Defense Housing

A U. S. problem during World War I was housing for workers in defense industries. Near the war's end the emergency U. S. Housing Corp. calculated a shortage of adequate shelter for 292.000 workers. Aircraft, steel, other companies reported that they could have increased efficiency, upped production 20% or more, simply by enough decent houses to keep workers from wandering elsewhere.

Last week the U. S. boomed toward defense production at wartime levels. But the U. S. already had signs of another housing shortage. Worst shortages were at and near shipyards (Bremerton. Wash.; Norfolk, Va.; Newport, R. I.; Mare Island. Calif., etc.) where workers flocked by thousands. At Bremerton (Puget Sound Navy Yard), State patrolmen, harried by reports of "stolen" and abandoned cars, wearily retorted: "Hell, there's guys living in them--Navy yard workers."

The Army also had a shortage of barracks. Many World War I cantonments were long since abandoned, others were hardly fit for habitation. Some of the National Guardsmen whom President Roosevelt called up last fortnight must be housed in tents. First increments of volunteers and conscripts must be similarly sheltered unless (as the Army hopes) new barracks can be knocked together before the men go into service. Army officers at the end of July testified that if Congress promptly voted conscription and $1,100,000,000 in additional funds for pay and shelter, adequate housing could be built in time to care for the new troops.

All this should have presented no grave problem. The New Deal had two great agencies (USHA. FHA) whose business was mass housing. RFC, WPA could also be enlisted to finance and build emergency houses. Ensconced in the National Defense Advisory Commission was keen-eyed, balding Atlanta Builder Charles F. ("Chuck") Palmer, to coordinate all defense housing. His consultant was young (36), aggressive Washington Builder Gustave Ring, who had made a tidy fortune on apartment buildings which U. S. housing agencies partly financed.* Last week Mr. Palmer figured that the U. S. defense industries needed 42,000 new housing units, the Navy needed 65.700 more; the Army soon would need at least 50.000. Within a year or so, must come also housing for workers of the new powder, gun, armor, and other factories which the Army and Navy expect to finance. To a $5,246,000,000 Defense Bill which Congress passed last week, $100,000,000 had been added for general defense housing, $128,000,000 for National Guard barracks.

But money could not solve "Chuck" Palmer's troubles. Red tape, inter-bureau rivalries delayed any clear definition of the housing problem. Coordinator Palmer hoped to get private builders to put up the needed houses with U. S. funds, provided he could keep housing bureaucrats out of his and each other's hair.

* One of Mr. Ring's Washington developments was the Westchester Apartment, which The Netherlands' Queen Wilhelmina reportedly bought for investment

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