Page:Industrial Housing.djvu/15

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Breaking ground for the Bayonne wage-earners' homes. The Mayor of Bayonne and the officers and directors of the Bayonne Housing Corporation start the work


cheerless "cold water flats," as much as they would pay for the new apartments of the Bayonne Housing Corporation. When the rise in prices of old construction to the level of prices of new construction was finally complete, the wage—earner—even the high-paid one—would find that he could not afford a suitable home. He would accordingly be obliged to accept a reduction in his standard of living.

It was felt that capital, no less than labor, would deplore any reduction in the standard of living of the workers in industry, and the individuals interested in the Bayonne experiment were ready to lend a hand in placing the production of wage-earners' houses on a sounder business basis.

That the particular section of the real estate market which produces wage-earners' housing is careless of the social interest, and that it operates inefficiently, with heavy economic waste in many industrial centres of the country—this is a truth well known to housing experts. The fact is that housing suffers from a somewhat obsolete and primitive business system in which

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