of municipal tenements, it must get the sanc- 
 tion of the Local Government Board before it may borrow 
 any money for the undertaking. Before granting this per- 
 mission the board will, through one or more of its officers, 
 conduct an inquiry into the merits of the project, and, if 
 it gives its consent, will usually require the scheme to be 
 carried out subject, in many important respects, to its 
 further approval. 
 
 "It will undertake to see, for example, that the new 
 dwellings erected by the council provide for the housing 
 of as many persons as have been displaced, that the build- 
 ings are of proper character, and that the various other 
 ends contemplated by the statutes are duly secured. Many 
 other so-termed 'adoptive acts' have given broad powers 
 to the boroughs, to be exercised by them subject to the 
 supervision of the Local Government Board; indeed, the 
 existence of this board as a suitable supervising authority 
 has prompted Parliament to intrust borough councils with 
 much authority which it would probably never have 
 granted them to be used without supervision. If the 
 boroughs ask for powers which seem in general to be desir- 
 able but which might easily be abused, the usual parlia- 
 mentary practice has been to grant the privileges asked for 
 but to make the Local Government Board responsible for 
 seeing that they are not misused. It should be emphatically 
 declared, however, that this body is the balance-wheel, and 
 
 *Ibid. 
 
 not the engine, of local administration. It docs not drive 
 the machinery of borough government, for this function 
 rests with the borough council; but it does see that the 
 machinery is driven smoothly and with due regard to the 
 principles underlying the legislative mechanism. The 
 initiative, the elaboration of projects, and the immediate 
 supervision of all undertakings must be supplied locally; 
 it is for the board to keep the wheels in their proper 
 grooves." 
 
 Beyond these sublegislative and executive 
 powers the Local Government Board performs 
 a function which is perhaps still more important. 
 
 *"Where the Local Government Board has no right of 
 interference, and where its approval is not asked by local 
 authorities, it may tender its advice for what it is worth; 
 and this it frequently does. On the other hand, any local 
 authority is entitled to seek counsel from the board and its 
 expert staff, a privilege of which the officials of the bor- 
 oughs freely avail themselves, not infrequently in order to 
 find a means of extricating themselves from serious legal or 
 administrative dilemmas. John Stuart Mill has somewhere 
 remarked with great truth that 'power may be localized, 
 but knowledge, to be most useful, must be centralized.' 
 At the headquarters of the Local Government Board is 
 accumulated a vast fund of the most useful knowledge 
 concerning every phase of municipal administration; a 
 wealth of statistical and other data is there on file, and some 
 of the best legal, financial, and technical skill in England 
 is at hand to interpret it. When the wording of a new 
 statute is not clear to a town clerk, when a borough 
 treasurer gets his accounts tangled or fails to agree with his 
 auditors on any point, when a committee of the borough 
 council is at a loss to know how it should proceed with any 
 project — in a word, when any local authority wishes to get 
 expert and reliable advice without having to pay for it, 
 the first and logical recourse is to Whitehall. 
 
 "Whether the question relates to the extension of a 
 water service, or to the purchase of supplies for a local 
 hospital, or to the distribution of duties among officials, or 
 to the wrangles of councillors over some rule of procedure, 
 it is the duty of the Local Government Board to give its 
 counsel or advice whenever it is asked for. Not infre- 
 quently, indeed, the matter at issue is so complicated that 
 the board finds it necessary to send one of its experts to 
 make a personal inquiry before it feels justified in giving 
 its opinion." 
 
 In the field of supervision over local finance, 
 such as the authorization of loans for a great va- 
 riety of purposes, in which is included such pro- 
 jects as the development of a town planning 
 scheme or the development of a group of work- 
 ing-class dwellings with their amenities, the 
 Local Government Board possesses a further 
 function beyond those referred to, which is of 
 vital importance to the British program of 
 housing and town planning. In America there 
 
 »Ibid. 
 
 23 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 is no governmental body which exercises in this 
 field a similar function. 
 
 One other phase of the work of the Local 
 Government Board remains to be noted: 
 
 *"In the performance of these varied functions it is, of 
 course, only natural that the Local Government Board 
 should find it necessary to employ a large staflF of officials. 
 The total number of these now runs well up into the 
 hundreds, including sanitary engineers, medical officers, 
 inspectors of poorhouses, workhouses, auditors, legal 
 experts, and many similar officers embodying a high grade 
 of specialized skill. All these officials are appointed by the 
 crown on recommendation of the president of the board; 
 they hold office during good behavior and efficiency; they 
 are members of the national civil service; and they receive 
 liberal remuneration. Secure in the tenure of their posts, 
 responsible to the central government alone, and hence 
 having no local interests to serve, these officers are able to 
 go about their work in an unbiased frame of mind, and 
 hence have earned a general reputation for impartiality 
 and fearlessness in their recommendations. 
 
 "There is, on the other hand, no doubt that the Local 
 Government Board is not popular with the local authorities 
 and that many of these latter would welcome a diminution 
 of the board's supervisory jurisdiction. Were the officials 
 of the board susceptible to partisan influences, the whole 
 system of central supervision would lose its chief prop, 
 which lies primarily in the efficiency and integrity of the 
 officers who exercise the guiding authority. Englishmen 
 would scarcely tolerate the supervision of their local gov- 
 ernment by any officer who, like the French prefect, at- 
 tempted to combine the duties of an administrative offi- 
 cial with the activities of a party agent." 
 
 BRITISH PRE-WAR METHODS. II 
 
 With this rather general statement relating 
 to the drift of social tendencies during the last 
 century and the significance of certain elements 
 in the structure of British municipal govern- 
 ment, we may proceed to a study of the specific 
 acts of legislation and the British pre-war tech- 
 nique of housing and town planning. It may be 
 well to repeat that the conditions in Great 
 Britain were such during the nineteenth century 
 that it required no exaggeration of statements, 
 to borrow the title of Mr. Aldridge's book, to 
 make out an excellent "Case for Town Plan- 
 ning." 
 
 Legislative Phases 
 
 Specific legislation in this field may be said to 
 have been initiated in 1846, and the passage of 
 a series of Public Health and Sanitary Acts from 
 that day to 1875 may be said to have been in the 
 nature of first steps leading to the passage of the 
 Housing and Town Planning Act of 1909. 
 
 *ibid. 
 
 The Public Health Act of 1875 empowered 
 Local Authorities to make by-laws relating to 
 such matters as the width of streets, the sewage 
 of the same, construction of new buildings, the 
 space to be provided about buildings, and to 
 certain related sanitary conditions. It is im- 
 portant to observe, in connection with this act 
 and the resulting regulations known as the 
 "model" by-laws of the period, that it resulted 
 in what is now known as "the new slum." It was 
 a step, it is true, in advance from the chaos of 
 the days preceding; but it was at the same time 
 responsible for the endless rows of monotonous 
 brick dwellings having nothing but a paved 
 street in front and an ugly yard behind. There 
 were no amenities resulting from these by-laws, 
 and the fields about British cities became rapidly 
 covered with these stupid habitations, quite 
 similar, though lower in height, to what we see 
 growing up at the present time in and about our 
 American cities. 
 
 The sort of structures which are permitted in 
 the outlying districts of New York under the 
 new districting regulation, passed only last year, 
 are quite as bad, if not in many respects worse, 
 than the British "new slum" and against which 
 the Housing and Town Planning Act of 1909 
 was directed quite as much as it was against 
 any other single condition which then obtained. 
 
 Garden Cities 
 
 Certain other events which resulted in the 
 passage of the Housing and Town Planning 
 Act of 1909, and which were material factors in 
 stimulating housing and town planning prog- 
 ress, were the development of Bourneville by 
 Mr. George Cadbury, the foundation of Port 
 Sunlight by Sir Wm. Lever, and the inaugura- 
 tion of the garden city movement through the 
 publication of that practical dream of Mr. 
 Ebenezer Howard, "Garden Cities of Tomor- 
 row," which made a strong public appeal and 
 awakened the entire nation to possibilities of 
 which the people had not dreamed. 
 
 The Garden City Association was formed; 
 studies of continental housing conditions were 
 made; several associations for carrying on edu- 
 cational work were organized; schemes for gar- 
 den suburb planning were launched by private 
 and cooperative companies. In 1904 the Trades 
 Union Congress took up the work and, during 
 the latter part of the period referred to, forces 
 
 24 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 too numerous to mention became allied with the 
 movement, which ended in the organization of a 
 Deputation of the National Housing Reform 
 Council to the Government in 1906 and the 
 ultimate passage of the Housing and Town 
 Planning Act of 1909. 
 
 The Tenement Must Go 
 
 In view of the general tendency in America 
 at the present moment to accept the tenement 
 house as a permanent institution, it may be well 
 to note that as a result of British experience 
 from 1875 to 1909, during which time sanitation 
 reformers accepted the tenement and encour- 
 aged philanthropists to erect buildings of this 
 type, public opinion swung around completely 
 to a strong opposition against this and to an 
 equally strong advocacy of the small dweUing. 
 Everywhere the tenement is now condemned, 
 except as a mere temporary expedient where 
 special problems exist as, for example, in certain 
 areas of London and Liverpool. Even in such 
 localities the tenement is considered a temporary 
 element^ and the program of progress in England 
 looks forward toward its complete eradication. 
 
 The Beginnings of England's Program 
 
 Twenty-one years ago the deputation referred 
 to presented to the British Government a com- 
 prehensive program of housing and town plan- 
 ning reform which, I submit, might serve the 
 same purpose in impressing our Government. 
 As regards its scope, constructive suggestion, 
 and presentation of the vital needs of the day, 
 it should be applied by us with but slight modi- 
 fications, for I believe firmly that unless we 
 adopt some similar comprehensive program, 
 we shall very soon find ourselves face to face 
 with a problem which will require even more 
 drastic action. 
 
 After calling attention to the failure of the 
 acts relating to the better housing of workers, 
 which acts, it must be admitted, were broader 
 in their scope and far more effective than are 
 those of a similar nature now in existence in a 
 few localities in the States, and after pointing 
 out that the existing slums in the British cities 
 would not be removed during the coming 
 century at the then-existing rate of progress, 
 the *Deputation asserted that the causes for 
 such failure were to be found in: 
 
 *The Case for Town Planning. A Practical Manual for the Use of 
 Councilors, Officers, and Others Engaged in the Preparation of Town 
 
 (a) The scarcity of the supply of suitable dwellings 
 to which the dwellers in overcrowded and insanitary houses 
 can remove, 
 
 ib) The imperfect character of existing powers relating 
 to the clearance of unhealthy areas, and the repair or 
 destruction of insanitary houses. 
 
 {c) The lack of efficient municipal powers to secure 
 the proper development of new housing areas and the 
 building of suitable houses. 
 
 {d) The failure of Local Authorities to fulfil their pres- 
 ent health and housing responsibilities. 
 
 (<?) The insufficient machinery for securing effective 
 inspection, control, and stimulus by the Central Authority. 
 
 [It is significant that the traditional attitude toward 
 land in England had not then undergone the change which 
 now has taken place so rapidly, and thus the prime govern- 
 ing factor in house-shortage and congestion was almost 
 wholly ignored. — F. L. A.] 
 
 But do not these statements recall similar ex- 
 isting conditions in the United States? 
 
 Among the specific suggestions looking toward 
 reform should be noted the following state- 
 ment: 
 
 *The reforms we advocate are as follows — 
 
 I. Local Authorities Should Be Stimulated to Carry Out 
 
 Their Duties Under the Health and Housing Acts: 
 (a) By conferring a power of initiative and stimulation 
 on any four persons in the district, not only with regard to 
 nuisances and unhealthy dwellings, but also in respect of 
 any necessary modifications of by-laws (as well as the 
 provision of new dwellings, as in the Irish Labourers' Acts). 
 
 (d) The Central Government should appoint health 
 and housing inspectors to visit the various districts, to 
 advise Local Authorities as to the best methods of dealing 
 with housing improvements, to report on cases of neglect, 
 to temporarily supersede, if necessary, councils continuing 
 to neglect their duties, and to carry out the necessary work 
 at their expense. 
 
 (e) Special public enquiries should be held by the Local 
 Government Board in certain selected districts with the 
 highest death-rates. 
 
 II. There Should Be Amendments of the Public Health 
 
 Acts to Secure That: 
 
 {a) Compulsory house-to-house inspection in every 
 part of every district should be made by every Local 
 Authority, instead of the intermittent or partial inspection 
 now generally made; 
 
 {b) There should be a statutory duty on all Local 
 Authorities to appoint properly qualified medical officers 
 and sanitary inspectors to give their whole time to their 
 duties, and such officers should not be removable except 
 with the consent of the Local Government Board. 
 
 III. Closing and Demolition of Unhealthy Dwellings: 
 Local Authorities should be empowered to make a 
 
 closing order which should take effect unless an appeal 
 
 Planning Schemes. By Henry R. Aldridge. London, 1915. The 
 National Housing and Town Planning Council. 
 *Ibid. 
 
 25 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 be made within fourteen days to the local magistrates, 
 and if the house be not made fit for human habitation 
 within four months of the date of making the order, 
 demolition should automatically follow without further 
 proceedings. 
 
 IV. Clearance o^ Slum Areas: 
 
 The Deputation consider that the owner of property 
 which is dangerous to human health should be treated in 
 the same way as the owner of diseased meat. 
 
 V. The Creation oj Model Suburbs: 
 
 Local Authorities should be fully enabled to purchase 
 and hold large estates in land on their outskirts and to 
 deal with such land on similar lines to those adopted at 
 Bourneville, and, to secure this end, Local Authorities 
 (subject, in the case of parish and district councils, to the 
 consent of the higher authorities) should be allowed to 
 acquire such cheap and suitable land in large quantities 
 to use, or hold, or lease, without necessarily specifying any 
 immediate purpose or detailed scheme. 
 
 Vn. Compulsory Purchase of Land: 
 
 The procedure for compulsory purchase of land should 
 be shortened, cheapened, and simplified. It is further 
 suggested — 
 
 {a) That the basis of any compulsory purchase of land 
 required by public bodies should be the capital value of 
 the land as declared by the proper valuation authority, or 
 by special commissioners, as in the case of the income tax 
 (subject to an additional exceptional allowance of a pre- 
 determined and limited extra percentage for severance and 
 other special circumstances). 
 
 VIII. Town and Village Development Commission: 
 
 (a) A central commission, or a special department of 
 the Local Government Board with extensive powers as to 
 land, housing and transit, should be established to consider 
 the main conditions of growth of the various districts in 
 the country and, where the county or borough area is 
 not suitable, to map out what may be called "Scientific 
 Areas," for each of which there should be subsequently 
 established a statutory committee consisting, as to a 
 majority, of representatives of the Local Authorities, and, 
 as to the remainder, of experts nominated by the Central 
 Commissioners. 
 
 IX. Rural Housing, Small Holdings, and Other Village 
 
 Developments: 
 
 Local Authorities and these bodies in suitable districts 
 should be empowered and assisted 
 
 {a) To promote the proper development of villages by 
 encouraging the provision of adequate and cheap means of 
 transit, small holdings, and cooperative agricultural 
 societies; and 
 
 {b) To take definite action to secure that proper 
 schemes of colonization of certain rural districts shall be 
 carried out. 
 
 X. Town-Extension Planning: 
 
 Local Authorities, or groups of Local Authorities, should 
 be empowered to make plans for town extension dealing 
 
 with the development of the land on the outskirts and 
 prepared in good time so as to meet future needs, especially 
 as to main roads, open spaces, and sites for public buildings 
 or workmen's dwellings. 
 
 XL Cheaper Money: 
 
 (a) The Public Works Loans Commissioners should 
 lend money for housing purposes up to eighty years to 
 public bodies, and, on the recommendation of the Local 
 Government Board, to the extent of not more than 80 
 per cent, to recognized societies of public utility building on 
 municipal land, at the lowest market rate at which the 
 Treasury can raise money at the time. 
 
 (b) The restrictions which prevent the funds of savings 
 banks, charities, and ecclesiastical bodies from being in- 
 vested in housing schemes should be removed so long as this 
 can be done without detriment to the funds. 
 
 XII. Revision 0/ By-laws: 
 
 (a) By-laws should be strengthened in the direction of 
 securing more open spaces and larger gardens when new 
 housing estates are developed. There should be a clause 
 prohibiting, except under special conditions, the building 
 of more than a certain number of houses or rooms per acre, 
 according to the nature of the district. 
 
 (b) By-laws as to new roads should make provision for 
 a new and less expensive type of street, when used solely 
 for access to groups of cottages, by requiring only part of 
 the roadway to be made up. 
 
 (c) By-laws as to the structure of walls and buildings 
 should be revised in the direction of avoiding unnecessary 
 expense, while encouraging the use of new materials and 
 better methods of construction. 
 
 While the method of executing these proposals 
 does not exactly apply to American conditions, 
 there are none among them which do not offer 
 most constructive suggestions. As a result of 
 this effort upon the part of the Deputation, the 
 growing public interest in the question, and the 
 able leadership of Mr. John Burns, Parliament 
 passed the Housing and Town Planning Act 
 of 1909. 
 
 This Act is too detailed and too local in its 
 provisions to be inserted, but it is absolutely 
 essential to set forth a summary of its more im- 
 portant provisions. 
 
 *A Brief Summary of the Town Planning 
 Powers and Duties of Local Authorities 
 Under the Act of 1909. 
 
 The Scope of a Town Planning Scheme 
 
 Local Authorities may, with the permission of the Local 
 Government Board, place in hand the preparation of Town 
 Planning Schemes governing all new building developments 
 in their areas or adjacent to their areas, thus securing that 
 the faults of bad planning in the past shall not be repeated 
 in the future. This power to prepare Town Planning Schemes 
 
 *Ibid. 
 
 26 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 does not, however, apply to the remodeling of the existing 
 town, the replanning of badly planned areas, the driving 
 of new roads through old parts of a town — all these are 
 beyond the scope of the new town planning powers. 
 
 The Effect of a Town Planning Scheme When 
 Prepared 
 
 When a town planning scheme has been prepared in 
 accordance with the procedure laid down by the Local 
 Government Board, it will govern the development of the 
 areas to which it applies, and all the owners and others 
 interested in the land included in the area to which the 
 scheme applies, must act in accordance with the provisions 
 of the scheme. This will not mean that, as a result of the 
 making of the plan, roads will at once be constructed and the 
 developments marked on the plan carried into effect. The 
 making of a town plan — and this applies to town planning, 
 both in continental countries and in Great Britain — is in 
 effect the definite fixing of the lines which the development 
 shall take when, either in the opinion of the private owner 
 or of the Local Authority, the time has arrived for the 
 development to be made. 
 
 The Objects of a Town Planning Scheme 
 
 The objects to be attained by the preparation of a town 
 planning scheme are defined as "proper sanitary conditions, 
 amenity and convenience," and provisions relating to 
 these objects may be inserted in a town planning scheme. 
 
 The Securing of Proper Sanitary Conditions 
 and Amenity 
 
 In regard to proper sanitary provisions and amenity, 
 Local Authorities, in preparing town planning schemes, 
 may include provisions in respect of the following: 
 
 1. The limitation of the number of dwellings per acre 
 through the area included in the scheme; 
 
 2. The reservation of certain areas for residential 
 purposes; 
 
 3. The defining of shopping centers and the limitation 
 of the erection of warehouses and factories to certain 
 areas; 
 
 4. The fixing of conditions governing the height and 
 character of the buildings to be erected in various parts of 
 the area included in the scheme; 
 
 5. The fixing of a definite proportion between the site 
 actually covered by a building and the area of garden or 
 other form of curtilage to the building; 
 
 6. The granting of power to the Local Authority to 
 purchase land for open spaces at prices to be defined in the 
 scheme itself (or in agreements added thereto) or to accept 
 gifts of land from owners, such land to be dedicated to the 
 use of the public; 
 
 7. The fixing of building-lines and the requiring those 
 building houses to set back their cottages (at such distances 
 as may be prescribed in the scheme) to secure the provision 
 of proper air-space and sunlight for each home; 
 
 8. The use of private open spaces and the preservation 
 of these and of objects of national interest or natural 
 beauty; 
 
 9. The framing of regulations requiring owners of private 
 gardens, allotments, or private open spaces, to keep them 
 in proper order; 
 
 10. The prohibition of advertisements which may 
 interfere with the amenity of the district; 
 
 11. The forbidding of the erection of houses on unsuit- 
 able sites — e.g., swampy land; 
 
 12. The fixing of minimum sizes of habitable rooms; 
 
 13. The variation of conditions of building con- 
 struction. 
 
 By a clause specially added in the committee stage, the 
 giving of compensation to owners in those cases where 
 Local Authorities, with the approval of the Local Govern- 
 ment Board, place limits in regard to the number of build- 
 ings per acre, the height and character of the build- 
 ings, is guarded against. 
 
 This power is of especial value and has been described as 
 worth the whole of the rest of the powers of the Act taken 
 together. In effect, the possession of this power enables 
 Local Authorities to secure that, as new areas are developed, 
 the provision of gardens and open spaces shall be such as to 
 secure the health and amenity of the district without plac- 
 ing a financial burden on the community to secure this 
 desirable end. 
 
 The Power of Local Authorities to Develop Estates 
 and Make Roads Under Town Planning Schemes 
 
 In regard to convenience. Local Authorities may, under 
 town planning schemes, frame wide and varied provisions 
 to secure that, on the one hand, the growing traffic needs 
 of their districts shall be adequately met, and that, on the 
 other hand, where relaxations of conditions as to road- 
 width can be made with safety, the cost of road-making 
 shall thus be lessened. 
 
 The preparation of town planning schemes gives, in 
 effect, to Local Authorities invaluable opportunities of 
 studying the traffic needs of their districts and of substitut- 
 ing, for the present 36 feet and 40 feet standards of road- 
 width, other standards comprising, at the one end of the 
 scale, the arterial road of from 60 to 120 feet in width, and, 
 at the other end of the scale, the short residential road with 
 only 20 feet of constructed road, but with a distance of from 
 60 to 80 feet between the houses on opposite sides of the 
 roads. 
 
 In other words, under a town planning scheme, a Local 
 Authority may provide for the construction of not one, but 
 several, types of road, including: 
 
 (a) Main arterial roads from 60 to 120 feet or more in 
 width; 
 
 (^) Secondary streets from 40 to 50 feet in width; 
 
 (f) Short streets, not taking through traffic, with widths 
 of 20, 24, and 30 feet. 
 
 (d) Quadrangles served by access roads of only 7 feet 
 in width. 
 
 Local Authorities may themselves undertake the 
 development of estates by purchasing land, making roads, 
 and leasing the sites or building cottages themselves. This 
 power is, however, subject to certain limitations. These 
 limitations are dealt with in Part 11. 
 
 From this short analysis it will be seen that, taken to- 
 gether, these powers may be regarded as giving to those 
 Local Authorities who realize the need for exercising control 
 over the processes of town and village growth powers of a 
 most valuable kind. 
 
 27 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 Such, in brief, are the major provisions of this 
 Act. 
 
 Before leaving the subject, it should be noted 
 — and this is a point of utmost importance — 
 that in the Act it is stated that the Local Gov- 
 ernment Board may prescribe a set of general 
 provisions (local rules or by-laws) or separate 
 sets of general provisions adopted for areas of a 
 special character. Up to the present time the 
 Local Government Board has not deemed it wise 
 to issue a set or sets of general provisions, an 
 exceedingly wise policy. Apparently this method 
 of procedure leaves to the process of evolution 
 the determination of the details which should be 
 incorporated in a "scheme." The work which 
 has thus far been accomplished by the several 
 Local Authorities and that which will follow 
 will greatly serve to crystallize, through trial 
 and experimentation, the basis of the general 
 provisions which the Local Government Board 
 will put forth. 
 
 BRITISH PRE-WAR METHODS. Ill 
 
 So much has been written about Port Sun- 
 light, Bourneville, and Letchworth that one 
 hesitates to repeat. Yet it seems vital to an 
 understanding of the situation in Great Britain 
 to consider certain aspects of these two examples 
 of housing and town planning as typical of 
 other developments in presenting a complete 
 picture of the British pre-war technique. It was 
 the garden city movement which played a vital 
 part in the evolution of housing and town plan- 
 ning legislation just considered, and it is this 
 movement which is certain to play an even 
 greater part in the social and economic develop- 
 ment of England after the war. 
 
 Cooperative Enterprise 
 
 By way of explanation to the American 
 reader, it should be made clear that there is a 
 wide and vital distinction in England between 
 what is known as the "garden city" and the 
 "garden suburb." The one refers to a com- 
 munity wherein are found homes for all classes, 
 and for industry, with agricultural land suf- 
 ficient to maintain the inhabitants in nearly all 
 the essentials, and the amenities; while the 
 garden suburb, as the name implies, refers 
 merely to a collection of homes, small shops, 
 and community buildings. Letchworth is a gar- 
 den city; Hampstead is a garden suburb. 
 
 Letchworth 
 
 The social and financial organization of these 
 communities can be most clearly stated by 
 quoting directly from a summary by Mr. 
 Edward S. Culpin in his book on the "Garden 
 City Movement up to Date." Of Letchworth 
 he says: 
 
 *"The estate, of now 4,566 acres, is the property of 
 First Garden City Ltd., a company with a dividend 
 limited to 5 per cent cumulative, whose memoranda and 
 articles embody the root principles of the movement. The 
 town is situated thirty-four miles from London on the 
 Great Northern Railway, just beyond the old market town 
 of Hitchin. It is served also by the Midland Railway from 
 Hitchin, and being bounded by the Great North Road 
 traffic facilities are excellent. 
 
 "First Garden City Ltd., being the owners of what was 
 practically virgin land, have had themselves to provide the 
 necessary equipment of the town, which, in the case of the 
 garden suburbs, is derived from neighbouring towns. Thus 
 the company own the gas, water, and electric light under- 
 takings; they have made the roads; they provide and main- 
 tain the sewers and the sewage disposal works; and they 
 have organized such facilities as an omnibus service, 
 swimming bath, etc., to encourage the growth and ameni- 
 ties of the town. 
 
 "Besides the Bye-laws of the Hitchin Rural District 
 Council, under whose jurisdiction Letchworth is, the com- 
 pany has its own building regulations and its surveyor 
 exercises some supervision over designs and specifications 
 to ensure proper conditions being observed. The maximum 
 of houses allowed to the acre is twelve, but as the size of 
 the house increases so does the area of the plot, so that all 
 over the building area (which is 1,200 acres only, the 
 remainder being agricultural and park land) there will 
 probably be an average of not more than half that number. 
 An ultimate population of 30,000 people is provided for on 
 the town area, or 35,000 including the agricultural belt. 
 Thus, over the whole of the seven square miles of Garden 
 City, there will be an average of only nine people to the 
 acre, compared with the two or three hundred still allowed 
 by the Bye-laws of many towns. 
 
 "The agricultural belt of 3,000 acres marks a funda- 
 mental difference between Letchworth and every other 
 experiment on garden city lines, and, indeed, distinguishes 
 it from every other town in the world. Many places have 
 belts or girdles of green, but none has a definite provision 
 such as this; and as in the town the way is pointed for a new 
 tradition of development, so it is hoped that the agri- 
 cultural belt will help in the solution of some of the rural 
 problems. A good deal of attention has been given to small 
 holdings, especially in the direction of milk production, 
 and recently an exhaustive inquiry has been made with a 
 view to assisting in this development. 
 
 "An important side of the Letchworth experiment, and 
 indeed the crucial test, is the development of its factory 
 area. If Mr. Howard's theory had not been sound, 
 
 •Garden City Movement up to Date. By Edward S. Culpin. Lon- 
 don, 1914. Garden Cities and Town Planning Association. 
 
 28 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 manufacturers would not have gone to Letchworth and 
 the place would never have developed. There are now some 
 thirty industries established in the town, and several of 
 these have been very considerably extended. The trades 
 represented include engineering, printing, embroidery, 
 bookbinding, photographic utensils, joinery works, pottery, 
 weaving, commercial motor engineers, motor car makers, 
 metal works, organ builders, seed and implement factories, 
 scientific instrument makers, colour printers, corset 
 makers, etc. There are five building companies working 
 on the estate. An interesting feature is the cooperative 
 house 'Homesgarth.' 
 
 "The town is complete with every facility for commerce, 
 trade and social life. Its residential facilities are excellent, 
 and as a place of residence alone it is being much sought 
 after. The industrial population have here advantages 
 which have been possessed by no other town in the country. 
 Its housing is good, the gardens are ample, and there are 
 many opportunities for recreation and social life. Church 
 life and education are well provided for. There are several 
 public halls, and the arrangements for water, lighting and 
 sanitation arc as near perfect as they can be. Its scope is 
 infinitely greater and presents the solution of more serious 
 problems than any suburb of a town can possibly do. 
 
 "Letchworth has been described as England's healthiest 
 town. Both with regard to the general death-rate and 
 infantile mortality the figures are far below any other place 
 in the country." 
 
 Hampstead 
 And of Hampstead garden suburb he says: 
 
 *"The growth of the Estate has been phenomenal. 
 Since the first sod was cut on May 2nd, 1907, 1,550 houses 
 have been built and occupied, with an estimated population 
 of 5,000 people. 
 
 "The value of the houses and public buildings on the 
 Estate is estimated at £800,000, representing, with the land 
 and roads, a capital value of over £1,000,000, while the 
 ground rent secured amounts to no less than £1 1,330 out of 
 a total estimated rental of £15,000. Dividends at the rate 
 of 5 per cent per annum on the ordinary shares have been 
 paid during the past four years. 
 
 "The end of the first portion of the Estate (240 acres) 
 being in sight, the Directors have acquired another 112 
 acres of land from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, while 
 the Copartnership Tenants Limited, who have been respon- 
 sible for the development of a large portion of the original 
 area, have taken up 80 acres of the added portion and have 
 also taken 300 acres direct from the same authorities, 
 making a total of one square mile of land, the whole of 
 which will be planned by the Hampstead Garden Suburb 
 Trust Ltd. 
 
 One must include as a most important factor 
 or element in the development of both the gar- 
 den city and the garden suburb, the Public 
 Utility Society where the central idea is the 
 substitution for the personal ownership of the 
 individual home without any responsibility for 
 
 ♦Ibid. 
 
 the condition of the surrounding estate, of the 
 principle of ownership of shares in a company, 
 these shares carrying the right of tenancy of 
 the house and the acceptance of definite collec- 
 tive responsibility for estate management. 
 
 Finally, these results are made possible by 
 the fact that loans may be obtained from the 
 Government for a long period of years at a rate 
 approximating that which the Government has 
 to pay. 
 
 THE WAR PROGRAM: LAND 
 
 The foregoing, in very broad outlines, is the 
 background against which we must examine the 
 methods of industrial housing conducted by the 
 British Government during the war. As an 
 essential part of this background, one might 
 naturally include conditions surrounding the 
 acquisition of land; but, inasmuch as land for 
 industrial housing purposes was acquired during 
 the war under the authority of the Defense of 
 the Realm Act, it seems best to consider the 
 land question under the heading of the "War 
 Program." 
 
 Prior to the war, there were two ways through 
 which land could be acquired by the State, 
 namely, the Prerogative and the Defense Acts 
 and the Military Lands Acts. These two Acts, 
 however, are not often used because the ma- 
 chinery is cumbersome, and, in the case of the 
 second, the methods of assessing compensation 
 is extremely favorable to the owners of the land. 
 These need not concern us for the moment, for it 
 was under the Defense of the Realm Act and the 
 regulations made thereunder that land has been 
 almost exclusively taken during the war. Under 
 this Act, His Majesty has power, by order in 
 Council, to make regulations "for securing pub- 
 lic safety and the defense of the realm." These 
 regulations, when made, have the same effect 
 as if they were a part of the statute, provided, 
 of course, that they are within the powers con- 
 ferred by the statute. A detailed statement of 
 purposes for which land could be thus taken is 
 set forth in the Defense of the Realm Consoli- 
 dation Act of 1914. It is important to study the 
 Acts themselves and the regulations at present 
 in force. These are published quarterly in the 
 "Defense of the Realm Manual of Emergency 
 Legislation." Regulations 2 to 5 enable the 
 Government, where necessary for the purpose 
 of the defense of the realm, to take land or 
 
 29 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 buildings for military or naval purposes, or for 
 the purposes of agriculture and the provision of 
 food. It is important to note that no compen- 
 sation is mentioned in any of the Defense of the 
 Realm Acts or the regulations. 
 
 Compensation to Owners 
 
 At the beginning of the war, under the above 
 regulations, land was taken for the purposes of 
 the war. Hotels were taken for the use of public 
 departments; poor, law, and charitable insti- 
 tutions and local Government institutions were 
 taken for hospitals and housing of workers. 
 The question of compensation was left in the 
 air or settled by agreement in which the Gov- 
 ernment agreed to pay the bare loss. To provide 
 for the conditions where an agreement as to 
 compensation could not be reached, and in cases 
 not otherwise provided for by the law, the 
 Defense of the Realm (Losses) Commission was 
 appointed on Dec. 31, 191 5. The reports of this 
 Commission are important to consider in detail, 
 for they set up the principles upon which com- 
 pensation should be paid. In brief, the principle 
 is that the person deprived of land merely gets 
 compensation for the bare loss which he has suf- 
 fered; if the land was not being used he gets 
 nothing except for damage directly done. 
 
 While this may or may not be a satisfactory 
 solution of the problem as regards temporary 
 occupancy, it was felt about the middle of 191 6 
 that something more should be done for land- 
 owners. Realizing that the war would probably 
 last for some time to come, it was deemed wise 
 to provide a new system of compensation. Con- 
 sequently, on Dec. 22, 1916, the Defense of the 
 Realm Acquisition of Land Act was passed. 
 This provided for a system of compensation 
 considerably more generous than had been 
 given by the Losses Commission, but consider- 
 ably less generous than that provided by the 
 Land Loss Act. 
 
 It should be clearly kept in mind that this Act 
 does not deal with compensation for the occupa- 
 tion of land during the period of the war. This 
 is still paid either by agreement or under the 
 Defense of the Realm (Losses) Commission. 
 The act deals mainly with:* 
 
 I . Temporary occupancy after the conclusion 
 of the war. 
 
 ♦Briefed from a memorandum prepared for the Journal by Mr. J. 
 C. Miles of the Ministry of Munitions, London. 
 
 2. Permanent occupation. 
 
 3. The power of the Crown to sell at a later 
 date. 
 
 4. Principles of compensation. 
 
 In this the technique of the Land Clauses Act 
 is retained but the principles of compensation 
 are modified by the schedule. Article 6 of the 
 schedule is of the greatest importance, for by 
 virtue of this article the value of the land is its 
 value at the commencement of the war. This 
 is a point of the utmost importance. The Govern- 
 ment therefore avoids paying for an increment 
 which it creates by its own effort. 
 
 5. Provision of a tribunal to determine com- 
 pensation. (The Act also deals with a number 
 of other difficult questions.) 
 
 We may briefly summarize the situation as 
 regards the occupation of land for war purposes 
 as follows: 
 
 Through the powers set up in the Defense of 
 the Realm Act, the state took possession of land 
 without considering the question of compensa- 
 tion. Where the occupation is temporary, for 
 the period of the war or a shorter time, compen- 
 sation is payable, either by agreement or is 
 assessed by the Defense of the Realm (Losses) 
 Commission. For land occupied temporarily or 
 permanently for a period after the war, compen- 
 sation is determined by the Defense of the Realm 
 (Acquisition of Land) Act. It is obvious that 
 the method of settlement is complex because of 
 the different systems of compensation for occu- 
 pancy during the war and for occupancy there- 
 after, and that the first is not statutory, whereas 
 the second is done under statutory powers. 
 While it would be convenient to bring the whole 
 scheme under legislative enactment, one cannot 
 but realize, after examining the documents re- 
 lating to the establishment of the basis of settle- 
 ment, that the procedure of immediate action 
 adopted by the Government in its Defense of 
 the Realm program was the one absolutely 
 certain way of meeting the situation. 
 
 Details of the English Operations 
 
 So much for the general executive and finan- 
 cial aspect of wartime housing. Let us consider 
 for a moment the physical side. One thing 
 strikes the observer forcibly in practically all of 
 the larger operations conducted by the Govern- 
 ment. These communities are complete. They 
 are laid out along the latest ideas of housing and 
 
 30 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 town planning. They contain, beyond the cot- 
 tages (permanent and temporary) for industrial 
 workers, dining-halls, recreation buildings, clubs, 
 institutes, schools, playgrounds, churches, hospi- 
 tals, stores, markets, and they are provided with 
 excellent roads with curbs, sidewalks, fences, 
 hedges, and, in many cases, trees have already 
 been planted. The permanent elements — and 
 these are not confined to cottages, but include 
 many of the amenities noted above — in arrange- 
 ment, design, materials, and the amount of 
 space surrounding each cottage unit, compare 
 most favorably with any of the similar opera- 
 tions developed prior to the war; in fact, in some 
 of them it seems to me that I observed a definite 
 step in advance. As I passed through a number 
 of these, it was exceedingly difficult for me to 
 grasp the idea that the first sod was turned very 
 little over two years ago. There were no ragged 
 edges. The characteristic British thoroughness 
 was everywhere expressed. 
 
 During the early stages of the war, England 
 first embarked upon a policy of erecting tem- 
 porary hotels and cottages, but when the mag- 
 nitude of the struggle was fully grasped, and it 
 was realized that the shortage of materials used 
 in temporary structures carried their cost to 
 very nearly that of permanent structures, the 
 general policy was changed, and from that time 
 on the central idea has been to build of per- 
 manent materials wherever it was humanly 
 possible so to do. 
 
 Of the permanent cottages, nothing in par- 
 ticular need be stated beyond this: They are 
 quite as good in every respect as the best ex- 
 amples constructed prior to the war. They are 
 somewhat simpler in design and, in consequence, 
 I think, rather more appropriate. 
 
 The Amenities and Their Vital Value 
 in Production 
 
 One other point should be emphasized: We 
 must not limit our concept of housing operations 
 to the question of cottage erection and the provi- 
 sion merely of sidewalks and roads. In the orig- 
 inal plans for these various industrial towns, 
 England included a great variety of buildings 
 and features which come under the general 
 head of "amenities." Owing to the urgency of 
 war's demands, the scarcity of labor and ma- 
 terials, in some cases the immediate erection of 
 these was omitted from the construction pro- 
 
 gram. It is significant that very shortly after 
 the plants were put into operation every possible 
 source of energy was then directed toward the 
 immediate erection of these missing elements. 
 These were added for a very definite reason: It 
 was hoped that by their addition to the housing 
 elements the very serious daily labor "turn- 
 over" would be reduced. Such proved to be the 
 case, and, in the later schemes, it is interesting 
 to observe that the construction and provision 
 of the amenities goes forward at the same rate 
 of speed as does the erection of the cottages and 
 the plant. 
 
 It may not be evident from the drawings and 
 from the few photographs available at this date 
 how adequately do these new Government con- 
 structed industrial towns express an integrated 
 purpose. They give evidence to a broad imagin- 
 ative concept which is in scale with the needs of 
 the day. They prove the value of focusing ex- 
 pert knowledge upon a single problem, for it is, 
 upon final analysis, not a hundred difi^erent 
 problems; it is rather a single problem with per- 
 haps a score of variations. Why should we 
 waste effort in the organization of a hundred 
 enterprises which in turn must each have its 
 many subdivisions of organization? Our prob- 
 lem is to conserve our energies. 
 
 In the light of my recent experience, viewing 
 for the moment the British and the American 
 problem at a little distance, I cannot but feel 
 that our proposals for carrying forward the 
 work of housing the rapidly expanding army of 
 munitions workers is little more than a feeble 
 gesture. If we are to succeed to a degree in any 
 way comparable with Britain's success in the 
 fabrication of munitions or in scale with our 
 own ideals, we must at a single step span the 
 entire field of the British background of ex- 
 perience, both pre-war and war, and set up im- 
 mediately as a part of the federal organization 
 for carrying on the war a central body with suf- 
 ficient power to adequately meet the maximum 
 demands of industry, regardless of what those 
 demands may be. fVe must be made to realize 
 the proper sense of scale, and the bearing of 
 England's achievement on her future social and 
 industrial structures. 
 
 RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 We assume that in England, where apparently 
 every effort is directed toward the accomplish- 
 
 31 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 ment of the vivid national purpose — War, that 
 there must be a breathless waiting for the out- 
 come of the struggle and a deep anxiety regard- 
 ing the days when her vast armies shall have 
 returned from the field of action. Paradoxical 
 as it may seem, such is not the case; there is no 
 waiting. Everywhere there is a searching of the 
 heart, a probing after fundamental values, and 
 an active endeavor to formulate the outlines of 
 a policy of reconstruction which will, in some 
 small measure, compensate for the losses sus- 
 tained, and which will render the national life 
 after the struggle not unworthy of the deeds of 
 heroism at the front. 
 
 Three years of struggle with a single object 
 as the goal of national endeavor have wrought 
 tremendous changes, and the countless strands 
 of individual aims have been gathered up and 
 woven into one vast fabric of national purpose. 
 
 But we all know that this war must end, and 
 the problem, therefore, is what shall then be 
 the national purpose which will serve to hold 
 the fabric together? 
 
 How can that purpose be expressed in terms 
 intimately related to the many complex forces 
 contributing to the national life? By what 
 technique can these forces be coordinated and 
 directed without the sacrifice of individual in- 
 itiative? Such are a few of the questions upper- 
 most in the mind of thoughtful England today. 
 Similar in import is the industrial "unrest." 
 Through the travail of war, there has been born 
 a hope conceived in the dark days of the Indus- 
 trial Revolution of a century ago. 
 
 If viewed in the light of pre-war convention 
 and dogma, the proposals for reconstruction seem 
 revolutionary; but they are not so viewed. 
 Thought which was revolutionary in its nature 
 has now become merely radical. And there are 
 no limits or boundaries. Speculation, it is true, 
 centers around the problems related to labor, 
 industry, and education, but the proposals search 
 out and affect every phase of national life. The 
 value of directed integrated effort has, in a meas- 
 ure, been realized, and the realization has opened 
 up vistas looking toward a nearer approach to a 
 general scheme of national syndication of group 
 purposes. 
 
 Such, in brief, was the background of tendency 
 and thought against which I viewed the indus- 
 trial technique through which England supplies 
 her vast armies at the front. My purpose was 
 
 to survey rapidly the industrial housing situa- 
 tion and to study the methods whereby Eng- 
 land had essayed to solve this gigantic problem 
 which had so suddenly confronted her. I visited 
 nearly a score of the larger munitions plants 
 scattered throughout England, Scotland, and 
 Wales, and the magnitude of the problem was 
 more than vividly revealed. I went primarily to 
 study the physical aspects, but it was impossible 
 to confine myself to such a limited phase of the 
 operation; for the far-reaching effects and the 
 significance of the broad policies adopted as 
 war measures had created an entirely new set 
 of social and economic values as regards labor 
 and housing, and had thrust the questions boldly 
 into the realm of future national politics. 
 
 The Obligations of the State 
 
 Prior to the war, by several Acts of Parlia- 
 ment, the State had assumed the obligation of 
 adequately housing her working population. 
 This obligation was not to be fulfilled by the 
 exercise of police power, as is our policy in the 
 States (where the State has actually assumed no 
 obligation), but by acts of initiative and the 
 rendering of direct financial assistance. Obvi- 
 ously, the effectiveness of these Acts was 
 limited by the social and economic values used 
 to determine the standard as regards adequacy. 
 Notwithstanding the relatively low values used, 
 these Acts have proved effective. The State had 
 already, prior to the war, initiated many enter- 
 prises, and the financial aid — the long-term 
 loans at low rates of interest given subject to 
 State control — had very greatly stimulated 
 house-building on broad town planning lines. 
 
 While direct action by the State and the 
 financial aid, rendered to properly constituted 
 bodies was a long step in advance, these did 
 not solve the problem. The old relation between 
 wages and the cost of living had not been altered; 
 in fact, the purchasing power of a day's work 
 was falling. The mere lowering of the rate of 
 interest and the removal of many of the ham- 
 pering conditions surrounding house-building 
 was not enough. Up to the outbreak of the war, 
 the shortage was accumulating. Conditions in 
 some quarters — in the great industrial centers 
 — had become acute. 
 
 Such was the situation in the summer of 19 14, 
 when the tremendous and instant expansion of 
 industries created a housing problem which 
 
 32 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 had to be met without a moment's delay. For 
 perfectly obvious economic reasons, private 
 enterprise failed to respond; there was but one 
 possible resource — State action. 
 
 And the State acted, and acted immediately, 
 not with the breadth of vision that it should, but 
 the power was created, and housing enterprises, 
 both of a temporary and a permanent nature, 
 were started. Towns, and even cities, were pro- 
 jected and laid out over night. The unusual 
 financial aspects of the problem and the short- 
 age of labor and materials were accepted. The 
 central idea was to provide adequate and suf- 
 ficient housing — permanent in so far as possible 
 — arranged on broad town planning lines, antic- 
 ipating future growth, and to provide this in 
 the shortest possible space of time. 
 
 Then it was that a new and a permanent value 
 as regards the importance of housing was estab- 
 lished. The State recognized, as never before, 
 the vital importance of industry; and both 
 Industry and the State recognized — not in 
 theory, but by sweeping acts of acknowledg- 
 ment — that upon the adequate housing of the 
 worker as regards the home, its environment, 
 and the amenities, may depend the very exist- 
 ence of the Nation. 
 
 The New Value of Wages 
 
 The deeper significance of this nation-wide 
 development is not limited by the fact that the 
 State is housing its munition workers at a rental 
 below what would in normal times be deemed 
 a minimum return upon an investment of this 
 sort. It is rather that a new method has been 
 established for measuring the value of things 
 created by Capital and Labor. Heretofore, in 
 determining the value of a product we have in- 
 cluded the cost of adequate plant and equip- 
 ment, the actual cost of labor, overhead and 
 profit. But labor value is likewise complex and 
 includes, in lieu of plant and equipment, a house 
 and its surroundings — for these are necessary. 
 The value of labor has been fixed by its market 
 value in competition, or by a union scale. The 
 housing of the human machine has been left to 
 "the devil take the hindmost" policy. 
 
 In the new war method of valuation, the cost 
 of plant includes not merely the buildings 
 wherein machines are operated and workers 
 perform their tasks, but it also includes 
 the buildings wherein the workers live and 
 
 meet in social intercourse and for purposes of 
 recreation. 
 
 It will be argued that this is a national crisis, 
 that upon the fabrication of munitions depends 
 the well-being, the very existence of the State; 
 that the return to the ways of peace will im- 
 mediately remove the urgency of the need, and 
 that we shall then return to the pre-war basis 
 of valuation. I have viewed this question from 
 many angles, and I doubt if such will be the 
 case. Labor has measured its strength in this 
 crisis and will not be easily led back to the con- 
 ditions prior to the war. 
 
 There may be a halting progress, but the 
 steps taken will not be retraced. England will 
 go forward, and the new standards and values 
 created through the war will carry over into 
 the days of peace. 
 
 The State has measured the relative import- 
 ance of the factors looking toward its well- 
 being. It has created broad powers and authori- 
 ties and direct methods of conserving what it 
 deems to be the most important. The technique 
 is bold and crude: it is the technique of war, but 
 this will be adjusted to the days to come, for its 
 aim is peace, and a better peace than those who 
 labor have ever known. 
 
 It is this aspect of the industrial housing 
 problem which now becomes the central theme 
 of the discussion. 
 
 Our Perilous Necessity 
 
 Unless we act now, the problem which Eng- 
 land has faced and met today we shall later 
 face under sterner conditions. It may be post- 
 poned, shortsightedly; it cannot be turned aside. 
 In broad outlines, the two problems — England's 
 of today and ours of the future — are identical. 
 The differences relate to legislative enactments 
 and technical methods; the social and economic 
 factors are the same. 
 
 We may fancy for the time being that the 
 war is nearly over, but there is little ground for 
 such a hope. We must prepare as England pre- 
 pared; but we can do morey for we can, through 
 the knowledge gleaned by her experience^ phrase 
 our program of immediate preparation in terms 
 of great reconstructive value. 
 
 In England, during the twelve years imme- 
 diately preceding the war, there was an aver- 
 age yearly increase of over seventy thousand 
 dwellings having an annual rental under £20. 
 
 32 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 This yearly increase ceased immediately after 
 war was declared. When we consider that this 
 normal increase represents an accumulating 
 shortage for the entire war period, whatever it 
 may be — and that, in addition, an abnormally 
 large number of dwellings have become unfit 
 for habitation during the same period, and that 
 there was, prior to the war a very acute con- 
 dition of congestion in many quarters — it is 
 perfectly obvious that a most difficult problem 
 confronts the days of reconstruction. 
 
 A very similar condition of housing shortage 
 has existed for some time in the States. We 
 have practically ignored the problem; we have 
 treated it locally, but not effectively. The con- 
 ditions and the causes remain, and the problem 
 will become more acute just so long as we take 
 the narrow point of view as regards the applica- 
 tion of the remedy. To a very large majority 
 of us it has been an indication of prosperity, a 
 field for speculative profits, and we have utterly 
 ignored the smoldering fires of industrial unrest 
 which such a condition provokes. 
 
 An article appeared not so long ago in one ot 
 our popular American magazines. The title was 
 "Standing Room Only," and it vividly portrayed 
 the conditions existing in a certain prosperous (.'') 
 industrial city. Our callousness to the vital 
 nature of this question was illustrated by the 
 fact that not a few of the influential inhabitants 
 of that city did not know whether to take it as 
 a taunt or as a compliment that their town 
 should be so frightfully congested. 
 
 It is but flying in the face of serious trouble to 
 thoughtlessly ignore this vital social and eco- 
 nomic question, or to attempt to solve it by 
 makeshift methods. Neither of these conditions 
 obtains in England today; she is earnestly en- 
 deavoring to solve the problem. 
 
 The Part Played by the House in the 
 New British Labor Program 
 
 Under the caption "A New Labour Pro- 
 gramme" in the London Times (November 3) 
 there is set forth by the Executive Committee 
 of the British Workers' League the draft recom- 
 mendations of a Program of National and 
 Industrial Reconstruction as a recommendation 
 to the General Council of the League which 
 was to be convened immediately to consider its 
 adoption. It reads like a program based on 
 one of H. G. Wells' forecasts — a chapter from 
 
 his Anticipations, as it were — and it is worthy 
 of the most serious study. It contains the fol- 
 lowing suggestions relative to the program of 
 providing adequate homes as a part of the plan 
 of reconstruction. 
 Housing: 
 
 (a) The Government to take immediate steps to ascer- 
 tain the extent of the deficiency in housing accommodation, 
 both rural and urban, and where such deficiency is not 
 being met, to render adequate financial assistance, either 
 in the form of loans on easy terms or of grants covering a 
 proportion of the amount required, in order to provide 
 the necessary accommodation. 
 
 (^) The Central Authority to act under compulsory 
 powers where the Local Authority fails to take the re- 
 quisite measures. 
 
 In the Report of Proceedings of the Trades 
 Unions Parliamentary Congress, just issued, 
 there occurs this resolution, followed by a very 
 sane discussion of the question: 
 
 That this Congress, in view of the great shortage of 
 working-class houses, and the consequent menace to the 
 health of the people, calls upon the Government to deal 
 at once with this important question: 
 
 (i) By making it compulsory for local authorities to 
 prepare and carry out adequate housing schemes to meet 
 the need of their area. 
 
 (2) Embracing such Government grants, free of interest, 
 as will enable local authorities to erect suitable houses for 
 the people. 
 
 Further, in view of the extreme urgency of the question, 
 this Congress instructs the Parliamentary Committee to 
 press for action to be taken by the Government without 
 waiting for the cessation of hostilities. 
 
 In a pamphlet but recently issued by the 
 Joint Committee on Labour Problems after the 
 War, which Committee was composed of three 
 representatives each from the Parliamentary 
 Committee of the Trades Union Congress, the 
 Executive Committee of the Labour Party, the 
 Management Committee of the General Federa- 
 tion of Trade Unions and the War Emergency 
 Workers' National Committee, I quote from the 
 full statement merely the specific recommenda- 
 tions: 
 
 (a) The Government must promptly inform all the 
 local authorities that the requisite 1,000,000 new dwellings 
 have got to be built, and that each place will have its 
 assigned quota; 
 
 {i>) The local authority should everywhere be required 
 to decide, within one month, whether or not it will under- 
 take to build the quota thus fixed, upon the terms oflFered 
 by the Government; 
 
 (c) The land must be at once secured (or a legal option 
 obtained) under the summary process of the Defence of 
 the Realm Act or some equally speedy procedure; 
 
 34 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 {d) The plans must equally be prepared and approved 
 in advance; and the local authorities should be required 
 to have them ready within three months of the decision 
 to provide so many dwellings; 
 
 (<?) The Government must for four years secure "pri- 
 ority" for these 1,000,000 working-class dwellings as 
 regards all building materials; 
 
 (J) The 1,000,000 new dwellings should be everywhere 
 begun the day after peace is declared; but should be pro- 
 ceeded with, month by month, strictly in correspondence 
 with the supply of building trades workmen, so as to leave 
 practically none of them at any time unemployed; 
 
 ig) Where the local authority obstinately refuses to 
 build the quota assigned to it, the Local Government 
 Board should itself undertake the building, placing the 
 work under the supervision of a local committee appointed 
 by itself, on which the Trades Council, the Local Trade 
 Union branches, and the local women's industrial organiza- 
 tions should be represented. 
 
 In April of 191 6 a National Congress was con- 
 vened to consider Home Problems after the war. 
 This Congress was composed of representatives 
 of the Local Authorities (city councils, town 
 councils, urban and district councils), through- 
 out Great Britain, representatives of trades 
 unions, architectural societies, cooperative so- 
 cieties, teachers' associations, property owners* 
 associations, and individuals generally interested 
 in national issues. The complete report is a 
 valuable contribution toward the solution of 
 the after-the-war problem. The following para- 
 graphs are from the Report of Deputations to 
 His Majesty's Government received by the 
 President of the Local Government Board, 
 September 20, 191 6. This report represents a 
 most thoughtful study: 
 
 That this Congress urgently directs the attention of the 
 Government to the critical need for the provision of addi- 
 tional housing for the working classes, and in respect of 
 the national interest ahd responsibility in the matter urges 
 upon the Government to set aside no less than £20,000,000 
 to make such advances to Local Authorities and other 
 Agencies as will enable them to provide houses at reason- 
 able rentals having regard to all necessary and equitable 
 circumstances and conditions. 
 
 That in the opinion of this Congress legislation is 
 necessary to simplify and cheapen the transfer of land so 
 as to encourage the building of houses for the working 
 classes. 
 
 The Future General Housing Policy 
 
 (i) This Congress urges all parties in the State to take 
 combined action to secure that every family shall be housed 
 under proper conditions, and in order to secure this end, 
 which is of vital and national importance, urges that 
 legislation should be introduced: 
 
 {a) To set up machinery in all industries to require 
 
 employers to pay wages sufficient to ensure decent housing 
 accommodation for the workers in these industries; and 
 
 {b) To secure that, where such raising of wages can 
 only be achieved by stages, the Local Authority shall 
 recognize and fulfil the duty of providing decent housing 
 accommodation for those unable meanwhile to pay an 
 economic rent, and that the whole country shall bear the 
 difference in the cost between the rent of the decent dwell- 
 ing and the rent which the tenants can afford to pay.s^ 
 
 (a) That in view of the results produced by the systems 
 of providing houses for the working classes hitherto pre-* 
 vailing, this Congress requests the Government to take 
 such steps on either local or national lines as will facilitate 
 and stimulate the activities of Local Authorities and other 
 agencies in the erection of houses that are necessary. 
 
 (3) That, in the opinion of this Congress, housing 
 schemes promoted by public authorities, save in the case 
 of schemes intended for housing those unable meanwhile 
 to pay an economic rent, should be economically self- 
 supporting. 
 
 Shall We Help or Hinder the Birth of 
 the New Hope and Spirit.^ 
 
 These are but a few of the many proposals 
 and suggestions which express quite accurately 
 the general trend of British opinion as it views 
 the tremendous and inevitable problem of re- 
 construction. While these suggestions are in the 
 main general in their statements or demands, 
 there is also to be found a group of definite, well- 
 organized proposals aimed at affecting the 
 desired changes. These are in the form of rec- 
 ommended amendments to the existing Housing 
 and Town Planning Acts. They cover the entire 
 field of and affect the work of the Local Govern- 
 ment Board, Local Authorities, copartnership 
 companies, industrial corporations, and private 
 or speculative enterprises. Such details must of 
 a necessity be omitted; but in the broad legis- 
 lative policy which we must formulate and 
 enact these expressions of British evolution in 
 Housing and Town Planning policy must be 
 reckoned with. They will affect the social and 
 economic future of the whole world. 
 
 The technical suggestions are all directed to- 
 ward increasing the scale of the present legisla- 
 tive enactments. Greater financial inducements 
 in the way of larger advances and time of loan, 
 will undoubtedly be offered to Local Authorities 
 and to Public Utility Societies, which embark 
 upon adequate housing and town planning 
 schemes. The imperial obligation to house the 
 workers in an adequate environment will be ful- 
 filled through the extension of powers and au- 
 thorities, and I should not be surprised to learn 
 
 3S 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 at some not distant date that the adequate 
 planning of urban and rural areas in England 
 had been made obligatory by an act of Parlia- 
 ment. The same public sentiment, the same 
 stream of tendencies which produced these acts, 
 is gaining in strength. It would be highly irra- 
 tional for one to assume that the process of 
 evolution will suddenly cease, and that a nation 
 with an awakening sense of social justice to all 
 will suddenly and without cause stagnate and 
 cease to advance. 
 
 The central theme of the picture of England 
 today is not war, nor soldiers, sturdy and full of 
 life, nor soldiers wounded in battle, nor guns, nor 
 munitions of war, nor the crosses over the graves 
 of those who have died, nor grief and sorrow, nor 
 
 a world filled with unrest and discontent — no; 
 for the central theme is a new hope. And this 
 new hope is not that hope of the aged or the 
 last hope at which men grasp — it is instead the 
 hope of youth, the hope of robust life, the hope 
 that goes with a knowledge of strength and 
 power, that inspires and in turn calls for action. 
 Nor is it confined to the victories of war; it 
 permeates the lives of all. Those who are timid 
 and afraid call it Labor Unrest, the Ferment of 
 Revolutions, and they seek to make more pain- 
 ful the birth of this new spirit. They shall fail, 
 and in proportion as they oppose shall chaos 
 prevail, for this new spirit is the spirit of amelio- 
 ration and justice, of law and order and the 
 Rational Life. 
 
 THE AMERICAN BACKGROUND 
 
 WHILE our history discloses no exact 
 parallel to the economic conditions 
 surrounding production and the physi- 
 cal conditions surrounding the home life of the 
 town laborer in England during the days of the 
 Industrial Revolution, we have witnessed, dur- 
 ing the latter part of the nineteenth century, 
 conditions and tendencies in industry which 
 bear a striking resemblance to those observed 
 in England a century ago. But there is dis- 
 closed no corresponding parallel to the move- 
 ment expressed by the terms "collective owner- 
 ship and administration," "collective regula- 
 tion," "collective taxation," and "collective 
 provision" which mark the development of 
 the British cooperative societies among the 
 workers and in British social politics (resulting 
 in certain specific legislative enactments and a 
 corresponding rapid expansion of the function 
 of government in the fields of production and 
 consumption) ; these have been rapidly develop- 
 ing in England during the last three-quarters 
 of a century. 
 
 We have pursued a middle course. Conditions 
 of labor within and without the factory have 
 not been quite as bad, and, as a result, our pro- 
 gram and measures looking toward ameliora- 
 tion have been but little more than a series of 
 feeble compromises. 
 
 We have conceived government to be an 
 institution, the purpose of which was to dis- 
 pense a limited kind of justice and to control 
 our vicious acts through the exercise of police 
 
 36 
 
 power. Property has been, upon the whole, the 
 sacred thing, and the safeguarding of the rights 
 of individuals to have and to hold has been the 
 central purpose expressed in our legislative 
 enactments. That this should be the case is 
 natural. We have been pioneering, and life has 
 appeared to consist in accomplishment phrased 
 in terms of limited individual purpose. Our ex- 
 pansion has been marked by frightful waste; con- 
 servation has appeared as a function of govern- 
 ment only after individuals felt the pinch of want. 
 In the office of the National Housing and 
 Town Planning Association in London is a 
 library which contains the greater part of the 
 housing and town planning literature published 
 in America. One day I took occasion to study 
 this library in the hope of thus arriving at a 
 comparative estimate of its scope and a clearer 
 idea of our aim and purpose. I was at a sufficient 
 distance to observe our general tendencies and 
 possibly to note our rate of progress. 
 
 As a result of this re-survey, I was furnished 
 with a most interesting experience; as I read the 
 tables of contents, the forewords and occasional 
 paragraphs and summaries, there developed a 
 better understanding. It was made evident to 
 me that our past should be considered merely 
 as a period of incubation. Our appeal for better 
 houses and a broad policy of town planning had 
 been phrased to arrest the attention of the great- 
 est number; we had chosen the financial aspect 
 (the economic is altogether too broadly expres- 
 sive). The more or less obvious value of better 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 sanitary conditions had furnished the basis of 
 our appeal. 
 
 Our purpose, expressed by our emphasis upon 
 the financial benefits to be derived from better 
 conditions of sanitation, has limited our pro- 
 grams for planning towns and houses in a most 
 extraordinary way and has brought about cer- 
 tain tentative solutions of these problems which 
 will do quite as much to thwart progress as any- 
 thing we could possibly devise. 
 
 In our effort to provide better conditions, we > 
 have limited our federal, state, and municipal / 
 legislative enactments to restrictive measures. 
 We have assurhed that by enacting legislation 
 against a bad condition we would thereby create 
 the opposite. Restrictive legislation and the 
 exercise of police power express the methods 
 through which we have assumed that a better 
 physical and social environment could be 
 evolved. This does not follow. What^wejtieed \ 
 are positi ve legislative rnar.tmpnfs booking 1 
 towardme creation of the conditions which we 
 desire. I would not be interpreted as utterly 
 condemning our efforts of the past. I realize 
 that progress is a matter of evolution, but I 
 point out that our concept of government as 
 expressed in the existing legislative enactments* 
 is too limited to be of any real value. 
 
 In "City Planning Progress 1917," published 
 by the Journal of the American Institute of 
 Architects, one finds a very complete summary 
 of our progress in city planning. A hasty survey 
 of this document leaves one most encouraged, 
 but an analytical study produces the opposite 
 pointofview. One observes every where aworthy 
 purpose as expressed by the formulated plans; 
 but when one considers the technique of carry- 
 ing these subjects into execution, one must 
 admit that the machinery now set up is totally 
 inadequate. A commission without authority 
 is an excellent vehicle for education and for the 
 distribution of propaganda. In exceptional 
 cases, such a commission may be highly 
 qualified as regards technical experience; but, 
 there being no element in the municipal, state 
 or federal government whose function it is to 
 carry on work of this sort, progress is hesitating. 
 Ofttimes the work of such a commission is 
 merely pigeonholed. 
 
 •For a concise statement of the "Constitutional Limits of City 
 Planning Powers," see pamphlet by this title, by Edw. M. Bassett, 
 City of New York Board of Estimate and Apportionment Committee 
 on the City Plan 1917. 
 
 As has been pointed out, within our cities 
 effort toward the provision of better homes has 
 been limited in the main to restrictive laws. 
 Judging by these, it may be said that aside from 
 the placing of a limit upon the degree of con- 
 gestion and insanitary conditions which will be 
 tolerated within a municipality, the govern- 
 ment is not interested in the question of decent 
 homes for workmen. 
 
 In America there are, in general, but three 
 methods whereby homes for workers are pro- 
 vided: Speculative building, philanthropic enter- 
 prise and initiation by industrial corporations. 
 
 Speculative building has failed in America, 
 as it failed in Europe, because of the most 
 elemental of economic reasons: Speculative 
 capital flows into such enterprises as offer the 
 prospect of the largest reasonably safe return. 
 So long as a low standard as regards adequacy 
 and a high standard as regards congestion is tol- 
 erated, and so long as the cost of building is low, 
 capital sufficient to maintain these lower stand- 
 ards finds its way into speculative home-build- 
 ing enterprises. As a result of better education, 
 constantly increasing demands for a better 
 environment, there naturally follows a gradual 
 diminution of return, which in turn reduces the 
 flow of capital used for this purpose. Since the 
 demand for more adequate accommodations and 
 for more homes inevitably occurs at a'time of 
 prosperity and Industrial expansion, it should 
 be obvious that it is absolutely futile to rely 
 even in a small degree upon speculative build- 
 ing. It is utterly hopeless to assume that 
 through this method the standard of living 
 conditions may be raised^. Uncontrolled specu- 
 lation in this field is so closely akin to exploita- 
 tion that to propose it as a method of providing 
 homes at a minimum of rent is to propose that 
 the workingman be exploited. Consider, for a 
 moment, the pathetic and tragic stupidity which 
 compels our communities to give land-owners 
 the values which the community creates, and 
 which, as though to twist the knife in the 
 wound to our national life, then taxes the man 
 who improves his land! 
 
 Philanthropic or semi-philanthropic enter- 
 prise, depending upon the generosity of indi- 
 viduals and their willingness to accept a low 
 rate of interest, while admirable if considered 
 from a limited point of view", need not be seri- 
 ously considered as a solution of the problem. 
 
 37 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 While such enterprises may do excellent experi- 
 mental work and in so doing set a good example 
 and perform a valuable service, yet the total 
 number of homes thus created is too small and 
 will ever be too small to be considered as a 
 possible solution of this problem. It has been 
 argued that the higher standard set by philan- 
 thropic enterprise tends to raise the standard 
 of speculative building. To a very limited extent 
 this may be true; but it may be argued that 
 philanthropic enterprise directs the flow of 
 speculative capital to other more remunerative 
 fields and in so doing actually diminishes the 
 supply of homes. In the proportion that enter- 
 prises of this sort are apparently successful 
 do we postpone the formulation of a broad 
 home-building policy. 
 
 If one were to select such a home-building 
 policy as typical of present American tendency, 
 he would probably choose that employed by the 
 larger industrial corporations. This method 
 has been fostered by social reformers and it 
 appears to the industrial corporation to be the 
 only solution of the problem when they are con- 
 fronted with the condition of either limiting 
 their output or building homes for their em- 
 ployes. As in the case of philanthropic enter- 
 prise, this method has a material value and it 
 may raise the standard, though the latter is a 
 debatable question, one in which I would take 
 the negative. In any event, all depends upon 
 the attitude of the corporation embarking upon 
 such an enterprise. 
 
 This policy should be accepted merely as a 
 temporary expedient, a past experiment, and 
 it should be deprecated as being in nowise a 
 solution of the problem. At best, it can deal 
 with but a small sector of the problem taken as a 
 whole. It can be applied only where the initiat- 
 ing corporation is sufficiently strong to use a 
 portion of its capital and its earnings for the 
 purpose of home-building for its employes. 
 It makes no provision for a much larger pro- 
 portion of workers who are employed by cor- 
 porations having insufficient capital or who are 
 unwilling to embark upon such a policy. In view 
 of the economic conditions surrounding employ- 
 ment, such a policy must inevitably give the 
 larger corporations an advantage over the 
 smaller. This, however, may be far from perma- 
 nent, and depends entirely upon other factors in 
 the relation between employer and workmen. 
 
 The question of individual ownership of a 
 home by a worker through voluntary purchase 
 from such a corporation should be ruled out of 
 consideration in connection with this discussion. 
 Under such conditions, the purchase is never 
 voluntary nor is the laborer free. The policy is 
 not based upon sound social or economic 
 principles; and the mere fact that it may some- 
 times be employed successfully should not lead 
 us to the conclusion that it is not a vicious 
 practice when the problem is considered from the 
 national point of view. 
 
 It is eminently desirable, and the war has 
 thrown a greater emphasis than ever before 
 upon this point, that all those who constitute 
 a nation shall live in the highest possible state 
 of physical and social well-being. To assume 
 that speculative builders, philanthropic societies 
 or industrial corporations are responsible for the 
 maintenance of the physical and the social 
 well-being of those who work is merely an act 
 of throwing the responsibility to certain groups 
 who appear to us to have a special interest in 
 this problem. This is simply a way of saying: 
 "Let George do it." 
 
 Industrial corporations have, in many cases, 
 accepted this responsibility because in so doing, 
 and by no other existing method, was it possible 
 to continue their policy of expansion. To such 
 it was not a question of building homes for the 
 workers of America; it was a question of output 
 and dividends. By our general acceptance of 
 this method we have acknowledged the fact that 
 homes cannot be provided without some stimu- 
 lating force. It is something to have acknowl- 
 edged this, to have recognized that some finan- 
 cial and initiating aid must be called upon if our 
 industrial population is to be provided with 
 adequate homes; but it is no solution of the 
 problem to point our finger at prosperous indus- 
 trial corporations and say: "You're it." 
 
 We may emphasize, and we should emphasize 
 in individual, industrial and national terms the 
 social, moral and economic value of creating 
 around industry the most desirable conditions 
 of work, rest and recreation, but we should also 
 at the same time define in simple terms the line 
 or boundary which defines the responsibilities 
 of the corporation and the responsibilities of the 
 state. One might present long arguments in 
 favor of this clear definition of responsibility, 
 but the fundamental reason is simple in the 
 
 38 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 extreme: Industrial enterprise is organized, so 
 long as it is private enterprise, for the single 
 purpose of production and profit. This holds 
 for industries whether they be large or small. 
 The home and the entire environment in which 
 men live is organized with a single purpose in 
 view, namely, that of providing men with the 
 maximum results of labor. That industry might 
 be organized with this same purpose in view is a 
 perfectly rational suggestion and it may be that 
 at some future day the organization of the "Key 
 industries" will assume this form. Under the 
 present unorganized economic condition of 
 society it is futile to attempt to solve this 
 national problem by asking private enterprises 
 in production to organize the collective pro- 
 vision of homes and an adequate environment 
 for workers. 
 
 I The Immediate Problem in the United 
 States 
 
 By inference, the broad outlines of the policy 
 which we should adopt and put into immediate 
 execution has already been suggested in the 
 outline of the British policy under the heading 
 "British War Housing." 
 
 The following is a composite of opinion, 
 British and American: As already noted, we can 
 profit materially by the adoption of certain 
 British methods and we can, at the same time, 
 anticipate many of the problems of reconstruc- 
 tion by incorporating in our method of imme- 
 diate procedure such policies as will embrace the 
 problem of the future as well. 
 
 Workmen's home-building operations which 
 are now under construction should be completed 
 under the terms and conditions by which they 
 were initiated, provided sufficient progress is 
 made; otherwise, the government should take 
 them over and proceed with the operation 
 through the organization suggested below. Such 
 operations should not in any way affect our 
 general program of procedure. 
 
 By all odds, the most important consideration 
 in home-building during war or during peace is 
 the land problem. We should secure land for 
 industrial housing purposes by precisely the 
 same methods as were used by the British 
 government. This includes the safeguarding of 
 adjacent areas by a provision which will enable 
 the government at a later date, during the war, 
 to secure property for the expansion of an 
 
 operation at pre-war costs. Incorporated and 
 as an essential feature of our scheme, should be 
 a provision whereby the unearned increment in 
 the land thus taken by the government should 
 be preserved so that the income from it will be 
 used for the sole benefit of the community. 
 The conservation of the unearned increment in 
 land for the benefit of the community is in it- 
 self the prime factor in the economic solution ol 
 the housing problem. 
 
 The government should organize a separate 
 department or a non-profit government cor- 
 poration for providing the communities adjacent 
 to munition plants wherever it develops that 
 additional accommodations are required. This 
 organization should acquire land under powers 
 as suggested above, plan new villages, install 
 roads, sewer, water, and light, erect houses and 
 other buildings of amenity required by these 
 communities, and it should operate the proper- 
 ties until such time as they may be transferred 
 to others. This organization should cooperate 
 with the various departments of the govern- 
 ment which operate or control plants providing 
 munitions of war. Control of this organiza- 
 tion by the latter departments should be limited 
 to a determination as to the extent and the 
 general nature of the building operation. It is 
 important that the management of the civil 
 community should be in charge of a community 
 manager, working under the direction of the 
 Central Administration which would in turn 
 frame a general policy of management in 
 cooperation with the department operating the 
 plant. 
 
 The entire property, land and buildings, 
 should be retained and operated by the govern- 
 ment during the war and for a certain period 
 thereafter. Future values and conditions can 
 only be determined accurately at a future date. 
 Therefore, when conditions and values have 
 been adjusted, local non-profit land companies 
 with limited dividends should be formed to 
 operate the properties — that is, rent houses, 
 operate the utilities or rent land to private 
 builders or companies — and use the surplus 
 income from rentals to pay interest and amor- 
 tization of the government's loan. The import- 
 ant features of this scheme, which is similar to 
 the British copartnership operations in many 
 respects, are that no land will be sold; title will 
 remain in the original company and be handled 
 
 39 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 as a community investment; rentals will be 
 readjusted from time to time like tax valua- 
 tions; and, since there can be no profit as a 
 result of an increase of land values due to the 
 development of a community, the increase in 
 rentals would provide for the interest, the 
 amortization of the government's loan, and an 
 income to be enjoyed by the entire community 
 which would approximate twice the revenue 
 which this community would obtain under 
 ordinary conditions and through the ordinary 
 methods of taxation. This method conserves 
 the unearned increment of land values created 
 by the government's house-building operations. 
 The new communities gradually purchase the 
 underlying lands and the original houses at cost, 
 thus reimbursing the government. 
 
 It may be argued that these new communities 
 may collapse after the war, in which case the 
 government loan will, of course, be lost, but by 
 extending the period of government ownership 
 and control beyond the war and by the organiza- 
 tion of local land companies in each community 
 to anticipate that danger, other industries may 
 be secured. The chances that such an invest- 
 ment would be a loss are indeed remote. It is 
 highly probable that a well-planned community, 
 organized upon this basis, with provision of 
 adequate homes and communal buildings, would 
 draw industries to it without effort. This sug- 
 gestion is not one of theory; it would merely 
 be putting into effect, with but slight modifica- 
 tions, the practices in general use in the garden 
 cities and the garden suburbs of England. The 
 advantage of the scheme lies in the fact that we 
 do not have to determine the complex details 
 of ownership and future management at this 
 date; and the success of this method depends 
 solely upon the degree of thoroughness with 
 which these communities are carried out. If 
 they are well planned, well constructed and 
 well organized, there is not the slightest 
 doubt regarding the future value of the invest- 
 ment. 
 
 We know some of the changes which have 
 taken place in Europe where one recognizes 
 already a definite direction in the developing 
 policies of reconstruction. What new forces 
 will modify the direction of these movements no 
 one can foretell, but of one thing we are certain: 
 Europe will emerge from conflict as a world of 
 
 totally new values, a world expressive of a 
 broader interpretation of democracy. There 
 will be a new relationship established between 
 the two social divisions which remain, but these 
 will not be separated by the same old barriers ot 
 prejudice and hypocrisy, and men and institu- 
 tions will be appraised more nearly upon the 
 basis of their worth. There will be less power in 
 the hands of a few and there will be fewer 
 pawns. There will be a greater appreciation 
 of the value of an integrated national purpose. 
 Many of the factors absolutely essential to 
 large-scale production, but now utterly ignored, 
 will each receive its proper share of attention*. 
 Programs of national reconstruction and evolu- 
 tion will revolve about broader concepts of edu- 
 cation, industry and commerce and the integra- 
 tion of the three. 
 
 For it would be strange indeed, after this 
 experience in what approximates a national 
 syndication of production and collective provi- 
 sion which now holds sway, if men should return 
 and thoughtlessly take their former places in 
 life under the same wasteful and uncertain con- 
 ditions which prevailed before the war. Those 
 now in the workmen's ranks will not return 
 to those conditions, nor will those who direct 
 the activities of production be willing to return 
 to the old pre-war period of individualistic cut- 
 throat competition and small-scale production. 
 There will be a reorganization of business and 
 of government as a result of the lessons learned 
 in war. This reorganization will acknowledge 
 that unity of purpose must exist between pro- 
 duction and consumption, work and recreation, 
 and that the simplest and most direct method 
 of achieving this unity is through the extension 
 of the functions of the government. There will 
 also be observed a distinct effort toward the 
 integration of individual and national purpose, 
 and this integration will obtain in the pro- 
 portion that we are able to bring the entire scope 
 of our problems within our grasp of vision. Wc 
 have been studying our problems at too close 
 a range, in other words on too small a scale. 
 In so doing we have been able to grasp but a 
 tiny sector at one time. We must bring into our 
 field of vision the whole problem. 
 
 *NoTE. — It would be of value if every American business man could 
 read the "Elements of Reconstruction" (H. G. Wells), a series of 
 articles contributed in July and August to the London Times, with an 
 introduction by Milner, Nesbit & Co., Ltd., London 
 
 40 
 
yi 
 
 
 J, Hill =- 
 
 
 ^^ii ^ ill '^r' 
 
 
 
 mpgl "^- ' ,.;,,j^* 
 
 *iifli^i^^:.,.: .. 
 
 
 
 
 Government Housing Scheme, 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 1915. 
 View of GILBORNE WAY Looking West. 
 
 H. M. Office of Works, 
 Westminster, 
 London, S. W. 
 
 41 
 
Government Housing Scheme, 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 191 5. 
 A Group in WHINYATES ROAD Looking North. 
 
 II. M. Office 
 IP estminster, 
 London, S. JV. 
 
 42 
 
Government Housing Scheme, 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 191 5. 
 Fiew in DICKSON ROAD Looking East. 
 
 H. M. Office of Works. 
 Westminster, 
 London, S. W. 
 
 43 
 
Government Housing Scheme, 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 1915. 
 Crescent near Station in WELL HALL ROAD. 
 
 H. M. Office of Works, 
 fVestminster, 
 London, S. W. 
 
 44 
 
Government Housing Scheme, 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 191 5. 
 WHINYATES ROAD /row ROSS WAY Looking South. 
 
 H. M. Office of Works, 
 Westminster, 
 London, S. W. 
 
 45 
 
Government Housing Scheme, 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 1915. 
 Fiew in WELL HALL ROAD Looking South. 
 
 H. M. Office oj Works, 
 Westminster, 
 London, S. W. 
 
 46 
 
Government Housing Scheme, 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 1915. 
 LOVELACE GREEN Looking North. 
 
 H. M. Office of Works, 
 Westminster, 
 London, S. W. 
 
 47 
 
Government Housing Scheme, 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 191 5. 
 Pair of Cottages in LOVELACE GREEN. 
 
 H.M. Office of Works, 
 Westminster, 
 London. S. W. 
 
 48 
 
Government Housing Scheme, 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 1915. 
 Block of Houses in PHINEAS PETT ROAD. 
 
 H. M. Office of Works, 
 fVestminster, 
 London, S. W. 
 
 49 
 
Government Housing Scheme, 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 191 5. 
 CONGREVE ROAD {Boughton Road Crossing) Looking South. 
 
 H. M. Office of Works. 
 JVestminster, 
 London, S. fV. 
 
Government Housing Scheme. 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 1915. 
 SANDBY GREEN Looking North. 
 
 H. M. Office of Works, 
 Westminster, 
 London, S. W 
 
 51 
 
Government Housing Scheme 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 191 5. 
 View in ROSS WAY Looking East. 
 
 !L M. Office of Works, 
 JFestminster, 
 London, S. W. 
 
 52 
 
What Is a House? V 
 
 By RICHARD S. CHILDS 
 
 The House Problem Is a Land Problem 
 
 IN ESSENCE, the reason why our workmen 
 and their families do not live in attractive 
 surroundings is because attractive sur- 
 roundings would raise the rent which in turn 
 would raise the land values. And a raise in 
 rent would chase away the workmen and their 
 families. 
 
 When New York opens a new subway and 
 offers to a district where the working people 
 live a quick, convenient ride down town, the 
 operation of this law promptly chases the afore- 
 said working people fifty blocks farther away. 
 I know a church at 76th Street whose whole 
 congregation moved to the 120th Street region 
 when the subway opened, to avoid the rising 
 rents. 
 
 If New York should solve its market and food- 
 supply problem, the landlord, showing a pros- 
 pective tenant through an apartment would say, 
 "We are only three blocks from the municipal 
 market here; you can save |io a month on food. 
 So this apartment at $70 a month is really just 
 as cheap as it used to be at ^60." Or the vacant- 
 lot owner would say, "Yes, but all the land in 
 this section has gone up because of the advan- 
 tages of that new municipal market over there." 
 In a factory town, if the factory encounters 
 adverse fortune and employs its operatives only 
 intermittently, rents and land values are de- 
 pressed. But if the factory is full of orders and 
 offers overtime work at time-and-a-half, the 
 real estate men brighten up and get their asking 
 prices. 
 
 Increase the workers' pay, with the idea that 
 they can have pretty and spacious houses in- 
 stead of dismal and narrow ones, and you have 
 increased their buying power — a fact of which 
 the land-owners take note. "They're putting in 
 a lot of machine processes over at the plant," 
 says Mr. Landowner as he dickers over a sale, 
 "and several hundred high-paid mechanics will 
 be brought here to live. They'll be wanting 
 homes." And he stiffens his price appropriately. 
 If a group of millionaires had sudden reason to 
 
 *Introducing still another author, with several new ones to follow. 
 -The Editor. 
 
 colonize there, his prices would grow vastly 
 more. When Henry Ford jumped the wages in 
 his vast plants, Detroit real estate jumped too, 
 to match the new buying power. 
 
 The Fable of the Bungalow 
 
 There is a fable told of a man who, choosing 
 between two rural bungalow plots at I500 each, 
 decided to take both and tendered the owner 
 1 1, 000. But the price of the two, he was in- 
 formed, was $1 , 100. For the bungalow he was to 
 erect on one lot would enhance the value of the 
 other lot to |6oo. If there had been a thousand 
 such lots on sale at $500 each, the price of them 
 all (with a certainty that a thousand bungalows 
 were to be erected) would not be 1500,000 but 
 something nearer to $1,000,000. The early 
 comers would pay I500. The late comers, en- 
 tering a neighborhood whose development had 
 become assured, would pay |6oo, |8oo, 1 1,000, 
 and more for lots that were not a whit different 
 or better. And the tax assessor would value 
 them all, quite properly, at the standard set by 
 the latest sales. So, little by little, the people, 
 who could pay ^500 a lot, but no more, would 
 find themselves unable to enter the colony. 
 
 So we see the real-estate developer buying the 
 big old suburban farm, cutting it into lots, lay- 
 ing sewers, roads, sidewalks and wires, and offer- 
 ing frantic inducements to the first comers, for 
 the sake of profits on later sales after his for- 
 lorn, bare tract becomes a nice neighborhood. He 
 wins or loses, as his fate may be, but his bitterest 
 burden is the flimsy parasite development that 
 presently rises just beyond his boundary line and 
 undercuts those later prices by which he hoped 
 to recoup those earlier sacrifices whereby he got 
 the people coming. This unearned increment 
 which he earns for his idle neighbor is perhaps 
 the straw that breaks his back. 
 
 Imagine, if you can, an enthusiastic city plan- 
 ner building a model suburb piecemeal! He 
 would buy a few lots, erect a group of pretty 
 houses, sell them and buy land again just be- 
 yond, build there, sell, and buy more land be- 
 yond that! Would he? Not if the land-owners 
 saw him coming! They would build up a dam 
 
 S3 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE.? 
 
 of inflated prices on their lots against his ap- 
 proach, as if he were a leper. His pretty houses, 
 so far from encouraging the erection of more 
 model houses in the neighborhood, would actu- 
 ally tend to make them impossible by compel- 
 ling other builders to spend for unearned incre- 
 ments of land value more and more of the 
 money they intended to put into plumbing and 
 verandas. 
 
 Assessable and Non-Assessable Benefits 
 
 When the city builds a sewer, it can assess the 
 cost against the property benefited; the City 
 Club of New York demonstrated, a few years 
 ago, that even so large an enterprise as the sub- 
 ways could have been easily financed in that 
 way by the lands whose value they enhanced; 
 but a good and wholesome housing development 
 that benefits a neighborhood is not assessable, 
 even in part, upon the neighboring land. If it 
 could be, what a fine stimulus we would have 
 for the kind of housing that improves a neigh- 
 borhood by its very presence! How it would 
 alter the financing of the enterprise if the land- 
 owner across the street or around the corner 
 could be charged with a fair share of the cost 
 of thus bringing new people to that section, in 
 due proportion to the resultant enhancement of 
 his land values. 
 
 Concede, then, that no real solution of the 
 problem of getting the vast majority of our 
 population into attractive homes is possible 
 unless we first solve the problem of the unearned 
 increment which now banks up in front of econo- 
 mic progress, including housing progress, like 
 snow before a snow-plow ! 
 
 Wages and Land Values 
 
 Of course, there is a wage-problem, too. 
 Numerous workers are paid so little that they 
 cannot possibly meet the rent that should fairly 
 be charged for a barely decent home, even on 
 low-priced land, and employers sometimes go in 
 for philanthropic housing at charity rates to 
 compensate for their own niggardliness. But 
 that is a separate problem — not strictly a hous- 
 ing problem at all. 
 
 Wages should be sufficient to obtain for the 
 workers at least enough of the products of other 
 labor to feed, clothe, and house their families in 
 decency and health. In the worker's budget the 
 variable element which has no relation to a 
 
 definite cost of production is the tribute he 
 must pay to land. 
 
 When the Lackawanna Steel Co. put its big 
 plant on a stretch of vacant land near Buffalo 
 and offered work there for several thousand men, 
 the town land was worth $1,279,000. The city 
 of Lackawanna, 14,000 population, grew up 
 there, and the land values skyrocketed from 
 $91 per person to $644 (the plant land being 
 eliminated in each case). That inflated value 
 for standing-room was, in fact, enough to keep 
 about half the Lackawanna Steel Company 
 employees from making their homes there at all, 
 while many of those who do live there, huddle 
 in dingy saloon lodgings and leave large areas 
 idle in the hands of the land speculators. The 
 annual value of a man's full share of Lacka- 
 wanna land for himself and family of five at 6 
 per cent is, at the original value, 5 X I91 X .06, 
 or $27.30; at the enhanced value, |i93- Money 
 spent on land rent cannot be spent on house rent. 
 The annual cost of a wholesome house is, let us 
 say, $125 a year. If his modest lot cost only an 
 additional $10 or $20 annually, the worker could 
 more nearly afford those superior accommoda- 
 tions which the housing and city-planning 
 experts yearn to give him. 
 
 The net unearned increment which Lacka- 
 wanna has given as a princely gift to miscellan- 
 eous lucky private land-owners and speculators 
 is $6,788,000, a figure large enough in itself to 
 explain why Lackawanna is mostly ragged and 
 squalid instead of dainty and wholesome.* 
 
 The Lackawanna Steel Co., after creating the 
 increment, finally bought additional land at the 
 enhanced values and erected a group of good 
 houses for some of its employees, but was unable 
 to charge to its low-paid workers rents high 
 enough to make the operation anything but a 
 philanthropic proposition. 
 
 The U. S. Steel Corporation has taken the 
 logical next step by purchasing town land in 
 various places at the same time as the land for 
 the new plants, thus in some degree anticipat- 
 ing and capturing the increment for the benefit 
 of its workers. In some degree, I say, for the 
 coming of a mysterious purchaser who buys land 
 by the square mile cannot be altogether con- 
 cealed, and the Corporation which, of course, 
 has no power of condemnation, gets mercilessly 
 
 *These figures are taken from an elaborate unpublished report by 
 H. S. Swan, of New York, prepared for the Committee on New Indus- 
 trial Towns, of which the writer is Secretary. 
 
 54 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 mulcted by the land-owners who get wind of the 
 operation in time to raise their prices. 
 
 Having thus acquired the town-site, the Steel 
 Corporation plans the streets and sells off the 
 lots without attempting to reap a profit. But as 
 population arrives, the unearned increment 
 arrives too and confers profits promiscuously 
 upon the successive land-owners. In Gary, 
 Indiana, which this Corporation created, in 
 1906, on vacant sand-dunes, this generous policy 
 resulted in distributing $22,358,900 net to 
 various private owners and speculators during 
 the next ten years, a heavy burden upon the 
 steel-workers in their efforts to buy housing 
 accommodations or anything else.* 
 
 Philanthropy and Paternalism 
 
 At other places, under similar circumstances, 
 many companies have bought and kept the town- 
 sites, erected good cottages, and rented them to 
 the workers. Sometimes this has been largely 
 and beautifully done; sometimes cheaply and 
 shabbily. The old New England factory vil- 
 lages, the mining towns and modern creations 
 like Morgan Park, Minnesota (U. S. Steel Cor- 
 poration), are types. Sometimes the manu- 
 facturer collects a profit on his housing opera- 
 tion. More often he runs it at cost, and some- 
 times frankly and purposely at a deficit, con- 
 sidering it in effect a supplement to his wage- 
 scale. This latter system thwarts the unearned 
 increment nicely. The increment exists, but the 
 owner forbears to take advantage of the power 
 to charge more rent than his actual costs dic- 
 tate. But the system is paternal and often sug- 
 gestive of feudalism or of "Lady Bountiful," 
 which irritates self-respecting labor. The cor- 
 poration's policies and practices as a landlord 
 become entangled with its policies as an em- 
 ployer. In case of a strike, shall it insist on dis- 
 possessing strikers who are unable to pay the rent 
 and give the newspapers an opportunity to pub- 
 lish pictures of Mr. Striker and his wife and seven 
 children with their pitiful pile of chairs and 
 bedding on the sidewalk? Or shall it help finance 
 the strike by generously remitting its claims for 
 rent in the cases of those who assert themselves 
 unable to pay? Wise employers dislike to be 
 the landlords of their workers. 
 
 *Froni a report to the Committee on New Industrial Towns, by 
 Dr. R. M. Haig, of Columbia University, republished in part in the 
 Political Science Quarterly, March, 191 7. Reprints obtainable from the 
 Committee. 
 
 The Workman as Home-Owner 
 
 The attempt of manufacturers to sell houses 
 and lots to employees on easy terms or other- 
 wise is, from labor's standpoint, not generous 
 but positively sinister. Except in towns where 
 there is great diversity of employment, the 
 effect is to tie the worker to the mill-owner like 
 a feudal peasant to his lord. It interferes with 
 the mobility of labor. As the Welfare Director 
 of a large company enthusiastically explained 
 to me, "Get them to invest their savings in 
 their homes and own them. Then they won't 
 leave and they won't strike. It ties them down 
 so that they have a stake in our prosperity." 
 
 Another informant commented on the labor 
 troubles that brought about the permanent dis- 
 mantling of a certain old plant in a New Eng- 
 land village. "Those fool workers!" he said. 
 "There a lot of them had invested the savings 
 of years in their homes and then had to sell out 
 for a song and move elsewhere. That's what 
 they got for quarreling with their bread and 
 butter!" 
 
 Community Land Ownership 
 
 Are we agreed, then, that the housing question 
 is partly a land question? That an influx oif 
 population to a new area enhances land values 
 and thereby burdens the incomers to the full 
 extent of their paying power? That an improve- 
 ment in housing likewise enhances land values 
 and promptly balks the progress of better hous- 
 ing by a swelling barrier of unearned increments ? 
 That increments must be anticipated and in 
 some way eliminated as a barrier before we can 
 hope to see our army of workers happily housed 
 on any extended scale? That effective housing 
 operations must be on a large enough scale to 
 reserve to the enterpri se the bu lk of „ the incre- 
 ments they create instead of handing easy money 
 to the neighbors? That this requires a single 
 ownership and control of the whole tract, rather 
 than diversified ownership with each owner try- 
 ing to capitalize the benefits of his neighbor's 
 progressiveness ? That such single ownership 
 may not wisely be in the hands of a manufac- 
 turer who employs the tenants? 
 
 In whose hands, then? 
 
 In the hands of the future community, as a 
 whole ! 
 
 The medium may be a non-profit land com- 
 
 SS 
 
'' ^/cf/s /oarssr tt? /ta/ //vc/f 
 
 
 ^.U/W'M\^y 
 
 S6 
 
57 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 pany, the conduct of which the future tenants 
 may control — a private government, so to 
 speak; or the government. Either might earn 
 a surplus but would have nothing to do with it 
 save to distribute it in some kind of services 
 among the tenants. 
 
 Letchworth and Land Values 
 
 In England it is this principle that underlies 
 the garden city. The story of Letchworth has 
 been told already, but let us have it again in 
 these particular terms as a problem in land. 
 The First Garden City Ltd., seeking no profits 
 beyond a cumulative 5 per cent on actual in- 
 vestment, but intent simply upon an interesting 
 public service, bought some 7 square miles of 
 vacant land at agricultural prices, planned a 
 beautiful city for 30,000 people in the center of 
 it, with a belt of farms around it, and put in the 
 necessary paving and utilities to make it habit- 
 able. The belt of farm land was a valuable 
 feature; it prevented neighboring land-owners 
 from reaping fruits of the Company's sowing. 
 Any purveyor who wanted the trade of Letch- 
 worth must set up his shop and home in Letch- 
 worth and not just over the border, for the 
 border was far away. Anyone who obtained a 
 job in Letchworth must live and trade there, too. 
 So when the Company induced manufacturers 
 to come to Letchworth with their operatives, 
 Letchworth property got all the benefit. The 
 lots were not sold but leased for 99 or 999 years 
 on terms governed by a foreknowledge of just 
 how populous Letchworth was to be allowed to 
 be and just what it was destined to be like in 
 each street and square. Some of the unearned 
 increment did escape, due to the length of the 
 leases. The early lease-holds doubtless have some 
 salable value today, and later leases, made after 
 part of the population had arrived, were on an 
 ascending scale of rentals. But the bulk of the 
 increment has been so successfully reserved to 
 the Company, and thus to the community, that 
 at the first general appraisal of the Company's 
 value in 1907, four years after the founding of 
 the town, there was already a net increment of 
 £169,05.8 above the total cost to that date of 
 £247,806. Since then, of course, the increments 
 have been vast, and Letchworth shows annual 
 profits. For the present, the Company, with 
 its self-imposed limit of 5 per cent annual return 
 on its investments, is itself directing the expen- 
 
 diture of the revenues and performs the func- 
 tions of practically a municipal government. The 
 property will some day be turned over to the 
 people of Letchworth, and Letchworth will be 
 owner of all its underlying land and of miles of 
 adjacent farms, with revenues beyond the 
 dreams of ordinary governmental avarice. 
 
 Between a typical group of private owners 
 and the First Garden City Ltd. there is a gulf. 
 For the annual value of the lands at Letchworth 
 is not expended upon the private comforts and 
 necessities of a certain few land-owners, but 
 upon the property for the benefit of the rent- 
 payers. The landlords of Letchworth were eager 
 to attract population, but they wanted it to 
 come and build, not congested new slums, but 
 attractive homes that would enhance neighbor- 
 ing values. And terms were accordingly oflFered 
 that left a margin in the worker's budget suf- 
 ficient to pay for a decent house. 
 
 So it came about that the people who left city 
 slums to come to the green charms and sunshine 
 of Letchworth, found that their wages would 
 secure for them attractive cottages on land that 
 was still reasonable despite its desirability. The 
 miracle had been achieved of establishing a spot 
 where good money could be earned and city 
 conveniences obtained without encountering a 
 land-cost so inflated as to exclude the possibility 
 of spending money enough on housing to secure 
 wholesome accommodations. 
 
 In the case of those new and charming towns 
 which the English Government has built to 
 house munition workers, the unearned increment 
 has been likewise carefully squelched. The 
 land is taken at pre-war valuation, and the right 
 is reserved of taking more land adjacent thereto, 
 if needed, at the same speculator-defying terms. 
 The Government, of course, disdains to grasp 
 any of the increment and has fixed its rentals at 
 figures dictated by actual costs of land and 
 buildings rather than by the necessities and 
 paying power of the well-paid munition work- 
 ers. So the munition workers are left able to 
 pay for adequate housing. 
 
 From time to time, in America, some great 
 corporation goes forth and establishes a big new 
 plant on vacant land and creates a new town. 
 Thus, the U. S. Steel Corporation created Gary, 
 with 40,000 population, Morgan Park, Minn., 
 Fairfield, Ala., and various ore towns, while a 
 square mile of land at Ojibway, opposite Detroit, 
 
 58 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 has been expertly planned for 22,000 people and 
 waits its time. So did the Corn Products Refin- 
 ing Co. create Argo, 111., the Lackawanna Steel 
 Co., Lackawanna, N.Y., and there are numerous 
 other cases. Graham R. Taylor has told about 
 them in his "Satellite Cities." 
 
 The next time that is done, the company 
 should buy land enough for the plant and the 
 town, too, create a non-profit land company, 
 sell it the town-site, and accept in return its 
 first-mortgage bonds. The land company should 
 plan the city, pave it, provide water and other 
 utilities, stake out the building-lots, determine 
 which shall be business streets and residential 
 streets, and establish a minimum cost of build- 
 ings in the various districts to protect the land 
 values. It should lease, not sell, the land, fixing 
 the rentals at a figure sufficiently low to keep the 
 workers from going outside the tract to find 
 homes. Unless the size of the future population 
 can be definitely foreseen, rentals of business 
 frontages should be adjusted every five years, 
 to correspond with growth of the population, 
 or perhaps, of the factory payrolls. Residential 
 rentals could be made for fairly long terms — say 
 fifteen years — since such land values, even in a 
 rapidly growing town, do not necessarily alter 
 much. The employer, if it be destined to remain 
 a one-industry town, would have to become a 
 partner in housing operations in some round- 
 about way, such as financing a building and loan 
 association or helping with the financing of a 
 housing corporation, in case private capital 
 proves timid about building on leased land. 
 
 The income from land rentals at the modest 
 rate of 4 per cent on the enhanced land values 
 would be enough to amortize the investment and 
 
 leave twice as much money for community pur- 
 poses as the town would normally obtain from 
 taxation. At least, that is the way it figures out 
 in both Gary and Lackawanna. 
 
 The land company could afford to charge less 
 than the traffic would bear, as the English 
 companies do, and thus leave the worker 
 money enough for good housing. Or, as I should 
 prefer, it could charge close to what private land- 
 lords would exact and use these great revenues 
 for services that would reduce the cost of living 
 and have the same easing effect upon the per- 
 sonal budgets of the workers. 
 
 The same principles apply to the pressing 
 problem of housing our American munition and 
 shipyard workers. Let our Government create 
 a Housing corporation with an appropriation. 
 Let it condemn the lands it needs, build the 
 villages and cities that are required, and rent 
 the houses during the war. Then, when the war 
 industries have been readjusted to permanent 
 peace conditions, let the Government write off 
 the excess and emergency cost of its housing 
 adventure as a cost of war, and recoup the 
 balance by selling the property, not to individ- 
 uals, but to local non-profit land companies to 
 be operated for community revenue. Thus will 
 be created communities that are the owners of 
 their underlying lands, possessors of all present 
 and future increments therein, and enjoying 
 revenues a hundred per cent above those of 
 ordinary towns of equal size. In such towns, 
 good housing could easily be achieved and 
 maintained. 
 
 I would like to be the manufacturer, compet- 
 ing in the markets of the world, who drew his 
 labor from such a town ! 
 
 59 
 
Oiom RooL Km 
 
 <? 
 
 INSTITUTE AND SHOPS— EASTRIGGS 
 
 This is an extremely interesting structure. Its operation may be clearly understood by noting that entrance to the 
 two clubs (men's and women's) is through the passage into the court. Buildings of this sort have been a tremendous 
 feature in stabilizing industrial conditions about munitions plants. 
 
 60 
 
-' ,.' ,'.-''>/ 
 
 Gretna. — Cottages used as Hostels for Women 
 
 Gretna. — ^The Dental Clinic 
 
 6r 
 
Gretna. — The Institute 
 
 % • i-^ff^S'a.z. *■ '^ !r^v* 
 
Gretna. — Cottages 
 
 
 Gretna. — Cottages 
 
 Gretna. — ^The Recreation Building 
 

 G RETN A. — Cottages 
 
 Gretna, — The Cinema Theatre 
 64 
 
Gretna. — Cottages used as Hostels 
 
 Gretna. — Cottages 
 
 Gretna. — Cottages 
 

 r 
 
 oim:,iNA. — Staff Cottages 
 
 Gretna. — Cottages 
 
 66 
 

 EPISCOPAL CHURCH GRETNA 
 ELEVATIONS 
 
 iOUTH Lt.LVA-riOM 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 
 
 GRETNA— TWO OF THE THREE NEW CHURCHES 
 
 67 
 
E'Mmm I iffliiffliiffii ; laiifflBiiffii | ibpeiibii i ispMai | wmmM tt 
 
 HALL AT GRETNA 
 
 There was a great deal of charm about this building, which was erected in six and a half weeks in order to introduce a 
 social factor which was found during the first few weeks of operation to be absolutely necessary to the efficient operation 
 of the factory. 
 
 68 
 
What Is a House? VI 
 
 CONSTRUCTIVE HOUSING LEGISLATION AND ITS LESSON FOR THE UNITED STATES 
 
 By EDITH ELMER WOOD* 
 
 L Introduction 
 
 CONSTRUCTIVE HOUSING LEGISLA- 
 TION is that type of housing legislation 
 through which the community itself under- 
 takes to provide suitable homes at cost for such 
 of its citizens as need them. The community 
 may act either directly or indirectly. Municipal 
 housing is direct. The loan of public money to 
 a housing association is indirect. Both are con- 
 structive. 
 
 Restrictive housing legislation is that form 
 which seeks to prevent the erection of bad houses 
 through the establishment and enforcement of 
 minimum standards of light, air, sanitation, and 
 safety. It may also prevent filth and dilapida- 
 tion by establishing and enforcing minimum 
 standards of maintenance. 
 
 The best restrictive legislation is only nega- 
 tive. It will prevent the bad. It will not produce 
 the good. Especially, it will not produce it at a 
 given rental. Its only answer to a house-famine 
 is the relaxation of its own standards. This was 
 strikingly illustrated in San Francisco after the 
 earthquake and fire of 1906. Instead of taking 
 advantage of the wonderful opportunity pre- 
 sented to rebuild the congested districts on 
 model lines, the need of immediate shelter was 
 so great and private capital so timid that all 
 bars were let down and even the inadequate 
 restrictions of the old building code were sus- 
 pended. The result was that tenements sprang 
 up, covering 100 per cent of the lots, and a dark- 
 room problem was created which it will take a 
 generation to solve. 
 
 A high standard of restrictive legislation will 
 not be enacted, or, if enacted, will not be en- 
 forced, when its enforcement would leave a con- 
 siderable number of people homeless. On the 
 other hand, restrictive housing legislation must 
 not be neglected. The manufacture of new 
 slums must not be allowed to continue, nor 
 would the building of new and good houses in 
 itself cause the abandonment of the objection- 
 
 *We here introduce the third new author, as forecast in the note to 
 the authorship of Chapter V. — The Editor. 
 
 able old ones. It would only cause their rents to 
 drop, and there would always be a residuum of 
 persons, who, through misfortune, improvidence, 
 or excessive thrift, would choose them for their 
 cheapness so long as their occupation was per- 
 mitted. Effective progress, then, demands a 
 simultaneous and correlated development of 
 both constructive and restrictive housing legis- 
 lation. 
 
 Restrictive housing legislation has attained as 
 high a level of development in some parts of the 
 United States as is, perhaps, possible in the 
 absence of its working partner. The New York 
 Tenement House Law is the first of the modern 
 type, and remains one of the best.* It is cer- 
 tainly one of the best enforced. 
 
 Let us take from New York's experience one 
 single example of the limitations of restrictive 
 legislation. The New York Tenement House 
 Commission of 1900, whose recommendations 
 resulted in the enactment of the present law, 
 expressed its regret that it was not possible to 
 insist on air-shafts being put in old houses with 
 dark rooms, because the expense would lead 
 owners to turn their houses to other uses. "Re- 
 forms of such a kind," the report goes on, "would 
 harm most the very persons it sought to aid." 
 So the law requires of dark rooms only that 
 windows shall be cut into adjoining rooms. 
 According to the report of the Commission, there 
 were, in 1900, some 350,000 such dark rooms in 
 greater New York. Today, in the language of 
 the Tenement House Department and the press, 
 there are none. But this means only that the 
 cutting of windows into adjoining rooms has 
 been completed. 
 
 The old apartments built before the Tene- 
 ment House Law of 1879, which required air- 
 shafts, were three and four rooms deep. One 
 room had windows on street or back yard; the 
 others were a series of closets of increasing dark- 
 ness. The doorway from one to another was the 
 only opening. Of course, the windows cut in the 
 
 *See the note in the Appendix in which Mr. Robert D. Kohn points 
 out the serious failures of the New York law. 
 
 69 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 partitions between the rooms add somewhat to 
 the possibility of ventilating them. But the 
 rooms are still unfit for human habitation by any 
 proper standard. Half a million people are liv- 
 ing in those rooms today. What sort of citizens 
 will the generation make that was born and 
 bred in them ? 
 
 After fifteen years of operation of the New 
 York Tenement House Law, about three million 
 people, including practically the whole of the 
 unskilled wage-earning class, are still living in 
 old-law tenements. On December 31, 191 6, 
 there were 77,604 old-law tenements in New 
 York containing 597,955 apartments. There 
 were at that time 27,149 new-law tenements 
 with 378,442 apartments. Nor may we look for- 
 ward hopef^ully to the gradual elimination of the 
 old tenements and the substitution of the newer 
 and better type; for, as was stated by a repre- 
 sentative of the New York Tenement House 
 Department at the National Housing Conference 
 in November, 191 6, the building of cheap tene- 
 ments in New York has ceased. 
 
 Unless wages of unskilled workers can be 
 practically doubled without rents being raised, 
 which is clearly impossible under present con- 
 ditions, the outlook for this great class of the 
 population in New York City, under existing 
 legislation, is dark now and will become increas- 
 ingly so, as the cheap old-law buildings dis- 
 appear. 
 
 What is true in New York is true of other 
 American cities. Their housing problems do not 
 differ from those of New York in kind, but 
 only in bulk. 
 
 Mr. John Nolen ("Industrial Housing," Pro- 
 ceedings of the Fifth National Housing Confer- 
 ence, 1 91 6, p. 5) is responsible for the following 
 striking juxtaposition of facts: The simplest 
 acceptable standard of American home, whether 
 single cottage in village or suburb, or whole- 
 some apartment in a large city, costs on an 
 average from 1 1,800 to $2,000 per family, in- 
 cluding land and improvements. This means, 
 on a basis of moderate commercial profit (5 or 6 
 per cent — and capital will not be invested for 
 less), a rent of $15 a month at the least. It is 
 generally accepted that not more than 20 per 
 cent of the family income should go for rent; 
 yet more than half of all the workingmen in the 
 United States receive less than I15 a week. 
 
 What are we going to do about it ? Lower the 
 
 standard? Increase wages without increasing 
 rents? Or eliminate the commercial profit? We are 
 up against a stone wall whichever way we turn. 
 
 Here is where the experience of the older na- 
 tions is useful to us. They came to the same 
 stone wall a quarter of a century ago, and they 
 found a way through. It did not lead into para- 
 dise. Indeed it only set them on a road. But it 
 took them past the stone wall, and the road 
 points in the right direction. 
 
 II. The Experience of Foreign Countries 
 
 Constructive housing legislation has developed along 
 four main lines, of which three may be said to involve Gov- 
 ernment aid of a positive sort and one of a negative. 
 
 1 . Direct community action. The state, or more usually 
 the city, buys land and builds houses for working people, 
 either in the city itself or in garden suburbs. It may rent 
 them and remain a landlord. Or it may sell them to the 
 tenants on a system of long-term, easy payments. 
 
 2. The state may lend money at a low rate of interest 
 to non-commercial building associations, whether of a 
 philanthropic character, or cooperative or co-partnership 
 societies formed by the workingmen themselves. 
 
 3. The third type has so far produced fewer houses 
 than either of the others, yet would probably appeal more 
 quickly to most Americans. It is the loan of money on 
 favorable conditions to the individual workingman who 
 wishes to build a home. It may be done through the inter- 
 mediary of a loan company, as in Belgium, or directly, as 
 under the surprisingly simple and efficient system of New 
 Zealand and Australia. Yet, appealing as the type is, and 
 useful as it is within certain limits, it must be admitted 
 that it does not reach — cannot reach — the class that is in 
 most urgent need of help — the unskilled wage-earners of 
 large cities. 
 
 4. Finally, there is the negative, yet often important, 
 aid rendered by tax exemptions on houses of approved 
 standard and rental. The function of this type is auxiliary. 
 
 Some countries have developed one or two, and some 
 have all four types of government aid. It has depended 
 somewhat on a diversity of local needs, but more on na- 
 tional habits of thought. The accident of locality has 
 contributed largely, for, other things being at all equal, the 
 example of a near neighbor is most likely to be followed. 
 
 Three nations stand out as pioneers in constructive 
 housing legislation — England, Belgium, and Germany. 
 These distinctively industrial nations, whose cities grew 
 with unexampled rapidity during the nineteenth century, 
 were naturally the first to feel the pressure of housing 
 problems. They will be considered briefly in the order 
 indicated. 
 A. The Pioneers. 
 
 (1) England.* 
 
 •Scotland is under the same housing laws as England and Wales, 
 but as statistics are given separately, and her experience is similar to 
 that of England, though on a smaller scale, it is omitted from this sum- 
 mary. Ireland is under another dispensation, which involves subsidies 
 from the Imperial exchequer and aid from the local rates. The Irish 
 experience has more in common with outdoor poor relief than with 
 constructive housing legislation. 
 
 .70 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 {a) Description of Legislation. 
 
 Lord Shaftsbury first formulated the principles on which 
 modern constructive housing laws are based in his Laboring 
 Classes Lodging Houses Act of 185 1, which permitted local 
 authorities to borrow money from the Public Works Loan 
 Commissioners to erect dwellings for working-people. This 
 provision was so far in advance of public opinion that it 
 remained a dead letter for forty years. Another clause, 
 permitting loans to non-commercial building associations, 
 was tried out first. Under it and subsequent acts a series 
 of relatively small sums, amounting altogether to about 
 £1,000,000, were loaned to philanthropic and semi-philan- 
 thropic societies. 
 
 During this period, England was experimenting with 
 two series of restrictive housing laws, the Cross and Torrens 
 Acts, which gave, as did the Public Health Acts, consider- 
 able power to health officers in connection with housing, 
 and permitted the slum-clearance schemes which have been 
 so often criticized on the ground of expense. 
 
 Modern British experience dates from the Housing of 
 the Working Classes Act of 1890, the scope of which was 
 much enlarged by the Housing and Town Planning Act of 
 1909. The act of 1890, coming as the result of the recom- 
 mendations of the Royal Commission on the Housing of 
 the Working Classes of 1885, was a consolidation of all 
 previous housing acts (which may account for its occasional 
 lack of clearness) and also contained new provisions of 
 great importance. It is in seven parts, of which the first 
 three are the most significant. Part I deals with large, 
 insanitary, or slum areas, and clearance schemes, and with 
 the general obligation of rehousing the dispossessed ten- 
 ants. Part II deals with single insanitary houses or small 
 groups of them and with obstructive houses, which shut 
 light and air out from others. Part III deals with housing 
 undertakings by the local authorities, with the financing 
 of these projects and the conditions of public loans, whether 
 to local authorities, to societies, or to individuals. 
 
 The first two parts, then, except in so far as they involve 
 the rehousing of dispossessed tenants, are restrictive legis- 
 lation and need not detain us. Their aim is to enlarge the 
 powers of the sanitary officials. Part III and the rehousing 
 sections of Parts I and II are constructive. They permit 
 local authorities, urban and rural, on having convinced the 
 Local Government Board that the need exists, to acquire 
 land and erect workingmen's dwellings, whether tene- 
 ments or cottages, within their own jurisdiction or in 
 adjoining suburbs, with gardens if desired, of not more 
 than one acre to a house. Under the act of 1909 this part 
 becomes obligatory if the Local Government Board so 
 orders, and any group of taxpayers or tenants may peti- 
 tion the Local Government Board to make an investiga- 
 tion of the needs of their locality. 
 
 As to financing these operations, the local authorities 
 may borrow from the Public Works Loan Commissioners 
 on the security of their rates. The 1909 law makes the 
 conditions very favorable, the maximum time being eighty 
 years for land and sixty for buildings, the maximum 
 amount two-thirds of the total value, and the lowest rate of 
 interest 3>^ per cent. (This has gone up since the war, 
 reaching 5 per cent in March, 191 6, but it is not expected 
 that this increase will be permanent.) The London County 
 Council, which enjoys considerable home rule, is permitted 
 
 to finance its housing schemes by the issue of consolidated 
 stock. 
 
 The Public Works Loan Board is also authorized to 
 loan money for the construction of workingmen's dwellings 
 to societies, corporations, and private individuals. This 
 does not mean the individual workingman, however, but 
 the philanthropist or employer who is building on a large 
 scale. The need of the individual workingman is met, in 
 so far as it is met at all, by the Small Dwellings Acquisition 
 Act of 1899, which permits local authorities to advance 
 sums not exceeding £300, representing not more than four- 
 fifths the market value of a house whose total value must 
 not exceed £400. No very extensive use has been made of 
 this act, as up to March 31, 1916, only £408,129 had been 
 loaned under it. But the use is evidently growing, for 
 about half of this sum has been loaned in the last three 
 years. 
 
 The fourth type of Government aid, tax exemption, is 
 also found in Great Britain, but, like the loan to individual 
 workingmen, it plays a minor role. As between the two 
 principal forms, the activities of the private associations 
 were much the more important in early years, but although 
 they have increased steadily, they have recently dropped 
 to second place through the more rapid growth of the work 
 of local authorities. 
 
 An interesting controversy has raged between the 
 advocates of the two systems. The municipal housing side 
 is led by Alderman Thompson, of Richmond, author of the 
 "Housing Handbook" and "Housing up to Date," and the 
 opposition by Councillor Nettlefold, of Birmingham, 
 author of "A Housing Policy" and "Practical Housing." 
 Councillor Nettlefold's greatest service lies in having 
 pointed out the possibility, by patient, persistent work on 
 the part of local authorities, of eradicating slums without 
 burdening the taxpayer, by the application of Part II of the 
 housing act to one insanitary house after another, which 
 obliges the owner to repair or remove them at his own 
 expense. 
 
 Moreover, in their efforts to prove the superiority of 
 private initiative over municipal. Councillor Nettlefold 
 and his associates have put a great deal of energy into 
 making a success of co-partnership housing companies. 
 
 The net result of the controversy has been distinctly 
 helpful. Municipal activity has tended to keep up stand- 
 ards and that of private associations to keep down cost. 
 Each is put on its mettle to prove its own claim to superi- 
 ority. Far from stifling private initiative, the eflPect of 
 Government intervention appears to be stimulating. At 
 all events, the greatest private activity has occurred in 
 those localities where public officials have done most. 
 
 Under the Housing of the Working Classes Acts, those 
 entitled to receive loans, besides local authorities and pri- 
 vate individuals, are employing corporations and public 
 utility societies. These must not be confused with what we 
 call public utilities in the United States. They are what 
 we know as public welfare or limited-dividend associations. 
 They include the philanthropic limited-dividend housing 
 associations and the friendly societies, or mutual benefit 
 organizations of workingmen, which have many objects 
 besides housing, also a great number of cooperative build- 
 ing clubs, and, more recently, the co-partnership building 
 associations. 
 
 71 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 The Act of 1909, known as the John Burns Act, has 
 four parts. Part I reenacts the statute of 1890 with 
 amendments. Part II deals with town planning. It per- 
 mits local authorities and owners of estates, with the 
 approval of the Local Government Board, to prepare 
 plans for undeveloped areas. Its aim is to prevent conges- 
 tion of population and inflation of land values in the future. 
 Part III is restrictive. It establishes a system of nation- 
 wide housing inspection under sanitary authorities report- 
 ing to the Local Government Board. Part IV is the usual 
 catchall for miscellany, without which no British statute 
 appears to be complete. 
 
 {b) Results of Legislation. 
 
 No authoritative publication of general results has been 
 made. Certain figures, such as the amounts loaned by the 
 Public Works Loan Board, the number of persons housed 
 by the London County Council, or the number of houses 
 built by local authorities after the passage of the Act 
 of 1909, are known with perfect accuracy. Certain broad 
 statements are found in the works of Thompson which are 
 probably reliable, although he does not always give his 
 authorities. But they do not carry us beyond 1907. For 
 other data needed^to complete the picture, we are reduced 
 to estimates^based on more or less inadequate information. 
 The result cannot pretend to scientific accuracy, but may 
 be justified by the importance of arriving at a general 
 impression. 
 
 Public Money Invested in Housing in England 
 
 (From the Forty-fifth Annual Report of the Public Works Loan Board 
 1915-16.) 
 
 Total loaned to Local Authorities in England and Wales . £3,972,390 
 
 Total loaned to societies and individuals in England . . . 3,260,078 
 Total loaned under the Small Dwellings Acquisition Act in 
 
 England 408,129 
 
 Total to March 31, 1916 ^Tfi¥^>S9l 
 
 This does not take into account what the London County 
 Council has spent (which, exclusive of slum-clearance 
 costs, must be between two and three million of pounds), 
 nor what has been spent by Liverpool and other cities under 
 local acts. 
 
 Houses Built and Persons Housed in England through 
 Constructive Housing Legislation 
 
 Number of 
 Agency Persons 
 
 London County Council (to May 31, 1915, Annual Reports) 
 
 iiSo apSments : '.'.\ [ 9,822 lettings ) 
 
 1:874 cubicles ... J 128,252 rooms j" "'94 
 
 Local Authorities 1910-16 (Forty-fifth Annual Report Local 
 Government Board) 
 13,259 houses (estimated) 66,300 
 
 Local Authorities, 1891-1910 
 
 Number of houses not given, but total loans are about two- 
 thirds of total loans 1910-16. As cost of building was 
 less, the number of people housed was probably 
 about (estimated) 50,000 
 
 City of Liverpool to 1913, mostly under local acts, 2,731 dwell- 
 ings (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin No. 
 158, p. 314) (estimated) 10,000 
 
 All other cities under local acts (estimated) 10,000 
 
 10 Philanthropic Societies of London to 1907 (W. Thompson 
 
 "Housing up to Date," p. I43) 125,000 
 
 413 Cooperative Societies to 1907, 46,707 houses (W. Thomp- 
 son, "Housing up to Date," p. 143) (estimated) . . . 200,000 
 
 Co-partnership Societies to 1907, 400 houses (W. Thompson, 
 
 "Housing up to Date," p. 143) 2,000 
 
 Under Small Dwellings Acquisition Act (estimated) 7, 500 
 
 Total number of persons housed 528,742 
 
 72 
 
 The philanthropic societies have not been active since 
 1907, but the cooperative and co-partnership societies 
 have been extremely so. On the other hand, some of the 
 philanthropic and cooperative societies may have received 
 no public loans. Balancing these two unknown quantities 
 against each other, with the statement that the credit 
 item is likely to be larger than the debit, we are pretty 
 safe in saying that over half a million people in England 
 today owe their comfortable homes to constructive hous- 
 ing legislation. 
 
 Results, in decreased death-rates and increased physical 
 development, are very striking. For the year ending March, 
 1912, the death-rate in the London County Councils' 
 dwellings was 8.5 per 1,000, while for the whole of London, 
 in 191 1, it was 15 per 1,000 (U. S. Bureau of Labor Sta- 
 tistics, Bulletin No. 158, p. 307). Speaking of a slightly 
 earlier period, Thompson says ("Housing up to Date," 
 p. 46): "The death-rate in the model dwellings on cleared 
 slum areas is under 13 per 1,000, or one-third of what it 
 was in the old slums before clearance, viz., 40 per 1,000." 
 At the time of which Thompson was writing the general 
 death-rate in London was 15.6 (p. 75). In Liverpool a still 
 clearer demonstration was made when, by special effort, 
 94 per cent of the former tenants were rehoused on a 
 cleared area. "In 190a . . . when these areas were con- 
 demned, the death-rate within them ranged from 40 to 60 
 per 1,000, and the incidence of phthisis resulted in an 
 annual death-rate of, approximately, 4 per 1,000 . . . 
 the medical officer of health points out that under the new 
 conditions the general death-rate has fallen by more than 
 one-half, and the average annual death-rate from phthisis 
 in the corporation tenements during the four years 1909 
 to 1 91 2 fell to 1.9 per 1,000." (Forty-second Annual 
 Report, Local Government Board, Part II, pp. xxii, 
 xxiii.) 
 
 It happens that the classic examples of the effect of 
 housing on physical development are furnished by two 
 famous industrial garden suburbs which have received no 
 Government aid — Port Sunlight and Bourn ville. It would 
 hardly be claimed, though, that the beneficent results 
 recorded were due to the method of financing them, or 
 that similar results would not be found where the Public 
 Works Loan Commissioners supplied the funds. Dr. Arkle 
 made a series of measurements of schoolboys at Port 
 Sunlight, an industrial garden suburb of Liverpool, and 
 on Liverpool schoolboys of the same economic and social 
 class at the same ages. At seven the Port Sunlight boys 
 averaged 2.7 inches taller and 7.5 pounds heavier; at 
 fourteen they were 6 inches taller and 33.8 pounds heavier. 
 (The table is quoted in full in "Personal Observations of 
 Some Housing Developments in Europe," Richard R. 
 Watrous, Journal of the American Institute of Architects, 
 July, 1914.) Similarly, Bournville is a garden suburb ot 
 Birmingham, and Thompson tells us ("Housing up to 
 Date," p. 3) that the boys at the Bournville school were 
 on an average 4 inches taller than those of Birmingham, 
 and their chest measurement was 3 inches greater. 
 
 (2) Belgium. 
 
 The Belgians have the honor of having produced the 
 earliest effective national constructive housing law — that 
 of 1889 — and, up to the present time, one of the best. It 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 has also been one of the most influential, having been 
 widely observed and copied in continental Europe. 
 
 The vitally distinguishing feature of the law is its libera- 
 tion of the deposits of the General Savings Bank and 
 Pension Fund {caisse gSnerale d'Spargne et de retraite) for 
 use as loans to build workingmen's dwellings. This pro- 
 vision was copied directly in the French act of 1894 and 
 may have suggested the German plan of using state in- 
 surance funds. 
 
 Another important provision of the Belgian law was the 
 appointment of unpaid housing committees {comitSs de 
 patronage) in every arrondissement of the nation, report- 
 ing to a central body, the conseil superieure d'hygiene 
 publique. They have educational, advisory, and even some 
 administrative functions. They stimulate public interest 
 in housing, assist limited-dividend building associations 
 and individual workingmen who wish to own houses, and 
 they watch over the enforcement of restrictive laws for 
 the sanitary supervision of houses and the eradication of 
 slums. The committees have been copied in French and 
 Italian legislation and evidently suggested the county 
 housing committees provided for in Part III of the British 
 act of 1909. 
 
 Municipal housing is permitted under the Belgian law, 
 but has not been developed to any extent. Building so- 
 cieties and individual workingmen have been the active 
 agents, the individual workingmen through the inter- 
 mediary of non-commercial loan associations. The Sav- 
 ings Bank was at first permitted to loan only 5 per cent of 
 its funds, but when this limit was reached in 1901, it was 
 raised to 7>^ per cent. The interest charged at first was 
 only 1I/2 per cent, but was eventually increased to 33^ per 
 cent. 
 
 The individual workingman may borrow not to exceed 
 5,000 francs on a house and land, the combined value of 
 which does not exceed 5,500 francs. He may borrow for 
 periods of from five to twenty-five years. His payments 
 may be monthly or yearly. 
 
 One of the most interesting features of the Belgian law 
 is the insurance plan devised by M. L6on Mahillon, man- 
 aging director of the General Savings Bank. A working- 
 man borrowing to build a home takes out a policy on his 
 life for the unpaid portion of his loan. Should he die be- 
 fore the payments are completed, the balance of the debt 
 is canceled by the policy, and his widow receives the house 
 unincumbered. The Savings Bank underwrites the insur- 
 ance itself. This feature of the law has been very widely 
 copied. 
 
 Up to 1 913 the General Savings Bank had advanced 
 159,012,589 francs to the various types of societies, and 
 about 57,300 dwellings had been built in consequence. 
 This must have meant the housing of about 300,000 people. 
 On Jan. i, 1913, there were 176 associations having loan 
 contracts with the bank, of which 167 were joint stock and 
 9 cooperative. All of the cooperative and 125 of the joint 
 stock organizations were loan companies, only 42 being 
 building societies. 
 
 Apparently this governmental assistance has not had 
 the effect of discouraging private initiative, for 39 societes 
 d' habitations <i l>on marchS, which have received no loans 
 from the General Savings Bank, are listed, which have 
 invested over 65,000,000 francs in workingmen's dwellings. 
 
 About three-quarters of this sum represents industrial 
 housing enterprises by employers. 
 
 (Ministere de I'lnt^rieure "Annuaire Statistique de la 
 Belgique et du Congo Beige, 44me Ann6e, 1913, Brussels, 
 191 4, pp. 245-250.) 
 
 (3) Germany. 
 
 Unlike the various forms of social insurance which were 
 embodied in imperial legislation, and so may be said to 
 radiate from the center outward, housing reform in Ger- 
 many has grown up locally, and its progress has been from 
 the circumference inward. Individual cities tried experi- 
 ments in municipal housing. The next step was for indi- 
 vidual states to pass laws facilitating the supply of funds 
 to cities and to private societies for housing purposes. 
 These laws differ among themselves in their provisions and 
 their character, much as happens in the United States in 
 our varying state legislation. The last to act was the 
 Imperial Government, and there is not yet, although it 
 has been much advocated and debated, a real national 
 housing law in Germany. 
 
 As is often the case, the trail leads back to a person- 
 ality, and the Oberburgermeister of Ulm, Dr. von Wagner, 
 may well be called the father of municipal housing in 
 Germany. He began building in 1888 for municipal em- 
 ployees and later extended the benefits of his activities to 
 all workingmen. His first ventures were tenements, but he 
 soon became convinced of the advantages of the individual 
 cottage and garden type, and these he encouraged the 
 tenants to purchase. A mark a day over a period of about 
 twenty-five years covered the purchase price and interest of 
 a ^1,500, brick, story-and-a-half cottage and garden, very 
 attractive to the eye. German foresight is shown in the 
 stipulation in the deed giving the city the right to repur- 
 chase, if certain conditions of maintenance or use are not 
 complied with, at any time within one hundred years, and as 
 this clause is renewed whenever the house changes hands 
 by purchase or inheritance, it is, in effect, a perpetual re- 
 striction. 
 
 Mayor von Wagner developed, simultaneously with 
 housing, the policy of extensive land purchases by the 
 city, which many German cities have followed. He en- 
 countered much opposition at first, but it gradually died 
 out when it had been proved by experience that his hous- 
 ing policy cost the taxpayers nothing, and that the land- 
 purchasing policy brought in substantial profits. 
 
 It is impossible to give a clear account of housing in 
 Germany briefly y for it is the history of a great number of 
 local enterprises operated under a mass of very diverse 
 local legislation. 
 
 The most important single source of funds is furnished 
 by the old-age and invalidity insurance institutes. Author- 
 ity is found in the law of 1889, much amplified by that of 
 1 899, which permits one-fourth of their funds to be invested 
 in real estate. Loans from this source up to the end of 
 1914 totaled 532,541,142 marks. ("Amtliche Nachrichten 
 des Reichsversicherungsamts," Vol. 31, No. 5, May 15, 
 1915.) 
 
 The next most important sources of capital are the 
 imperial and state housing funds. The Imperial Govern- 
 ment, between 1901 and 1908, appropriated ^7,854,000 for 
 its fund to loan to societies, and in 1904 had spent over 
 
 73 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 $8,000,000 in the direct housing of its own employees. 
 (U. S. Bureau Labor Statistics, Bulletin No. 158.) 
 
 The Prussian Diet has operated on a more extensive 
 scale. Its housing fund, raised by the issue of bonds, was 
 started in 1895, and in 191 1 had reached the sum of 144,- 
 000,000 marks. With this the state was to build for its 
 own employees and loan to societies. In either case rents 
 were to cover the cost of maintenance, administration, 
 interest, and sinking fund. (Bulletin No. 158.) This is the 
 usual German plan, though the administration charges 
 are sometimes carried by the community, and there are 
 sometimes tax exemptions. But there is always a balance- 
 sheet — and it always balances. This practice cannot be 
 too highly commended. 
 
 No other state has worked on so large a scale as Prussia, 
 but all have done something. The Bavarian Diet, for in- 
 stance, from 1900-191 1 appropriated 25,500,000 marks, of 
 which about half was spent on direct housing for state em- 
 ployees and half was loaned to building associations. 
 (Bulletin No. 158.) 
 
 The Grand Duchy of Hesse has proceeded along some- 
 what different lines. It was the first German state to 
 establish systematic housing inspection (1893). The hous- 
 ing act of 1902, centralized and standardized this service 
 by putting it under a state official, who also has advisory 
 and constructive duties. Another act of the same year 
 established the State Credit Bank {Landeskreditkasse), 
 which is permitted to loan to communes for housing pur- 
 poses up to 90 per cent of the value of land and buildings. 
 The communes may either build themselves or reloan to 
 associations. By an act of 1908 the Bank was permitted to 
 loan directly to associations up to two-thirds of the value. 
 The money is provided by an issue of 3^ per cent Hessian 
 Government bonds, and the rate of interest charged de- 
 pends on the actual sale price of the bonds, being just 
 enough to cover the expenses. 
 
 In 1 91 2 there were 1,271 public welfare building associa- 
 tions in Germany {gemeinniitzige Baugenossenschajten), of 
 which the 716 reporting had built 15,784 houses at a cost 
 of j5 1 03 ,000,000. A French official publication of August, 
 1913 (bulleiin du ministere du travail), estimates that as 
 early as 1909 about 25,000 houses, containing about 100,000 
 apartments, had been built by German housing associations. 
 Assuming the accuracy of this estimate, it would mean the 
 housing of about half a million people. And probably the 
 states and cities have done as much directly. 
 
 It would be a difficult matter to find out how much 
 Government money, or Government guarded money has 
 been liberated for use in housing in Germany, but ^200,- 
 000,000 would certainly be within the truth. 
 
 Clearly there is no other country which has gone into 
 housing on so large a scale or in so systematic a way. 
 
 B. Other European and Latin-American Countries. 
 
 (i) France. 
 
 Housing laws date from 1894, 1906, and 191 2. The 
 savings bank and national old-age pension fund have 
 loaned about 55,000,000 francs for housing. The state 
 has made available about 100,000,000 francs for this pur- 
 pose. The conseil superieure d' habitations i bon marche 
 is under the department of labor. Reporting to it are the 
 
 local comites de patronage. Nearly all the work has been done 
 through housing associations. Municipal housing has been 
 undertaken only for the benefit of large families (those with 
 four or more children), which it is, of course, the policy of 
 the French Government to encourage. The war is likely 
 to result in the French Government undertaking housing 
 and town-planning work on an unprecedented scale. 
 
 (2) Italy, 190J, 190'/, igo8. 
 
 The cities of Bologna and Venice experimented in 
 municipal housing at a very early date (the sixties and 
 eighties), though not with remarkable success. It seems to 
 be the policy of the Italian Government to foster private 
 initiative in every way. The local committees are to en- 
 courage existing housing societies or found them if none 
 exist. These societies receive long-time loans (fifty years) 
 from the State Bank of Deposits. The communes are to 
 build only as a last resort. In 191 1, $33 associations and 25 
 municipalities were building f<?j^/»o^o/dn. These are almost 
 invariably tenements, and the apartments are very small — 
 two or three rooms. The value of houses and land aggre- 
 gates about 128,000,000. Tenants of municipal apartments 
 are limited to those whose annual income does not exceed 
 1,500 lire. 
 
 (3) Austria, 1910, igii. 
 
 The German example has been followed. There is a 
 state housing fund. The funds of the insurance institutes 
 are utilized. It is worthy of note that loans may run as 
 high as 90 per cent of the value of house and land. The 
 state, though late in beginning, has been active in housing 
 its own employees, and there are already 634 public wel- 
 fare building associations. 
 
 (4) Hungary, 1910, igii. 
 
 The most noteworthy activity of Hungary has been 
 along the line of rural housing. Two hundred communes 
 have received aid from the Central Government in build- 
 ing 6,000 cottages for agricultural laborers. 
 
 The city of Budapest has been very energetic. The city 
 built tenements for 22,000 people, in 1908, on land which 
 it already owned. In 1913 it provided cottages for 18,000 
 in the workmen's suburb of Kispest. 
 
 Housing associations have never taken root in Hungary. 
 There seems to be a lack of the necessary private initiative. 
 
 (5) Spain, 191 1. 
 
 The Spanish law provides local housing committees 
 under the jurisdiction of the department of labor. It en- 
 courages sanitary housing by tax exemption, guarantee of 
 interest, and in some cases free grants of land. It is not 
 discoverable that much has been done. 
 
 (6) Holland, 1901. 
 
 The Dutch law is a comprehensive one with both re- 
 strictive and constructive provisions. It sets up minimum 
 standards of building and maintenance, on the one hand, 
 and permits Government loans for housing purposes, on 
 the other, up to 100 per cent of the value of the house and 
 lot. That less than $2,000,000 had been loaned under this 
 law, up to April, 19 10, is probably due to the compara- 
 tively high rate of interest charged. 
 
 74 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 (7) Norway, 190^. 
 
 This law is unusual in that it provides only for individual 
 loans. There is a state loan bank. The commune guaran- 
 tees the borrower. To 1913 about |8, 500,000 had been 
 loaned to buy 13,140 small farms and build 9,460 houses. 
 
 (8) Sweden, 1904. 
 
 There is a state housing fund which loans to individuals 
 through associations. There is also municipal housing, 
 especially in Stockholm. 
 
 (9) Denmark, 1887. 
 
 This law, which actually antedated that of Belgium, 
 permitted Government loans to societies and communes, 
 but remained a dead letter until it was amended in 1897. 
 Since then a good deal has been done by small, but success- 
 ful, workingmen's associations. 
 
 (10) Rumania, 1910. 
 
 Large tax exemptions in favor of workingmen's houses 
 are the chief feature of this act. 
 
 (11) Switzerland. 
 
 Switzerland has no national housing law, but several 
 cantons, notably Geneva, have shown some activity under 
 local legislation. 
 
 (12) Luxemburg, J 906. 
 
 The funds of the savings bank are loaned to communes, 
 associations, and employers for housing purposes. 
 
 (13) Chile, 1906. 
 
 The law provides for a system of local housing com- 
 mittees with power to carry out slum-clearance schemes, 
 encourage housing associations, or build themselves. The 
 Caja de Credito Hipotecario is authorized to lend up to 
 75 per cent of the value of land and buildings, and the 
 state guarantees 6 per cent net returns for twenty years. 
 The Santiago committee showed considerable energy, and 
 in 191 1 had two workingmen's suburbs under construction. 
 (Oficina de Trabajo, Habitaciones Obreras en Chile y 
 Estranjero, 191 1.) 
 
 (14) Argentina. 
 
 In 1913 the city of Buenos Ayres contracted for 10,000 
 workingmen's cottages, to be built at the rate of 2,000 a 
 year. The Government was to exempt the building ma- 
 terials for them from import duties. (First Annual 
 Report, Massachusetts Homestead Commission, published 
 1914, p. 310.) 
 
 (15) Brazil, 1909. 
 
 Companies building houses for workingmen were to 
 enjoy tax exemption for fifteen years, exemption from duty 
 on building materials, and in some cases were to receive 
 reclaimed or other Government land free of charge. They 
 were to be under strict Government supervision. (First 
 Annual Report, Massachusetts Homestead Commission, 
 P-3II.) 
 
 (16) Cuba, 1 9 10. 
 
 An appropriation of $1,300,000 was made, for the pur- 
 pose of building 2,000 laborers' cottages, to be sold on 
 
 small monthly installments. Up to 1914, about 1,000 had 
 been built in Habana, Pinar del Rio, and Santa Clara 
 provinces, and 250 were being built in Santiago province. 
 (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin No. 158; this 
 is the source of most of these summaries, except as other- 
 wise stated.) 
 
 C. The Self-Governing British Colonies. 
 
 The example of New Zealand, Australia, and Canada 
 has especial value for us, because their conditions, material 
 and moral, present a much closer parallel to our own than 
 do those of any European country. Canada has the addi- 
 tional interest attached to a next-door neighbor. 
 
 Like the United States, and even more so, they are new 
 countries, sparsely settled, except in spots. Their cities 
 are new; their houses are new; their slums are new. More 
 than is true of us, unfortunately, their interest in housing 
 is still largely preventive. They are young, optimistic, 
 energetic, and intensely democratic. Australia and New 
 Zealand in many ways represent the most advanced type 
 of social democracy as yet evolved. They are the paradise 
 of union labor. They have — and the fact is not without 
 significance — the lowest death-rate in the world. 
 
 Inevitably, their housing legislation has been strongly 
 influenced by that of the mother country, but inevitably, 
 too, they have worked it out in a very diflferent way. In 
 countries where wages and standards of living are high 
 and the working population virile and ambitious, we 
 should expect the third type of constructive housing legis- 
 lation to be favored — Government aid to the individual 
 workingman. This is precisely and strikingly what has 
 happened in New Zealand and Australia. The develop- 
 ment of Canada has been less logical, perhaps, owing to 
 accidents of association. 
 
 (i) New Zealand. 
 
 The typical housing law of New Zealand is the Advances 
 to Workers' Act of 1906 and 1913. The superintendent of 
 the State Advances Office is authorized to lend to anyone 
 employed in manual or clerical work with an income of 
 not more than £200 per annum and not the owner of any 
 other land than what he proposes to build on. The sum 
 advanced is not to exceed £450, or the value of the dwelling 
 to be built. The loan is to be repaid in a period of thirty- 
 six years or less. Application may be made at any post 
 office. The postmaster supplies the blank and gives any 
 desired information as to how to fill it out. He also shows 
 the applicant the plans and estimates of eighteen carefully 
 selected types of house. Note the extreme simplicity of the 
 procedure and elimination of red tape. There is no inter- 
 mediary. It is as easy as filling out a money-order blank. 
 An agent from the nearest valuation office makes a visit 
 and report, and for this service the applicant pays a fee 
 of 7s. 6d. If his application for a loan is granted, all his 
 payments-are made through his post office. Five per cent 
 interest is nominally charged, but it is reduced to 4>^ for 
 prompt payment. 
 
 The total advances to workers under this act up to 
 March 31, 191 5, were £2,856,750 — a large sum in propor- 
 tion to the population of New Zealand. 
 
 For the benefit of the man who owns no land, New Zea- 
 land has the Workers' Dwellings Act (1905, 1910, 1914). 
 
 75 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 A deposit of £io is all the capital required. The house is 
 built on Government land, and either rented or sold to the 
 tenant. But only 548 houses have been built under this act. 
 The cost limit for the house and five acres of land is £750. 
 The income limit of the beneficiary, under the latest amend- 
 ment, is £175. 
 
 (a) Australia. 
 
 The five Australian provinces have housing loan laws 
 similar, in a general way, to those of New Zealand, but of 
 later date and developed under five somewhat varying 
 forms. Some of the provinces are very slow in getting out 
 their annual reports. From these circumstances results the 
 impossibility of giving definite, late, general figures. It is 
 probable that the aggregate loans of the five provinces 
 amount by now to a figure about equal to the loans in 
 New Zealand. 
 
 (3) Canada. * 
 
 In 1913, Ontario and Quebec passed housing laws per- 
 mitting the Government to guarantee 85 per cent of the 
 stock of approved non-commercial building associations. 
 Under the Ontario act the Toronto Housing Company 
 was organized and has put up a million dollars' worth of 
 workingmen's cottages and cottage flats. 
 
 Meanwhile the Canadian Commission of Conservation 
 decided that the conservation of human life was part of 
 their duties and that the conservation of human Hfe was 
 intimately bound up with housing and town planning. Just 
 before the outbreak of the war, in 191 4, they brought over 
 Thomas Adams, town planning expert of the English Local 
 Government Board, to be their adviser in these subjects. 
 The war has necessarily hampered progress, but the Com- 
 mission is proceeding along broad constructive lines. A 
 town planning act has been drafted and introduced in the 
 various legislatures. A Civic Improvement League for 
 Canada, with local branches, has been started as an educa- 
 tional leaven, to prepare the way, perhaps, for a more for- 
 mal organization on the lines of the comites de patronage. 
 The time is not felt to be ripe for pushing housing legisla- 
 tion, but the preliminary steps are being taken. The situa- 
 tion is not altogether unlike that of Massachusetts with 
 its Homestead Commission and Town Planning Boards. 
 
 III. The Applicability of Foreign Experience 
 to the United States* 
 
 The following statements are believed to be fully justi- 
 fied by undisputed facts: 
 
 I The housing problems of foreign countries and of 
 the United States are similar. Such diflPerences as 
 exist are of degree, not of kind. 
 
 1 A distinct improvement in the housing of working- 
 people has occurred during the past twenty-five years 
 in England, Belgium, and Germany, and more recently 
 in other countries where constructive housing legisla- 
 tion is in force. 
 
 3 Much of this improvement could not have been 
 brought about under an exclusive system of restric- 
 tive housing legislation and private initiative. 
 
 "This article was not written to apply to a war condition, and the 
 arguments set forth are intended to apply in normal times. Much of 
 this material is, however, directly pertinent to the present lamentable 
 situation. — ^The Editor. 
 
 A. Objections to Constructive Housing Legislation 
 FOR THE United States. 
 
 We have now arrived at the vital question to which 
 our preliminary study has been leading: Shall we have 
 constructive housing legislation in the United States? 
 The conclusions just summarized raise a presumption in 
 its favor, but many serious objections have been made. 
 These fall into five groups — constitutional, economic, so- 
 cial, philosophical, and pessimistic. 
 
 (i) The constitutional objection has several aspects: 
 
 {a) It is claimed that we cannot have a national hous- 
 ing law like the Belgian law or the British Housing of the 
 Working-Classes Act. 
 
 So far as these laws are concerned with restrictive or 
 mandatory features, this is, of course, true. The Federal 
 Government can impose no housing obligations on state 
 or local authorities. There is nothing, however, to prevent 
 a federal housing loan act, even as we already have the 
 Federal Farm Loan Act. 
 
 {b) It is claimed that to undertake housing operations 
 for the benefit of workingmen would be class legislation. 
 
 It is possible that an act might be so worded as to lay 
 itself open to this objection, in which case the wording 
 should be changed. There is no reason per se why provid- 
 ing houses at cost for persons whose income is under $800 
 a year should be considered class legislation in an objec- 
 tionable sense any more than providing schools for children 
 or hospitals for sick people is so considered. 
 
 {c) It is claimed that constructive housing activity on 
 the part of the state would be an unwarranted extension 
 of the police power. 
 
 That, of course, is a matter for the courts to settle. 
 Constructive housing legislation would be in precisely the 
 same position as minimum wage laws, restrictions of hours 
 of work, prohibition of night-work for women and children, 
 and a long list of modern social legislation. Like the rest, 
 it will be sustained just so long and so far as its advocates 
 can convince the courts of the connection between it and 
 the public health. 
 
 (a) The economic objection is based on the alleged bur- 
 den laid upon the long-suflfering taxpayer. This is a mis- 
 conception, pure and simple. A properly conducted con- 
 structive housing scheme is exactly self-supporting. The 
 credit of the community is used to obtain an abundance of 
 capital at a low rate of interest. 
 
 The Irish system of subsidy from the rates and from the 
 imperial exchequer is not constructive housing, but out- 
 door poor relief. It is wholly exceptional. The much-cited 
 slum-clearance schemes are not housing measures at all, 
 but health measures. And such affiliations as they have 
 are much closer to restrictive than to constructive housing 
 measures. 
 
 Sound municipal housing enterprises aim to come out 
 exactly even, with neither profit nor loss. The English local 
 authorities come very near to doing this and the German 
 authorities do it. So with loans. Commercial profit in 
 money-lending is eliminated, but every cent of principal 
 and interest is returned. 
 
 (3) The social objection, the pauperization of the bene- 
 ficiary, is the obverse of the economic and, being based on 
 the same misconception, falls to the ground with it. The 
 
 76 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 workingman is not getting something for nothing. He is 
 getting it at cost. He is no more pauperized by such a 
 service than are the people of Cleveland when they pay 
 3 cents instead of 5 on their municipal street-car lines. 
 The writer has paid 47 cents a month water-rates in 
 Washington, D. C., for a publicly owned and maintained 
 service, and $6 a month in Berkeley, Calif., to a private 
 water company, but is conscious of no corresponding 
 fluctuations in self-respect. 
 
 (4) The philosophic objection is based on really funda- 
 mental theories. Neither the individualist nor the anar- 
 chist can be expected to approve of constructive housing 
 legislation. Both object to any extension of the activities 
 of government. Any such proposed extension is sure to be 
 labeled socialistic or paternalistic. In this respect, con- 
 structive housing legislation finds itself in very good com- 
 pany. The whole modern program of social legislation is 
 attacked on the same grounds. 
 
 (5) The pessimistic objection is that based on the alleged 
 inefficiency and corruption of American public service. In 
 so far as there is still a solid basis for such a criticism (and 
 we all know that our municipal governments especially 
 have been wonderfully improved in the last fifteen years), 
 it should be a reason for strenuous efforts to improve our 
 public service. It is not a reason for limiting the sphere of 
 governmental activity unless we are prepared to admit the 
 final failure of American democracy. 
 
 B. Best Type of Constructive Housing Legislation. 
 If we are to have constructive housing legislation, 
 
 what type shall we choose? The best results seem to have 
 been obtained where all types are in operation. We should 
 certainly encourage the three positive forms of Govern- 
 ment aid and probably the negative, but we should keep 
 clear of subsidies. We should proceed eclectically, choosing 
 the best where we find it, with due regard to our local needs, 
 habits of thought, and body of existing law. 
 
 C. Outline of a Housing Policy for the United 
 
 States. 
 
 Any plan looking to the solution of the housing problem 
 in the United States must include both restrictive and 
 constructive housing legislation. 
 
 The form and standards of restrictive housing legisla- 
 tion have been very carefully worked out by Mr. Veiller 
 in his Model Housing Law, which ought to be adopted by 
 every state in the Union. The state is the proper unit. 
 National restrictive housing is impossible, and local legis- 
 lation should be resorted to, only pending the passage of 
 a state law, or to impose higher standards. 
 
 The state is also the most natural unit for constructive 
 housing legislation. But the nation and the city must by 
 no means be ignored. * 
 
 (i ) The National Government may exercise an extremely 
 important function. It may supply or facilitate loans. And 
 through the power to make conditions for the assignment 
 of these loans, it may exert a strong influence on local 
 standards. These assignments should be in the hands of a 
 national housing and town-planning commission under the 
 Department of Labor. 
 
 Funds might be made available in various ways: 
 
 (a) A federal housing fund could be created, from which 
 loans would be made. 
 
 (if) The federal land banks created by the Federal 
 Farm Loan Act might add housing loans to their activities. 
 
 (c) Housing loans, under certain conditions, might be 
 made an authorized form of investment for trust funds and 
 national bank deposits. 
 
 (d) The investment of the deposits of the postal sav- 
 ings banks in housing loans might be authorized. The low 
 rate of interest paid on these deposits would permit loans 
 to be made at a low rate, and the obvious appropriateness 
 of letting the people's savings be used for the people's 
 advantage is very appealing. 
 
 Clearly these loans would be permissive under the last 
 three plans. Only under the first could the housing com- 
 mission play anything more than an advisory role. 
 
 (2) The state should have a system of local housing and 
 town-planning boards under a state board, which should 
 administer both constructive and restrictive housing laws. 
 The state might guarantee the stock of approved housing 
 companies, as Ontario does. It might have a housing fund 
 raised by a bond issue. Where there is a state insurance 
 fund, it should be available for housing loans. The state 
 should loan to municipalities, to associations, and to indi- 
 vidual workingmen. In the last case it should approximate 
 as nearly as possible the simplicity of the New Zealand 
 procedure. 
 
 The writer does not believe it would be generally advis- 
 able for the state to carry on direct housing enterprises of 
 its own, though it might, for educational purposes, make an 
 initial demonstration, as the Massachusetts Homestead 
 Commission is now doing.* 
 
 (3) Some cities in the United States probably have 
 enough financial home rule to bond themselves for housing 
 purposes without special legislation. Whether the courts 
 would sustain such action cannot be told till it is tried. 
 A state constructive housing law should contain an en- 
 abling clause to cover this, but the approval of the state 
 housing board should be required. 
 
 The local housing and town-planning committees should 
 play an important part — investigate local conditions, 
 arouse the interest of the community, aid in the enforce- 
 ment of the restrictive housing law, encourage the forma- 
 tion of non-commercial building associations, help them 
 get funds and select the best plans, perform a like function 
 for individual workingmen, and when other means fail, 
 stimulate the city fathers to undertake municipal building. 
 
 Does all this seem visionary and foreign to American 
 traditions ? 
 
 Was our homestead policy un-American? Under the 
 homestead act of 1862 more than 85,000,000 acres of farm- 
 land have been made over by the United States Govern- 
 ment to settlers. It was bigger and more far-reaching than 
 any housing scheme while it lasted. But this source of 
 relief to congestion is now at an end. This open door ot 
 opportunity has been closed. Is it not time we looked about 
 us for a substitute and studied what other nations have 
 found practical and helpful? 
 
 Perhaps the best contribution the United States has 
 made to contemporary civilization is our public school 
 
 *An appropriation of $50,000 was made for this purpose by the leg- 
 islature, in 1 91 7; land has been secured in the outskirts of Lowell, and 
 building is in progress. 
 
 77 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 system. It costs something over half a billion dollars a health and morals more fundamental than formal educa- 
 
 year and is well worth it. tion can ever be? And if a community has not the energy 
 
 Yet, if we come down to basic realities, if it is a question and resourcefulness to do both, should it not make sure 
 
 between the mental, moral, and physical development of that its children are properly housed before it troubles 
 
 the people, which ought to take precedence? Are not about their book-learning? 
 
 cidac^ 6£u)a/i.<nt 
 
 Government Housing Scheme, 
 Well Hall, Woolwich. 1915. 
 Block oj Flats, GRANBY ROAD, Class IV. 
 
 C/rcu.1 ic' \S^oor^^^i 
 
 H. M. Office of Works y 
 JVestminster, 
 London, S. fV. 
 
 78 
 
GOVERNMENT HOUSING SCHEME 
 
 WELL H ALL4 ELTHAM ^ KLEN 
 
 OFVtoRKS 
 
 WESTMINSTtR 
 
 WELL HALL is only one of the British 
 Government's housing operations. It is 
 situated about a mile from Woolwich and 
 is a complete new development. It consists en- 
 tirely of permanent dwellings for workmen. 
 There are four types of houses of from two to 
 four rooms with bath, the rentals ranging from 
 seven shillings to fifteen shillings and sixpence a 
 week. There have been built some sixteen hun- 
 dred houses, all of the best materials available, 
 and the design has preserved the traditions of 
 English rural life. Mr. Ewart G. Culpin, Secre- 
 tary of the International Garden Cities and 
 
 Town Planning Association, whose article in 
 the April Journal dealt with the application 
 of town-planning principles to the new housing 
 developments of England, writes that he 
 believes Well Hall to be "easily the first thing 
 in cottage plans and elevations for the whole 
 world." This statement is perhaps capable of a 
 wrong interpretation, for it is evident that the 
 plans would not suit living conditions in the 
 United States; but, from the point of view of a 
 great housing undertaking deliberately under- 
 taken by a Government and guided by experts 
 to yield the maximum advantages consistent 
 
 79 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 XJ — 
 
 © 
 
 Q 
 
 <S> 
 
 GOVERNMENT HOUSING SCHEMl 
 
 with a given mode of life, Well Hall is undoubt- 
 edly entitled to rank where Mr. Culpin places it. 
 Of primary importance in the consideration 
 of the underlying reasons which led to the build- 
 ing of Well Hall is the fact that in spite of 
 urgent necessity it was decided to make it a 
 permanent enterprise rather than a merely 
 temporary one. This has been the consistent 
 policy of the British Government, except where 
 urgence made it impossible to wait upon 
 
 permanent construction, for the difference in 
 cost between permanent and temporary work is 
 measured by a small margin, and it was decided 
 that it would be folly to throw away money 
 upon makeshift expedients. Possibly this decis- 
 ion was also influenced by the knowledge that 
 nothing is harder to be rid of than a temporary 
 building. We believe that the shacks built at 
 the time of the flood emergency in Galveston 
 are still doing duty as slums, and such is the 
 
 80 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 ^ 
 
 (xouvofiooe •u\nnci kxm- PAiu.ouit- bedroom- scullcry-etc. 
 
 f/fiST fLOOfL • 3 BED ROOMS ■ RATH • I/O 
 
 C/KXJNO FUyOR ■ LIVING ROOM ■ PAKLOUft • SCUU-WV- tTC. 
 /■/Wr FLOOK ■ • 3 Bffi) ROOMS • pATM • WC' 
 
 CKOOND rtooK-usntiC k)om sculuay with bath- ctc. 
 riRST noon -3 bed rooms- wc- 
 
 OHOUIVD FLOOR 
 riRST FLOOR 
 
 ■ UyiNG ROOM SCyLLtRV WITH BATH ECT « BtD ROQAAS . 
 
 'WELL HALL^ELTHAM-^ KENTfj 
 
 TvPCFTO 
 
 QF \CORJ<;< 
 
 •\rESTMlNSTE 
 
 usual experience with temporary buildings. In 
 cases where the British Government could not 
 spare the time necessary to build permanently, 
 huts of a temporary or semi-temporary charac- 
 ter were constructed, either of concrete slabs or 
 wooden framing. These were three in type and, 
 as built at East Riggs, another important housing 
 development, are illustrated and described in 
 this book. 
 
 In addition to these purely housing opera- 
 tions, the Government has erected stores, halls, 
 and other public buildings necessary for a good- 
 sized town; in one case there were provided 
 bakeries, a central kitchen, laundry, schools, 
 churches, and all the usual accessories of com- 
 munity life. 
 
 8i 
 
Cj-ruxu*9 .cALoary^Zait,. 
 
 Government Housing Scheme, 
 Well* Hall, Woolwich. 191 5. 
 Group facing WELL HALL and CONGREVE ROADS, ist and 2nd Class. 
 
 H. M. Office of Works, 
 Westminster^ 
 London, S. W. 
 
 82 
 
TYPS YMr,^.r>. 
 
 J^CK tLEVATIOM 
 
 tW»ElI^A..^^R 
 
 .1 
 
 Gp'JNJ^fLGDilLA'J. 
 
 fl^ST flGD^kAM. 
 
 Mimrriy or Miwkt^v >t.S. 
 
 HouMMO StCTIOVJ 
 
 Mm »Y.Xci 'twz/tti^i* 
 
 inil.D.''«vi«o 
 
 GROUND n-OOR PLAN. J< 
 
 Class 3. Permanent Cottages 
 
 Eastriggs 
 
 AN INDUSTRIAL TOWN BUILT BY THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT 
 
 EASTRIGGS is another of the British 
 Government's housing operations and of 
 quite a different character from Well 
 Hall, illustrated and described in the September 
 Journal. Whereas Well Hall consists entirely 
 of permanent dwelling houses, Eastriggs con- 
 sists also of temporary and semi-temporary 
 huts, permanent cottage shells temporarily con- 
 nected and used as hostels, and temporary 
 hostels of various sizes. Altogether, the build- 
 ings are of four classes: (i) Huts, (2) cottage 
 shells used as hostels, (3) completed cottages 
 and staff houses, (4) shops, schools, churches, 
 recreation buildings, and other accessories of a 
 small town. 
 The huts of Class i include all buildings of 
 
 temporary or semi-temporary character, built 
 of concrete in blocks or slabs and wooden fram- 
 ing covered with stucco or weather-boarding on 
 the outside and lined with wallboard or asbes- 
 tos sheets on the inside. These huts are of 
 three types: (I) Pairs of semi-detached family 
 huts each having three bedrooms, living-room, 
 scullery, bath, and other accessories. (II) Small 
 hostels containing ten beds, which may be used 
 for single lodgers or for a family taking in lodg- 
 ers. These are readily converted into Type I 
 and are- very popular, being used by operatives, 
 members of the staff, and often as larger houses 
 by officials of higher grade. (Ill) Large hostels 
 in which about 100 single men or women may be 
 lodged, either in open dormitories or in dormi- 
 
 83 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 fEniai«~uMt G-H 
 Class 4. Public Hall at Eastriggs 
 
 KouOMO , 
 
 Maw tf fctOOMOa »'*..<•.». 
 
 tories fitted with cubicles. Inability to fix 
 hours or prescribe the character of occupancy 
 soon developed great objection to the use of 
 these large hostels, and many of them are today 
 only partially occupied, even in the face of 
 serious congestion in the locality. 
 
 Cottage shells temporarily used as hostels, 
 Class 2, can easily be converted into perma- 
 nent family cottages. These were adopted be- 
 cause it was found that the cost of temporary 
 buildings as described under Class i was, after 
 taking into account the necessary expenditures 
 for water-supply, drainage, and road-work, so 
 little less than that for permanent buildings 
 that it was poor economy to erect temporary 
 houses except only where urgence of the short 
 time available demanded it. 
 
 These hostels usually consist of groups of 
 three blocks of four cottages each, the blocks 
 being connected with temporary corridors and 
 arranged either in a row or around three sides 
 of a quadrangle. 
 
 The completed cottages and houses. Class 3, 
 are quite similar in plan and construction to 
 those of Well Hall, which are illustrated in 
 this pamphlet. 
 
 Under Class 4 are included such buildings, 
 outside of actual houses and dormitories, as 
 may be needed for the life of a community 
 center. These were built as part of the housing 
 scheme where the adjacent already existing 
 town did not conveniently provide them. In 
 this class are included not only schools, churches, 
 and recreation buildings, but shops, bakeries, 
 laundries, and central kitchens. 
 
 It is very interesting to note that even the 
 most temporary of the Eastriggs buildings, 
 although they are simpler in design, will 
 compare very favorably in construction with 
 permanent small houses of the cottage and 
 bungalow type in this country and are even 
 better than many of these. 
 
 84 
 
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 C -C 
 
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 « «r § 13 5 
 *5h S'^ 
 
PLAN OF THE DEVELOPMENT AT GRETNA 
 
 All of the buildings, such as cottages, school, police station, churches, cinema house, institute, shops, post office, public 
 hall, hospital, at the upper end of the plan are of a permanent character and form a nucleus of the town which may in the 
 future develop over the area now occupied by temporary hostels 
 
 86 
 
GROUMD FUDOR PLAJvl 
 
 FIRST FLOC5R PLA^^4 
 
 J "^"^^^^j^ 
 
 Hoot tt^ATO 
 
 cQ. 
 
 ftjT ftODL llAJf 
 
 pEOmfD \IGDL TLAH 
 
 < 
 
 COTTAGES 
 
 87 
 

 i 
 
 %\ 
 
 c^J^oo'//p f/.(poe /1/rry. 
 
 JUUSE. 
 
 'jjfc'ff. 
 
 I 
 
 rou^D/^T/o/r Pi/=\n. 
 
 5cAiX Ar pi 1 1 1 f 1 I i 1 1 
 
 HOUSE AT MIDDLE WARD— LANARK 
 
 The one-story house was very generally used in Scotland, and the effect obtained in the small communities where 
 this type prevailed was quite charming. In many of these, by the very ingenious use of concrete blocks and concrete 
 slabs, a minimum of material was used. (Note the thickness of walls on the plan.) 
 

 ^ 
 
 H 
 CD 
 H 
 
 P-H 
 
 H 
 
 
'Qi i r I i I ' I > 
 
 -T^ 
 
 itr.-.-~.--5^*-^-— -^ 
 I 
 
 v_^ 
 
 To o>n;tr< or Ma« w/«it. 
 
 1 C i -4 
 _ Ar.z^r^^3^^-^ 
 
 GRETNA— INSTITUTE 
 
 This building, together with the Public Hall at Gretna, serves as the axis around which the social activities of the 
 community revolve. The central hall with its stage is constantly in use for entertainments of various sorts and for 
 dancing. The first floor in general serves as a club for the men, while the second floor is a club for women. This build- 
 ing represents a new idea introduced into the social life of British industrial communities, and its effect upon the 
 employees is watched with a great deal of interest throughout Great Britain. 
 
 90 
 
• maur clcnation 
 
 •BACK ELCVATloKr 
 
 CKovNp rxooe plam • - vppre ttjooe plan 
 
 51 DC CLTVATION 
 
 - CROSS SECTION 
 
 q«4frHtf F 
 
 ■P F T P- 
 
 LOCAL <sov • pcae; 
 
 
 COTTAGES 
 
 SlCMOi Ah 
 
 91 
 
rRONT ELEVATION 
 
 GROVHD FLOOR PLAN • 
 
 VPPCfZ. rtOOiZ. PLAN 
 
 GROUND nOGR TV^J 
 
 FIRST RCCR PWVvl 
 
 COTTAGES 
 
 91 
 
 HALF RDOFPU^ 
 
Housing by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 
 
 IN 1 91 2 the Homestead Commission recommended 
 that the uncalled-for savings-bank deposits in the 
 state treasury be used for an experiment in housing. 
 Such use was found to be unconstitutional. The 
 Commission was then influential in securing an amend- 
 ment to the Constitution, ratified by the people of the 
 Commonwealth on November 2, 191 5, providing that 
 "The General Court shall have power to authorize the 
 Commonwealth to take land and to hold, improve, sub- 
 divide, build upon, and sell the same, for the purpose of 
 relieving congestion of population and providing homes for 
 citizens; provided, however, that this amendment shall not 
 be deemed to authorize the sale of such land or buildings 
 at less than the cost thereof." 
 
 The Commission then renewed its recommendation for 
 an appropriation, asking the Legislature for $50,000. 
 The bill was defeated, but on the following year the sum 
 was granted, and the Commission proceeded to apply it to 
 a practical experiment in housing. The act follows: 
 
 An Act to Authorize the Homestead Commission to 
 Provide Homesteads for Citizens 
 
 Section i. The Homestead Commission is hereby authorized, by 
 and with the consent of the Governor and Council, to take or purchase, 
 in behalf of and in the name of the Commonwealth, a tract or tracts of 
 land, for the purpose of providing homesteads, or small houses and 
 plots_ of ground, for mechanics, laborers, wage-earners, or other citizens 
 of this Commonwealth; and may hold, improve, subdivide, build upon, 
 sell, repurchase, manage, and care for said tract or tracts and the build- 
 ings constructed thereon, in accordance with such terms and conditions 
 as may be determined upon by the Commission. 
 
 Section a. The Commission may sell said tract or tracts or any por- 
 tions thereof, with or without buildings thereon, for cash, or upon such 
 installments, terms, and contracts, and subject to such restrictions and 
 
 conditions, as may be determined upon by the Homestead Commission; 
 but no tract of land shall be sold for less than its cost, including the cost 
 of any buildings thereon. All proceeds from the sale of land and build- 
 ings or other source shall be paid into the treasury of the Common- 
 wealth. 
 
 Section 3. The Homestead Commission is hereby authorized to 
 expend not to exceed one hundred thousand dollars for the purpose of 
 this act. 
 
 Section 4. This act shall take effect upon its passage. 
 
 The principal considerations actuating the Commission 
 to an experiment in housing were stated in their fourth 
 annual report as follows: 
 
 "There are not enough wholesome low-cost dwellings. 
 
 "There is no prospect that present methods will ever 
 supply enough unless the state encourages their construc- 
 tion. 
 
 "Therefore the state should experiment to learn whether 
 it is possible to build wholesome dwellings within the means 
 of low-paid workers." 
 
 The Commission contemplated three kinds of housing 
 development — the urban, suburban, and rural. For the 
 first type, houses were to be detached or semi-detached, 
 with about 5,000 square feet of land each, and were to be 
 within easy walking distance of the mill or other place of 
 employment. 
 
 The second type houses were to be detached, each house 
 occupying a lot varying from 3^ to >^ an acre, and the 
 tract of land to be within a 5-cent car-ride of the mills. 
 
 The third type were to be farm cottages, on lots vary- 
 ing from y2 acre to 5 acres. 
 
 The first experiment was with Type i. The Commission 
 found abundant unoccupied land in the cities visited — 
 Boston, Lawrence, New Bedford, Fall River, Lowell, and 
 
 94 
 
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 ?! 
 
 .1 
 
 <^ 
 < 3 
 
 ■'i 
 
 o 
 
 HZ 
 
 'o 
 
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 s 
 
 JO 
 
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 *6 
 
 0>;300 6"R« 
 
 
 d 
 
 O "O 
 
 o 
 r: 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 others, at prices ranging from ^45 to I400 or more per acre. 
 The tract of land finally chosen was in the heart of Lowell, 
 a city of low-paid operatives. In working out plans for 
 houses, the minimum accommodation advisable was be- 
 lieved to be as follows: 
 
 Living-room, kitchen, three bedrooms, closets, cellar. 
 
 Cooking, heating, lighting, washing, toilet, and bath- 
 ing facilities. 
 
 Provision for drainage, sewage- and garbage-disposal. 
 
 There need not be a heating system, but provision 
 should be made for stoves, other than cooking-range, in 
 places needed, and construction may well allow for a 
 future heating system. The structure should be made as 
 fire-resisting as possible with due consideration for cost. 
 In order to bring the cost to the extreme low limit, it was 
 deemed feasible to combine living-room and kitchen, and 
 provide a parlor on the first floor suitable for use as the 
 third bedroom if the family was large. 
 
 The sizes of rooms appear to correspond with the 
 standard sizes recommended by housing authorities, with 
 the exception of the height. Here 7 feet 6 inches has been fixed 
 for the first story, and 7 feet 4 inches for the second. It 
 is very difficult to establish a standard of height by rules 
 of logic, and so the architects have followed custom and 
 allowed themselves to be guided by a sense of proportion. 
 Small rooms appear more commodious if they are low- 
 studded, and the relation of height to lateral dimensions is 
 pleasanter. The number of stairs to be climbed is less, and 
 there is a substantial saving in the cost of the house. Add 
 to this the desirability of low lines on the exterior, and the 
 absence of any particular disadvantage to offset these many 
 advantages, and the change from housing standards seems 
 justified. 
 
 The equipment provided included a kitchen-cabinet, 
 sink and drain-board with shelves under, set tub, drain for 
 refrigerator, bathroom with three fixtures, hot and cold 
 water piped to sink and tub, bathtub and bowl, thimbles 
 in the chimney for kitchen range and additional stoves, a 
 register in the kitchen ceiling opening into the bathroom 
 floor, and closet-space for each bedroom. 
 
 Provision for hanging clothes in the bedrooms can be 
 made by means of a closet or by a recess. The latter oflFers 
 the same amount of space, but is not enclosed, and so is 
 not likely to become a catchall. If the housekeeper is neat, 
 she can put up a curtain across the opening. If she is 
 untidy, the clothes will at least be subjected to the cleans- 
 ing influence of light and air. 
 
 In addition to the above equipment, the houses are all 
 piped for a gas-range in the kitchen, and are provided with 
 electric lights throughout. Each house has a cellar the full 
 area of the house, with carefully pointed walls and cement 
 floor. Where possible, the back door opens upon the land- 
 ing of the cellar stairs, so that the cellar can be easily and 
 directly entered from the garden. 
 
 When minimum-sized houses are sold to operatives, it 
 is not treating the owner generously to make these houses 
 difficult of alteration. They should be so designed as to 
 permit additions to be made easily and without ruining 
 the appearance of the house. From this point of view 
 wood has advantages over masonry. 
 
 The Commission is experimenting with bungalows in 
 which by a simple mechanical device, it is an easy matter 
 
 to raise the roof and add a second story, or to detach an 
 end wall and extend the house laterally. 
 
 The cost of these houses represents actual war-time 
 conditions. The first houses were started in October, 1917, 
 and other bids have been taken during January and Feb- 
 ruary, 1 91 8. The bids used were not exceptionally below 
 the others; in fact, bids from two or three contractors were 
 received which could have been utilized without injuring 
 the financial projects of the undertaking, and the present 
 contractor has expressed a willingness to build further 
 houses at the same cost, showing that the undertaking has 
 not been a losing venture on his part. 
 
 The method of sale proposed provides for a first pay- 
 ment of probably about 10 per cent, followed by succes- 
 sive monthly payments which will be the equivalent of 
 interest plus a small amount on account of capital. By 
 this plan the house is entirely paid for within a number of 
 years, varying with the ability of the purchaser, but in no 
 case more than twenty-eight years. 
 
 Massachusetts, with its admirable system of coopera- 
 tive banks, provides an easy method for immediate owner- 
 ship by the home-seeker. Deeds will be passed when pay- 
 ments amount to ao per cent of the sale value. The Com- 
 mission proposes to sell the property subject to certain 
 restrictions. Under ordinary process of law, such property 
 would fall within the scope of city laws and regulations as 
 soon as sold by the state. It would then be part and parcel 
 of the city and might, perhaps, be handled in such a way as , 
 to sacrifice some of the benefits intended by the state. On 
 the other hand, a series of restrictions in addition may deter 
 the would-be purchaser. Such a list, drawn up in legal 
 terms, would very likely deter the ordinary man and would 
 require careful explanation. 
 
 Another way of securing better neighborhood conditions 
 in new housing developments is to provide a neighborhood 
 center, or common building, where matters involving 
 general neighborhood interest can be discussed, and where 
 good fellowship can find a comfortable atmosphere in 
 which to grow. 
 
 The Commission plans to follow the growth of its 
 "colony," to assist in preparing the gardens, in matters of 
 canning, cooking, and housekeeping, so that those who 
 live in the new houses may be helped to a better mode of 
 living and may act as disciples in spreading their ideas 
 among others. 
 
 This spirit of common responsibility for the com- 
 munity welfare and of neighborhood goodfellowship may 
 provide a better means of safeguarding the homes against 
 bad conditions than a category of legal restrictions. Where 
 a positive impulse is aroused, instead of a prohibition im- 
 posed, better results may be expected. 
 
 In the Homestead Commission's project there is no 
 trace of paternalism or of charity. The act under which it 
 is operating prohibits the sale of homesteads at less than 
 cost. The object of the Commission has not been to supply 
 the houses needed for the citizens of the Commonwealth, 
 but to show that good houses can be supplied, and supplied 
 within reach of the wage-earner. The Commission has 
 hoped that when the results of its experiment were seen, 
 private capital would be reassured and would enter the 
 field of low-cost housing development. 
 
 Walter H. Kilham. 
 
 97 
 
MINISTRY or MUNITIONS . 
 GlXNQXteNOCK MO05IN0 SCHEMD. 
 
 Plak or LAY OUT or oroOND. 
 
 i— 4 t i i ii fiM i r 
 
 'C 
 
 GLENGARNOCK— PLAN 
 
 About Glasgow there are numerous small housing developments of which this is an 
 
 excellent example. These undertakings were all in the hands 
 
 of the Local Government Board of Scotland 
 
 Small-House Reconstruction in France* 
 
 IF THE attention of those interested in hous- 
 ing in the United States has been almost 
 entirely concentrated on the housing under- 
 takings of the British Government, it must not 
 be thought that France and Belgium are not 
 deeply concerned with their own problems. In 
 the former, nothing but plans are now possible, 
 but these are being studied in the broadest 
 way, and there need be no fears but that the 
 reconstruction of Belgium will proceed along 
 lines informed with the lessons of the past. It 
 is perhaps worthy of chronicling the fact that 
 extensive studies for the rehabilitation of Bel- 
 gium have already been made by the German 
 authorities, and the preliminary proposals, at 
 least in part, have been issued in printed form. 
 But the world will still have something to say 
 about this ! 
 
 In France, the loss of the iron and coal areas 
 resulted in a temporary industrial depression, 
 with a consequent expansion in England, where 
 the burden of war production fell with com- 
 pelling force. Thus the French were not faced 
 
 *From the French of Henri Lavedan in "L'lllustration." 
 
 with any such housing problems as arose in 
 England. The restoration and expansion of the 
 war-making industries in France was a gradual 
 process permitting readjustments which were 
 not possible in England, nor, as experience has 
 so painfully demonstrated, in this country. 
 
 Much temporary reconstruction work has 
 been done in France where there developed the 
 imperative necessity of rehabilitating the recon- 
 quered areas which had been devastated by the 
 enemy. But the future will require an immense 
 amount of study and a vast expenditure. To 
 the excited few in the United States who have 
 so mistakingly assumed that the problem of 
 reconstructing France was one that should be 
 left to its lovers in this country, there may 
 eventually come a perception of the fact that 
 France, architecturally, is able to care for her 
 own interests. The illustrations which accom- 
 pany this article are in themselves the best of 
 evidence as to whether the authorities and the 
 architects of France are capable of approaching 
 their problem in the proper spirit, and if further 
 testimony were needed, perhaps it may be found 
 
 98 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 in the appreciation by M. Henri Lavedan, a 
 translation of which should be given the widest 
 circulation possible. In it there dwells a per- 
 ception of the housing problem which is so 
 illuminating and so revealing — so profoundly 
 touching in its humanity, so inspiring in its 
 delicate message to those who face this question 
 in other lands — that it might almost be said to 
 constitute the basis of the human and the esthe- 
 tic approach to the home. Other factors enter 
 in, as we know, but it is only through an intelli- 
 gent blending of all the various phases that 
 there will be laid the foundations of a stable 
 national life — if we admit that this must, in 
 all cases, be founded and maintained upon the 
 home. There need be no fear but that we may 
 look hopefully to France for a contribution 
 worthy of her great sacrifices, her noble intelli- 
 gence, and her will to live. The article by M. 
 Lavedan, to which we refer, is as follows: 
 
 Since the commencement of this year 191 8, when there 
 was affirmed with so much energy the confidence, the 
 hope, and the faith of French hearts, there has been 
 accomplished, quite apropos, a vivid demonstration of our 
 will to live and to prepare without delay for the imme- 
 diate future. 
 
 As is well known, a competition* was held "for the 
 reconstruction of the rural habitations in the liberated 
 regions," and the Museum of Decorative Arts exhibited in 
 its rooms, until the first day of February, the drawings, 
 chosen from very many, that were deemed worthy of 
 special mention and of possible adoption as the types of 
 architecture appropriate to the regions, to the circum- 
 stances, and to the necessities of the future. 
 
 The exposition is both the proof and the fruit of a 
 unanimous motive, of a touching and scholarly effort. 
 We do not doubt, however, that the public went there, 
 influenced not only by a sympathetic curiosity but by that 
 active desire and by that generous impulse which impels us, 
 each in our sphere and according to our abilities, to 
 compete in the great work of general reestablishment, of 
 universal reconstruction. It can be well said that, without 
 active participation, we shall contribute nevertheless to 
 the success of the common enterprise by the cordial inter- 
 est which we shall have shown. We shall contribute our 
 foundational stones, invisible and real. In these questions, 
 the warmth of public opinion is precious and of a com- 
 municative strength that nothing equals. It alone can 
 create the torrent of zeal that goes straight to the goal and 
 carries away all the obstacles. 
 
 The first impression of this exhibition, which is not once 
 changed during the length of the visit, is instantly com- 
 plete. The eyes and the spirit find in it their charm and 
 their profit. I well know that the majority of those who 
 passed through to look at these drawings preoccupied them- 
 
 *In the preliminary competition there were 1,498 entrants; in the 
 final, there were 340, of whom 270 were soldiers. 
 
 selves less perhaps with their practical value and the con 
 veniences that they offer than with their picturesque 
 exterior and the bewitching aspect that they present. No 
 matter. It is not necessary to possess technique in order to 
 understand the very special conditions that the program 
 demands, and the way, so often fortunate, in which, in 
 diflferent degrees it has been studied, grasped, and visual- 
 ized by all the competitors. 
 
 It was not a question, indeed, of considering the rebuild- 
 ing of amusement resorts or the country villas of the middle 
 class. These, without doubt, have known as much as the 
 others the destructive rage of the invader, and the moment 
 will also come to determine to rebuild them in the same 
 spirit of local and reasoned adaptation, the source of in- 
 spiration of all the good workers of the rebuilding renais- 
 sance. But the first to be considered was the most urgent 
 — the primary and indispensable requirements of exist- 
 ence. The necessities of nourishment, of cultivation, of 
 manual labor, the discipline and conditions of life itself 
 clearly indicated and limited the immense work. 
 
 Bread made necessary the oven, and flour, the mill. The 
 fields, no sooner cleansed and put back to a normal state, 
 would demand the farm buildings; and everything de- 
 pending on the sun and the earth, both beasts and people, 
 would desire the roof and its shelter. The first scheme was 
 thus naturally indicated. The inn, the bakery, the caf6, 
 the smith's forge, and, above everything, the houses of the 
 peasant, of the farmer, of the rural worker; such were the 
 humble and sovereign edifices to be first erected, the pillar 
 and support that should be determined and placed, the 
 nucleus around which would group themselves afterward, 
 little by little, in the near and far-distant future, the dif- 
 ferent and successive elements of the resurrected village. 
 What task more important than the careful and studied 
 reformation of all these cells, broken and obliterated! 
 What noble attraction, what magnificent stimulus did the 
 difficulties themselves present! No! That was not an 
 ordinary competition, one of those cold and common tests 
 that concern but the hand and the intellect and leave the 
 heart a stranger. It has been absolutely necessary in this 
 case, that, in order to succeed, the heart should aid the 
 mind and direct the hand. 
 
 All of these drawings, the best as well as those that do 
 not attain perfection, nevertheless permit to appear 
 clearly the tender thoughts of their authors. In addition 
 to their remarkable merit, they are the stirring acts of 
 patriotic piety. One may perceive the leaven of the most 
 exquisite solicitude at the same time that one is surprised 
 at a kind of divination with which a number have under- 
 stood and penetrated the character and spirit of the dis- 
 trict to be restored. Neither mistake in taste nor mistake 
 in tact. Nowhere does one find any sentimental heresy. 
 
 I admired at every instant this comprehension, so 
 unerring and so correct. "Why," said I to myself, "it 
 seems that these young architects never lived anywhere but 
 in the country and in that part of the country which is the 
 object of their study !" And it is also an object for inquiry, 
 when one sees the precision, the confidence with which some 
 have placed and distributed the farm buildings, whether 
 formerly they have not been innkeepers and agriculturists. 
 
 No, that was not necessary. It was sufficient for them, 
 knowing their trade, to be soldiers, to have seen and 
 
 99 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 experienced the ravages of war. The sight of the ruins was 
 in itself capable of suggesting to their intelligence, moved to 
 pity, the most suitable way to reconstruct. They have 
 learned "on the job" that the new habitation can not be 
 well erected except by considering, respectfully, the ruins. 
 A great number of these young men are in the army. Their 
 ideas were conceived in the trenches, under canvas, within 
 sound of the cannonade. In order to germinate, their 
 ideas, like seeds, had to be put first in the earth, in the 
 bottom of the hole dug for them. Being in the foundation 
 ditches, they placed the piers. The air, earth, and climate 
 of the regions where, in a close intimacy, they were forced 
 to prolong their sojourn, informed and impregnated them 
 until they were native to the locality. In working at the 
 resurrection of the particular corner of France, destroyed 
 beneath their gaze, they obeyed with fervor a sentiment of 
 individual and filial gratitude. This is the reason why the 
 plans were conceived and executed in a will so expressive 
 of duty and love. 
 
 It is impossible to mention all the names of those who 
 have devoted themselves to the work of salvation, but per- 
 mit me, however, to draw special attention to M. Pierre 
 Sardou, government architect, who no longer can count his 
 successes. In the army since the beginning of the war, he 
 obtained first prize for his "House of a Rural Property 
 Owner." How charming and practical it is, this modest 
 and solid home, all on one floor, with its wall in natural 
 stone color and its brown roofs. Tied to the past by cer- 
 tain motifs, sober in line, of a good, frank rusticity, hos- 
 pitable and well protected, it constitutes on the side of the 
 road of life the ideal shelter of peace, of labor, of repose, 
 as well made for living therein a long time as for there 
 dying in the calm and the satisfaction of a beautiful 
 evening. 
 
 Mr. Bonnier, an aviator, also winner of one of the first 
 prizes, has found time between flights to realize the 
 captivating idea of Flemish farm buildings, of which the 
 very finished model gives us a delicious impression. With 
 its roofs loaded with snow and its little windows lighted in 
 the night, it looks Hke the setting of a Christmas tale. And, 
 really, in the most profound meaning of the word, does 
 it not concern the human and national nativity? And the 
 habitation of the blacksmith, as the likeness is engraved by 
 M. Pierre Patout, treated in old timber work, is of the most 
 cordial and ample attraction. What a magnificent fram- 
 ing of this robust shed in the style of an ancient market- 
 house ! At the very sight of it one hears the song of the 
 hammer, and the perfume of the scorched hoof rises in 
 the air. Many others, who will excuse me, should be 
 noticed. All, in designing houses, created poems, ballads 
 of the new era, in which occur reminiscences of the past- 
 Yet adapted, with a light touch, to modern formulas, 
 
 they have gathered and continued the traditions of the 
 old provincial architecture, and this religious anxiety 
 that guided them lends to the ensemble of their researches 
 a ravishing harmony, a family resemblance. 
 
 And it is also a song of action and grace, which under a 
 serene sky, among reborn orchards, over the breathing 
 village, declaims the cheerful and youthful house, with roofs 
 mounting to happiness. Oh, the touching promise of the 
 Alsatian chimneys, columns having for bushy capitals the 
 nest of storks ! Thus the ruin, alas, when forgotten, seems 
 already to belong to ancient history. The stones of 
 mutilated France have changed their voices. Yesterday 
 they were weeping, today they sing. 
 
 But on the day, when to the repatriated will finally be 
 given over the pleasant and fair dwellings newly adorned, 
 how necessary it will be that those who there take up their 
 abode shall endeavor to feel their charm and their moral 
 value, all that they hold of devotion, of sacrifice, of righty 
 all the loving attention and anxious maintenance which 
 they demand. These are sanctified houses, uncommon, 
 beautiful, and it will be an impiety to allow them to decay 
 and deteriorate. It is therefore necessary to care for them, 
 in order that all the good artists, who conceived them and 
 off^ered them to their native land in so fine a spirit, may not 
 in the future have heavy hearts, finding them vilified, 
 misunderstood, and soiled. A great and useful education to 
 undertake, and one which will forge to the front as one of 
 the pressing needs of tomorrow. 
 
 This vast and compelling question of the reestablish- 
 ment of our devastated provinces is an inexhaustible thing. 
 The depth of its perspectives extends in every direction. 
 I have only been able, to my great regret, to put down in 
 passing some reflections on morality, and, forced to ter- 
 minate, I perceive that I have said almost nothing. For- 
 tunately, others better prepared and instructed, of a more 
 scholarly technique, and prepared by conscientious study, 
 have set forth and treated in all its aspects the problem that 
 in this article overwhelms me. I can do nothing better in 
 concluding than to recommend to those of my readers 
 desirous to inform themselves more fully the excellent work 
 that, under the significant title, *"The Homes of France," 
 has just been published by M. Leandre Vaillat, apostle 
 of this fundamental thought — each locality^its character- 
 istic house. He was one of the first and devoted organizers 
 of the great movement of which we can appreciate today 
 the precious results. Composed of serious studies so favor- 
 ably mentioned in "Le Temps," the book, written by a 
 learned and refined artist and a charming writer, is the most 
 agreeable and scholarly labor consecrated to this great 
 work. 
 
 *The text and illustrations of this work were published in the 
 Journal of August, 1917. 
 
 100 
 
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 Farm of Twenty-five Hectares in Pas-de-Calais (M. Sirvin) 
 
 103 
 

 Farm Buildings in Meuse: Longitudinal Section of the Buildings Arranged in the Depth of the Lot (M. Leprince-Ringuet) 
 
 Small Farm Building in the Vosges (M. Vidal) 
 
 104 
 
House of a Cabinet Worker in Alsace (M. Eschbaecher) House of a Locksmith in Alsace with Details (M. Dory) 
 
 Farm Buildings in Picardy (M. Guidetti) 
 
 105 
 
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House of a Locksmith in Artois (M. Despeyroux) 
 
 Baker's House in Meurthe-et-Moselle (M. Bois) 
 
 Farm Buildings in Artois: Elevation on the Courtyard (M. Mulard) 
 
 io8 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 The New York City Tenement House Law 
 
 Those who have known the actual results of the New 
 York Tenement House Law know how true the distinc- 
 tion is between restrictive and constructive measures in 
 housing legislation yet some of us have lived in constant fear 
 lest the praise of our restrictive law might induce other 
 communities to adopt it textually. To be sure, many large 
 communities are practically without any legislation which 
 restrains the speculative builder. For such communities 
 there is need of immediate legislative action, but there must 
 be careful consideration of these less desirable effects of 
 the New York law to which reference is rarely made. 
 
 No one will deny that the "new law" houses in New 
 York are better from a sanitary point of view than those 
 built under the old law. No one will deny that the law 
 has been fairly and equitably administered. Its weakness 
 lies, however, in the obvious fact that it is not a constructive 
 [housing law, that it is restrictive not only as against bad 
 housing, but restrictive in a great measure as against prog- 
 ress in housing design. It is a law which specifies too 
 definitely what shall be done and how it shall be done, in- 
 stead of limiting itself absolutely to a statement of what 
 is to be accomplished in the way of light and air and 
 sanitary conveniences. It is probably true that its passage 
 was a great achievement, perhaps the best law that could 
 have been secured at that time, but it made no provision 
 for progress in tenement design. Many of those who have 
 built houses under the New York law can cite examples of 
 betterments in design that would willingly have been made 
 but which could not be made because of certain definite 
 requirements of the law. Frequently the authorities have 
 acknowledged that certain proposed features were better 
 than those which the law required, but these could not be 
 allowed because the law is mandatory and there is no 
 appeal; changes can be made only by the Legislature. 
 
 The New York law has resulted, in a great measure, in 
 facilitating the work of the man who, without any idea 
 other than profit making, designs and builds along the 
 lines of least resistance, adopts one of two or three stand- 
 ard, utterly stupid, types that can "get away with it" 
 with the least possible expense and the maximum com- 
 pression. As one young architect, who still has ideas and 
 ideals, put it recently, "When I go down to the Tenement 
 House Department with a plan like this, the examiners 
 say, 'Oh, for goodness' sake, what are you going to do next? 
 Why don't you make plans like all the other fellows? 
 You make a lot of trouble with your original schemes.' " 
 There is no question there as to whether or not the pro- 
 posed scheme will afford better housing, but only as to 
 whether it is in conformity with a type that has been 
 evolved from the law. 
 
 The word of warning then is this: By all means 
 "constructive" housing legislation, but in so far as "re- 
 strictive" legislation is necessary, do not copy the New 
 York law. Visit New York, ask those who know its nega- 
 tive effects (they will not deny its positive virtues), see 
 the Bronx and certain parts of Manhattan with miles upon 
 miles of utterly stupid blocks of prison-like cells badly 
 built, and observe the undesirable degree of congestion 
 produced by those who build up to the limit of what is 
 permitted by the law. 
 
 Some of us think we know what is needed to relieve a 
 situation which is the result of our inelastic law joined to 
 the profiteers' cupidity, but it is not necessary to go into 
 these details now. It seemed important, however, to re- 
 call the New York situation, as some of us see it, so that 
 it may be known to those who read Miss Wood's valuable 
 contribution to "The Housing Problem in War and in 
 Peace." Robert D. Kohn. 
 
 The Need of Town-Planning Legislation and Procedure 
 for Control of Land as a Factor in House-Building 
 Development 
 
 By THOMAS ADAMS 
 Town-Planning Advisor, Osmmission of Conservation of Canada 
 
 THE use of the term "town planning" in connection 
 with legislation dealing with the planning and 
 development of rural and urban land has led to con- 
 fusion and misunderstanding. What is called "town 
 planning" is intended by statute to mean urban and rural 
 planning and development. The British act, which is the 
 precedent of legislation of this character, is, in some re- 
 spects, more applicable to rural than to urban areas and, 
 although its general object is to secure amenity, proper 
 sanitary provisions and convenience in connection with 
 
 the laying out of land for building purposes, its operation 
 is largely restricted to land that has not been built upon. 
 Hence, it chiefly applies to suburban, semi-rural, and rural 
 land "likely to be used for building purposes," and not to 
 the remodeling of portions of towns already built upon. 
 
 Planning in Britain 
 
 A considerable proportion of town-planning schemes in 
 England are being prepared by rural district councils, and 
 
 109 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 most of the land included in all the schemes being pre- 
 pared is rural in character. 
 
 In the great majority of cases the English schemes are 
 being prepared by municipal surveyors or engineers, and 
 comparatively little expense is being incurred in connec- 
 tion with their preparation. For instance, the Ruislip- 
 Northwood scheme deals with an area of over 5,900 acres, 
 of which only 437 acres were "in course of development" 
 in 1913. The cost of preparing a scheme for development 
 for this area, in anticipation of the growth for the next 
 fifty or one hundred years, was only $5,000. The ultimate 
 estimated cost of carrying out the scheme, namely $1 50,000, 
 will be spread over the period during which the scheme is 
 being carried out and as assessable land value increases. 
 It may reasonably "be claimed that the Ruislip-Northwood 
 council has, as a result of the preparation of this scheme, 
 laid the foundation for future development which will 
 insure health, convenience, and amenity for the com- 
 munity, which could not have been obtained by any other 
 method except at prohibitive cost. 
 
 The work being done by the Conference on Arterial 
 Roads in Greater London, which has been at work for the 
 past three years, is an indication of the importance attached 
 to the subject of planning and development in England. 
 The conference comprises representatives of 137 local 
 authorities. It has been holding frequent meetings, with a 
 view to determining the best lines of development, par- 
 ticularly in regard to the means of communication by road, 
 for an area of 1,000 square miles within and surrounding 
 the county of London. The greater part of this territory 
 is rural in character. Many separate municipalities are 
 preparing schemes for their area, but they are combining 
 together in conference to secure a general plan for their 
 arterial system of highways. The fact that they have been 
 able to join together and present united decisions to the 
 president of the Local Government Board of England 
 shows the value of the services of the Local Government 
 Board in securing effective cooperation. If it is possible 
 for so many authorities to combine, surely it should be 
 practicable for the comparatively few who are usually 
 concerned in the control of suburban areas adjacent to 
 large cities in America. 
 
 In Britain less confusion is caused by the use of the 
 term town planning, because of the broader meaning given 
 to the word town, and because a greater proportion of the 
 rural territory is urban in character. The need for some 
 change in the British Town Planning Act, in order that 
 it may be made more adaptable to rural areas, is, however, 
 being recognized by the British authorities. Mr. Henry 
 Aldridge, in his book, "The Case for Town Planning," 
 argues that the Act of 1909 should be amended to enable 
 rural councils to prepare a rural planning scheme with the 
 minimum of work and a maximum of practical efficiency. 
 The draft of the Planning and Development Act of the 
 Commission of Conservation of Canada makes provision for 
 the preparation of simple rural planning (development) 
 schemes in a form which could be made adaptable to 
 British conditions. 
 
 Planning Not an End in Itself 
 
 It has to be recognized that a mere plan will not do 
 anything to conserve life or secure industrial efficiency. 
 
 The plan is only the basis on which a scheme may be made 
 to control development of land. A plan may be prepared 
 on paper, but no better result secured than if it had been 
 omitted, because the thing that really matters is the de- 
 velopment that follows. Planning is not an end, but only 
 a means to an end; it is only part of an instrument to guide 
 development, and is of no value unless it guides it aright. 
 It is important that the emphasis should be placed on 
 the character of the development to be achieved under a 
 scheme and not on the preparation of a plan, hence the 
 use of the term "planning and development" instead of 
 "town planning." The change in terminology is not, how- 
 ever, solely due to ambiguity of previous terms. It arises 
 solely from the fact that the same principles which are 
 proving successful in regard to the organization of town life 
 must be applied to rural life. In other words, the scope of 
 planning and development cannot in practice be limited 
 to urban development if it is to achieve its general object 
 of securing health, efficiency, convenience, and amenity. 
 
 Need of Legislation 
 
 Before proper development schemes can be made, it is 
 necessary to have legislation passed; first, for the purpose 
 of enabling municipal authorities to prepare schemes for 
 their areas, and, second, for setting up the provincial 
 machinery necessary to control development in unorgan- 
 ized territory. Such an act has to make provision for 
 securing effective cooperation between the state, the 
 municipality, and the owners of land, and for determining 
 the procedure necessary in connection with the prepara- 
 tion and making of schemes. 
 
 Among the reasons why new legislation is necessary is 
 the fact that proper development cannot be carried out 
 withou t some more scientific method in which provision shall 
 be made for the exercise of reasonable discretion. Develop- 
 ment schemes in their very nature have to deal with sepa- 
 rate, and sometimes opposing, interests, including those 
 of the general public and private owners. It is an essential 
 feature of planning and development legislation that it 
 should provide for effective cooperation between the 
 public authorities and the private owners, and also between 
 adjacent municipal authorities. It is therefore necessary 
 to have a skilled department of the state government to 
 act as a sort of court of appeal in regard to differences 
 which are bound to arise between interested parties and 
 conflicting or cooperating authorities. 
 
 Boundaries of Development Schemes 
 
 It may not be practicable in some cases to prepare 
 development schemes within the arbitrary boundaries of 
 one municipal area. For topographical and other reasons 
 one local authority may desire to include part of an area 
 of another local authority in its scheme. In England it has 
 been recognized that arbitrary municipal boundaries must 
 not influence the boundaries of town-planning schemes. 
 The city of St. John, New Brunswick, has obtained author- 
 ity from the legislature to prepare a scheme for an area of 
 about 20,000 acres, of which about half is outside the city 
 limits. No objection was raised to the inclusion of the 
 outside territory in the area of the scheme by the local 
 authorities concerned, and only one objection was raised 
 by an owner. 
 
 no 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 The Census Bureau of the United States, in its latest 
 census, has shown that the arbitrary boundaries of cities 
 were little heeded by the growth of population, industry, 
 or development generally. Because of this it is necessary 
 that planning and development schemes should embrace 
 a much larger area than is covered by the administrative 
 unit of the city or town, but if the rural municipality does 
 its duty and prepares schemes for the urban parts of its 
 area, it would not be necessary for the city or town to 
 encroach on the territory outside its boundaries. The 
 development of the agricultural areas adjacent to the city 
 should be considered in relation to the development in 
 these suburban schemes. 
 
 Why Rural and Urban Development Should Be 
 Dealt with in One Measure 
 
 Prima facie it would seem as if the proper way to control 
 rural and urban development would be either to have two 
 acts — rnamely, a rural development act and an urban 
 development act — or to have one act so framed as to en- 
 able urban schemes to be prepared for urban areas and 
 rural schemes to be prepared for rural areas. In practice, 
 however, this would not work out satisfactorily, owing to 
 the absence of any clear division line between urban and 
 rural territory and between urban and rural conditions. 
 Moreover, to suggest a division of this kind would be to 
 emphasize a distinction between the two kinds of areas 
 and their problems which does not exist, although it has 
 erroneously been assumed to exist and has been fostered^ 
 by many whose one-sided experience has blinded them to 
 the interdependence of urban and rural life. Not only is 
 there no sharp division-line between town and country 
 under modern conditions, and no certainty that what is 
 isolated rural territory today may not become the site of 
 a town tomorrow, but the arbitrary divisions between 
 urban and rural municipal areas are such that the conditions 
 and problems on both sides of a boundary line between such 
 areas may be precisely the same. 
 
 The only satisfactory method, even if it be somewhat 
 defective, is to have an act which will regulate all new 
 settlement and development in all kinds of urban and rural 
 areas. This is, of course, a sharp distinction between the 
 problems that have to be dealt with in areas which are 
 fully built up with substantial and more or less permanent 
 improvements, like those in the central parts of large cities, 
 and other problems in suburban areas where the land is 
 either unbuilt upon or is only in process of being developed. 
 Land which is fully built upon and served by improved 
 streets which cannot be altered or replanned, except at 
 great cost for reconstruction, is not suitable for inclusion 
 in the area of a development scheme. Even if the plan- 
 ning of such land has been hopelessly bad and the streets 
 have proved to be too narrow and are intersected by 
 dangerous railway crossings, it is hardly practicable to 
 remodel them by a development scheme dealing with 
 large areas of land. The act and the development schemes 
 prepared under it, intended to deal with both urban and 
 rural conditions, will contain provisions which are appli- 
 cable to urban and inapplicable to rural territory, and 
 vice versa. But there can be no objection to this, since if 
 any provision is inapplicable, no person or interest can be 
 injured thereby. For instance, if a scheme provided for 
 
 control of building-lines, i. e., the distance of setback from 
 the highway boundary in a district where no buildings 
 were likely to be erected, this would not be a burden on 
 the farmer, since it would not force or accelerate build- 
 ing development but merely provide for its regulation if 
 and when it took place. If no building took place, the pro- 
 vision would remain inoperative. On the other hand, no 
 person or government can forsee where building is going 
 to take place, or where a town-site is going to be laid out. 
 Restrictions which are necessary to regulate development 
 where it is occurring may, without injury to anyone, be 
 made to apply, even where development is unlikely to 
 occur. If such regulations are to be effective, they must 
 deal with the possibility and not with the fact. 
 
 The Principal Contents of Development Schemes 
 in Rural Areas 
 
 Practically anything connected with the development of 
 land can be included in a development scheme under a 
 planning and development act. Only by this means can 
 development be planned comprehensively and its various 
 parts be considered in relation to each other at the same 
 time. Even those matters which are the subject of general 
 statutes or by-laws should be premitted to be varied by the 
 provisions of a scheme. This is an additional reason why 
 the final approval of the scheme must rest with the pro- 
 vincial authority. The following outline gives an indica- 
 tion of some of the matters which may be dealt with: 
 
 {a) Fixing varied widths of streets and roads; altering 
 or closing existing highways; determining building-lines 
 or setbacks of buildings according to a comprehensive 
 scheme for a large area. The relationship between the 
 street and the character and density of the buildings to 
 be erected upon it should be taken into account. 
 
 {b) Reserving land for new main thoroughfares. 
 
 {c) Limiting the number of dwelling houses to be erected 
 per acre and prescribing the amount of any lot which may 
 be built upon in order to ensure ample light and air for all 
 buildings and healthy housing conditions. 
 
 {d) Prescribing zones in urban parts of rural areas 
 within which to regulate different degrees of density and 
 height of buildings, according to local conditions. 
 
 {e) Classifying land for use for residential purposes, 
 factories, agriculture, timber reserves, etc., and adjusting 
 the system of taxation and the system of planning and 
 constructing local improvements to suit the kind of de- 
 velopment permitted under the scheme, to encourage the 
 economic use of the land, and to lessen injurious specula- 
 tion. Under a scheme, land could be permanently dedi- 
 cated for agricultural purposes and assessed at its value 
 for that purpose to the advantage of the public and owners 
 alike. 
 
 Every scheme can be prepared to deal with local con- 
 ditions on their merits under any skilled advice that may 
 be employed with the advantage of any local experience. 
 
 To be successful, planning and development schemes 
 have to be flexible. One of their advantages is that they 
 dispense with the necessity of stereotyped by-laws. Cer- 
 tain general principles, such as the amount of space that 
 must be reserved around buildings of different kinds, or 
 the width of main arterial thoroughfares, have to be 
 
 III 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 definitely settled, but matter of detail affecting individual 
 properties can be made subject to variation. 
 
 One of the purposes of such schemes should be to trans- 
 fer a larger portion of the burden of making local improve- 
 ments to the owners of real estate who benefit from these 
 improvements. Among other matters which might be 
 dealt with in rural land development schemes are: 
 
 Cancellation and replanning of subdivisions. 
 
 Provision of private and public open spaces for rec- 
 reation. 
 
 Preservation of objects of historic interest or natural 
 beauty. 
 
 Planning of sewerage, drainage, and sewage-dis- 
 posal, lighting and water-supply systems in 
 advance. 
 
 Extension of variation of private rights-of-way and 
 other easements. 
 
 Planning of community centers and educational 
 institutes. 
 
 Protection of rural districts from noxious industries 
 and ugly hoardings. 
 
 It is only when these matters are dealt with in a scheme 
 that effective control of land development can be secured 
 on economical lines. When attempts are made to get 
 improvements carried out in respect of individual proper- 
 
 ties, such as the simple matters of fixing a building-line or 
 diverting a road, much opposition has to be faced, or com- 
 pensation paid, because the owner is being asked to give 
 up something to comply with a requirement which affects 
 his property only. He has to get compensation, not 
 necessarily because he is injured, but because he is asked 
 to confer a benefit upon the community which other 
 owners are not asked to confer. In a development scheme 
 the requirements of local authorities are made general 
 throughout its area, and, in practice, what have appeared 
 to be revolutionary proposals have met with little oppo- 
 sition. 
 
 In certain schemes owners have granted free large areas 
 of land for recreation purposes and for widening roads, 
 without cost to the community and without loss to the 
 donors. The fact that the latter contribute, under this 
 plan, to a general scheme of development has meant in 
 such cases that the balance of their property was increased 
 in value as a result of contribution to the scheme. 
 
 The reader who is not familiar with the working of 
 planning and development legislation will probably find 
 many questions arise in his mind regarding the feasibility 
 and benefit of the proposals referred to in the above out- 
 line; but experience in the working of such legislation 
 leads to the conclusion that it is the only sound and effec- 
 tive way to control the development of land. 
 
 II 
 
 IT IS obvious that the adoption of the most perfect 
 system of planning and development of land will not 
 do more than provide the right foundation on which 
 to build up a solution by a slow and gradual process. 
 In the degree in which that foundation is well laid, the 
 ultimate social structure will be the more stable, and will 
 be the more capable of adjustment to suit altered con- 
 ditions from time to time as development proceeds; while, 
 obversely, in the degree in which the foundation is badly 
 laid the structure will be proportionately weak, and it 
 will become the more difficult to go back to the beginning 
 and remedy fundamental defects. Success can be attained 
 only by using skill and exercising patience and vigil- 
 ance in dealing with the problem in a scientific way. 
 Attempts to reach a solution by short cuts and quick 
 results, as in the past, can end only in failure. 
 
 General Considerations Involved 
 
 As a means of Ending and applying the needed remedies, 
 it seems necessary that several lines of activity should be 
 pursued simultaneously. These include: 
 
 (a) The improving of national, state and local govern- 
 ment organization in connection with all matters relating 
 to land development. 
 
 (^) The making of a comprehensive investigation and 
 survey of present conditions, and the preparing of detailed 
 topographical maps and reports on rural conditions. 
 
 (c) The adopting of some system of planning all land 
 for purposes of health, convenience and economic use, and 
 the securing of adequate planning and development 
 legislation and its effective administration by the govern- 
 ing authorities. 
 
 (d) The creating of agricultural and industrial settle- 
 ments, free of artificial pressure and on sound economic 
 lines. 
 
 (e) The formulating of a definite policy in regard to 
 readjustment of social and industrial conditions after the 
 war, particularly in relation to the problem of returned 
 soldiers. 
 
 General recommendations in regard to each of these 
 matters are set out below. 
 
 Government Organization 
 
 The Federal and state government legislation and 
 machinery for dealing with the control of the planning, 
 settlement and development of land, should be extended 
 and improved. 
 
 There should be closer cooperation than hitherto be- 
 tween Federal, state and municipal governments, and be- 
 tween different branches of the public service, in regard to 
 all matters dealing with land. 
 
 The surveying branches of the governments should be 
 strengthened and more comprehensive surveying work 
 assigned to them. 
 
 A complete and coordinated system of Federal, state 
 and municipal administration of land resources should be 
 devised, with the whole organization centralized in a depart- 
 ment or permanent commission of the Federal Government. 
 
 The operations of venders of real estate should be 
 regulated, so as to prevent misrepresentation and other 
 immoral practices in connection with the sale of land, and 
 all real-estate operators should be licensed by govern- 
 ments under safeguards designed to prevent improper 
 dealing in land. 
 
 112 
 
WHAT IS A HOUSE? 
 
 State governments should consider their systems of 
 administering highways, municipal affairs and public 
 health, with special regard to the need of securing more 
 cooperation and efficiency in connection with land and 
 municipal development than is possible under present 
 conditions, and for increasing the responsibilities and 
 powers of municipal authorities, under the advice of a 
 skilled department of local government in each state. 
 
 To meet a temporary need, the Federal Government 
 should take an active interest in the housing of workers 
 engaged in munition plants, particularly in government 
 arsenals and in small towns and rural districts where there 
 is lack of strong local government. The Federal Govern- 
 ment should either require adequate accommodation and 
 proper sanitary conditions to be provided at a reasonable 
 cost for those who are engaged in the service of the country, 
 or itself assist in making that provision, as is being done 
 in Great Britain and allied countries. 
 
 Whether in regard to peace or war conditions, the main 
 objects of any improvement in government organization, 
 of rural and of urban conditions, must be to conserve life 
 and to stimulate production. To achieve these objects it is 
 essential, above all other things, that greater activity be 
 shown by governments in protecting public health, in 
 promoting sound systems of education, and in controlling 
 land speculation. 
 
 The Cost of Neglect 
 
 We have the estimate from United States sources 
 that feeble-minded children cost the United States Govern- 
 ment ^90,000,000, and that crime costs ^600,000,000 a 
 year. The feeble-minded child produces the strongest 
 link that connects neglect of social and health conditions 
 with crime. 
 
 While these figures are of value in conveying some 
 impression of the importance of the problem of public 
 health, they are, of course, of no value as an indication 
 of the extent of the government responsibility; since the 
 factors necessary to show the proportion of the loss due 
 to individual neglect and the proportion of maladministra- 
 tion must continue to be unknown. Nor are they any 
 guide as to the respective losses caused by overcrowding 
 in cities on the one hand, and by isolation and poverty in 
 rural districts on the other hand. But enough is known to 
 make it clear to every student of social conditions that a 
 large share of the responsibility for the deplorable and 
 unnecessary loss of life and physical deterioration on this 
 continent rests with the various governing authorities, 
 who have the powers to regulate land development, and 
 that there are conditions in the rural districts as injurious 
 to health and morals as in the crowded city slums. 
 
 Looking Ahead 
 
 At present, there is a "confusion of tongues" as to the 
 desirability, or otherwise, of money and human energy 
 being spent on works that are not absolutely essential to the 
 prosecution of the war. The weight of evidence seems to be 
 in favor of everything being suspended which can be put 
 off without injury to our social and economic life. As 
 conservation of health lies at the root of our social life, 
 and as it is one of the most essential needs as a means of 
 prosecuting the war itself, as well as to make up for the 
 
 wastage of war and to utilize our natural resources, public 
 health expenditures should be the last to be curtailed. 
 Moreover, whatever public works may be delayed, there 
 should be no delay in thinking out and formulating a 
 policy for future action, having regard to past failure and 
 to the lessons taught by the war. 
 
 Apart from the question of general education, there is 
 need for improvement in the training of those engaged in 
 municipal and sanitary engineering, land surveying, and 
 assessment valuation, in order to qualify a larger body of 
 professional men to specialize in the work of planning and 
 developing land, controlling public health and assessing 
 property values. The organization of municipal and 
 sanitary engineers for purposes of specialized professional 
 training and for the advancement of their particular 
 branch of engineering is needed. 
 
 In our universities, too, we want to see an awakening to 
 a more vital interest in civic problems and in the science 
 of land development and industrial organization. Pro- 
 fessor Geddes claims that the universities in all the 
 countries in the passing generation have been strong- 
 holds of Germanic thought, with its mechanical and venal 
 philosophy. "The re-awakening movements of the 
 universities have been slow, timid, blindfold, because lack- 
 ing in civic vision." 
 
 The Land Problem 
 
 Enough, but not too much, has been said on the subject 
 of land speculation. The governments have a special 
 obligation, as the original venders of land, and in view of 
 the far-reaching effects of immoral practices in connection 
 with its sale, to employ special means to protect purchasers 
 from such practices. There are numerous obvious steps 
 which should be taken in this respect, including the regis- 
 tration of those engaged in real-estate operations and the 
 application of adequate safeguards to protect purchasers. 
 
 Government control of land development and the 
 system of assessing and taxing of land should have regard 
 to its use, its non-use, and its abuse as an instrument of 
 production. The economic use of land must be encouraged, 
 the non-use of land hindered, and the abuse of land pre- 
 vented, by government policies; unless we intend to 
 continue to sacrifice the surplus fruits of production — the 
 only source from which increase of real wealth is derived — 
 for the plaything of speculation. 
 
 A Comprehensive Survey 
 
 A comprehensive survey of the social, physical and 
 industrial conditions of all rural territory should be made, 
 with the object of ascertaining: first, the main facts re- 
 garding the problems of rural life and rural development 
 in territory already settled and organized; and, second, 
 more precise information than is now available regarding 
 natural resources in unorganized territory. 
 
 The survey should be so prepared as to enable construc- 
 tive proposals to be formulated regarding the economic 
 development of the natural and industrial resources of 
 the country, and regarding the location of new towns, 
 railways and highways. 
 
 It should include a complete inventory and an additonal 
 survey of all lands which have been already surveyed and 
 homesteaded with a view to securing their settlement 
 
 113 
 
L'Envoi 
 
 The world has long known that impure and 
 insufficient food or long hours of work will 
 impair the usefulness of any man to society. 
 Now, on a huge scale, it is being proven that the 
 subtler results of rotten housing are an intoler- 
 able expense and drain upon national vitality. 
 
 Housing reform accordingly has passed sud- 
 denly out of its earlier stage as a negative re- 
 pression of unsanitary and unwholesome con- 
 ditions, and this sketchy and hasty collection 
 of new facts and demands gives hopeful promise 
 of a new era vast in social possibilities. 
 
 We get glimpses here of society grasping 
 firmly a problem so huge that it governs one- 
 quarter of the earnings of the average man, 
 attacking the problem radically by bold con- 
 structive action, socialistic action, if you like — 
 the name doesn't matter. We see great nations 
 plowing into the problem with expenditures 
 of hundreds of millions, boldly tossing hundreds 
 of thousands of wage-workers out of black 
 slums into sweet, sun -bathed dwellings that 
 stand amid green acres. We see the unearned 
 increment, ancient drag upon human progress, a 
 burden that always grew in proportion to the 
 community's ability to carry it, converted into 
 a source of community revenue. We see the 
 human machine being guarded from weather 
 and corruption as jealously as our machines of 
 steel — and no longer in the depressing name 
 of charity, or philanthropy, but as a tardy 
 
 recognition of the fundamental principle upon 
 which a democracy alone can be erected. 
 
 When in this world before has a civilized 
 nation flung $700,000,000, with $1,000,000,000 
 more to come, into the quick solution of a 
 social problem? 
 
 That which we glimpse today will be our 
 future if we only see the vision and are quick to 
 make it come true and stay true. 
 
 Employers must be shown what tangible 
 rewards await them if they will put their new 
 plants out upon cheap land, provide for work- 
 men's houses to be built on that land, and then 
 keep the land forever cheap for them by con- 
 serving the appreciation of land values as a 
 community treasure. 
 
 The Government must be shown the op- 
 portunity, which lies now within its easy grasp, 
 of keeping its new towns intact forever, re- 
 couping its investment by slow but sure 
 amortization, and leaving each town eventually 
 owner of itself, in enjoyment of the full annual 
 value of all the lands within its borders with a 
 total easy revenue far beyond all precedent. 
 
 By such ways shall architects perhaps find 
 themselves presently invited to rebuild vast 
 areas of dingy habitations in the United States 
 more and more boldly by blocks and square 
 miles, devising beauty and comfort, not merely 
 for the well-to-do, but for the great 80 per cent 
 in whose well-being lies the fate of civilization. 
 
 116 
 
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