nomic conditions, and still fewer have pictured its effects. They do not perceive the economic and human waste in housing. As a result, some people have even come to regard as luxuries these necessities of daylight, garden and recreation space, sanitation and sound architecture. They preach, in one way or another, a reconcilement to slum conditions. But this is a gospel of despair.
Success found at Bayonne
This brings us squarely up before the question: what should be done? Obviously, the answer is: develop a sounder system of producing housing. This is the purpose of the experiment which the Bayonne Housing Corporation is now engaged in.
When expressed in economic terms, the ideal of the Bayonne Housing Corporation is the maximum business efficiency applied to raise the social and architectural standards of housing as high as possible. This ideal has been realized to the extent that the Bayonne Housing Corporation has provided housing at a much lower rental than is found in new construction in the ordinary real estate market. This rental is within the means of the better paid wage-earner, and, be it noted, includes steam heat and hot water. The stockholders have provided all necessary funds in return for common stock on which only 5% dividends are expected. The project does not carry the burden of either a mortgage or preferred stock. The Bayonne housing, moreover, is of a higher architectural standard than has hitherto been thought possible for the rentals, even if one considers the epoch-making achievement of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in its great project of model tenements housing 2,125 families, which was completed in 1924.
It should be emphasized that the experiment of this first group had, however, distinct limitations, in that a number of the biggest factors which enter into housing costs could not be controlled, except in the traditional manner. These were taxes, rates of labor, prices of materials, and the traditional system of land subdivision, which obtains in Bayonne as elsewhere. Only two of the biggest items were dealt with to the full in accordance with the principles of business efficiency. These were architecture and finance. The surprising success which was obtained from the proper control of these two factors, of housing costs alone, holds out promise of great future progress when the remaining cost factors in their turn are placed on a sound
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