The Way to Do It

The ruggedly individualistic U.S. housing industry, which has seldom been able to agree on what a federal housing policy should be, last week surprised everyone, including itself. At a round-table sponsored by BUILDING,/- the five great trade associations of the industry--the Mortgage Bankers, the Home Builders, the Lumber Dealers, the Associated General Contractors, and the Producers Council --got together on a comprehensive program in support of U.S. rearmament.** Chief point: house building should be cut back to 1,000,000 units a year from the current rate of 1,400,000.

The way to accomplish the cutback, said the builders, is not by direct price, wage and materials controls, but by credit restrictions. In fact, said the builders, inflation in general must be attacked not by direct controls, but by "higher taxes, the control of credit [and by] stopping all unnecessary Government spending."

Even indirect controls, however, should be applied gradually. Since the building industry is one of the chief props under the economy, the builders warned against too drastic a construction cut. Said they: "We consider it quite possible that the restrictions already imposed (i.e., higher down payments, less mortgage insurance) may reduce housing starts to a far lower figure [than 1,000,000]--perhaps as low as 600,000 . . . Until rearmament can absorb a far larger share of American production, any [such] cut in home building . . . would cause serious unemployment and other harmful dislocations of the economy."

The worried builders frankly agreed that, thanks to free-handed Government credit, the housing boom had just about got out of hand.

/-Full title: ARCHITECTURAL FORUM: THE MAGAZINE OF BUILDING.

**Other proponents of the plan: Housing Suppliers Charles E. Wilson (General Electric), John D. Biggers (Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass), Ben Moreell (Jones & Laughlin Steel), Melvin Baker (National Gypsum), Clifford J. Backstrand (Armstrong Cork), Lewis H. Brown (Johns-Manville), J. Philip Weyerhaeuser Jr. (Weyerhaeuser Timber).

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