| OCR Text |
Show I Demands for I I Am! Obsf?clcs I To Building Hjjr Seventy-four cities have rrlurnod tO H the United States department of labor HI questionnaire 9 on builrlinc needs and , Hi obrtai les in scum:: hnildinr under S nty. Fifty-seven of these ci'ics show; Ij a pre. .-in. demand for binldinc Bad most of these emphasize, t ho 'hortage j H ij Ol dwelling! and apartment boni H J, Typical of the representations in i H j this particular are the following: , Hij Fortland, Me, reports s shortage in Hla dwelling and tenement housi Haver 3 hill, Lawrence and Salem. Mass., re- q port a demand for dwellings and tene- , U ment.-. Albany. N. Y . neds fja1 J Manhattan need office, dwelling and storage bulldlngi . Rochester needs ' dwHUsgl and mercantile building?. be.th. N. J , arc short in dwelling! and 1 upartnu nts and almost all the towns ; 11 in Pennryhnn a x -port , nc, .how a, deli , I tiency in residences Ohio. Indiana and lllinol? ihoW a shortage in dwellings with an occa-'j Hj fional report on demands for pehools HI nnd (hi i. .,n) ili rii ni ge of shortage in Colorado. Utah, Washington and California Is m dwell- H 'ngs. In the south and southwest ihere H I I" a demand for business building this I H being especially noticeable in Texas 1 and Louisiana.. Scranton and Wilkc--Barn Pa, H Newark. hlo. Wheeling. W. Ya , Bl Rloomlnctcn and Danville, HI . report , Bl no demand for building Indicating j present facilities are adequate to cur-j Hj rent need LC Tacoma. Wash., was the only It B! leportinc no delay on account of HH wages, material prices, inter i Hi a available capital. Tscoms't ph- Bf itacle was inclement weather and .sub Hl sequent reports from thi Ftate of H9 Washington indicate preparaf.ons for Hl unuBual building a t h lt lor the spring Thf questionnaires, which wen senl out by the division tf public works and construct w dev rlopnn nts of the Bj United States department of labor, were calculated to verify the results )f other Investigations into the build Ing shoriagc of the country and to de- eop what, if any, obstacles were In -H Ing encountered by building Internet! H Specific information was asked on the H influence of wages, material prices. ntercst rates and available Invert H -ncint capital Several cities reported I bat it was none of these Which was H delaying building but rather th UU HB certainty of the future labor and ma-H ma-H 1 rial market. A majority of the cit-les cit-les assert that high wages are a factor Htt in holding hack building: there is al H most unanimous concurrence in the H opinion that high prices of materials HH are determined obstacles There is not HS much complaint about interest rates H DUt fourteen cltlet report builders are SUB having difficulty in obtaining capital in f nwiri proji i t This lattT okstaele appears not to be a sectional matter Lut rather one crowing u of local conditions in widely wide-ly separated territory. Cambridge. .Mass.. New Haven, t'onn.. Alban. N. V . Philadelphia. Pa.. Terre Haute, ind . Wheeling, w. Va . Aurora; ill., arc among the cities icportmc difficulty difficul-ty in borrowing capital for building work, Wherever building Industry organi zation ha e gone into the subjeci, the conclusion has prevailed that no de-rre de-rre m labor wages may be expc 1 ed for some time to come- not until the general price level on living m -c -cities drops. The investigations of th economists in the department of labor, supported by no less an authority thau Prof Irvine Fisher, of Yale university, univer-sity, assrrt no marked reduction may be exported in building material prlcer Professor Fisher asserts we are on a new and higher price level from which, in the main, we shall not recede. "We are on a permanently higher price level," says Professor Fisher, "and the sooner the business men of the rountn lake this view and adjust themselves to it. the sooner will they s.i. themselves and Ihe nation na-tion from the misfortune which will come, if we persist in our present false hope." After setting out the circumstances and development! on which this conclusion con-clusion is based. Trof Fisher concludes con-cludes his study of the situation with this: "Business men should face the. facts. To talk reverently of 1913-111 prices is to speak a dead language 10- I d The buyers of the country, since , the armistice, have made an unexam 'pled attack upon prices through their, waiting attitude, and yet price reeea-sions reeea-sions have been insiginiflcant. The! Iieason is that we are on a new high I price level, which will be found a stub- ; 1 born reality. Dusine.-s men are coin-: to find out that the eleer man Is not the man who wails, but the one who j finds out the new price facts, and acts j accordingly." on |
