The evening world. Newspaper, May 31, 1919, Page 11

SATURDAY, MAY 31 Where Can | Live? A Question That Al The Problem 1 the World Is Asking in England First of a Serics of Articles. During the War England Built Whole Communities of Houses, Yet Now There Is a Shortage of 1,500,- 000—But England Has a Plan, Which This Article Explains, for Aiding Building and Foiling Profit- teering Speculators. Written Especially for The Evening World By Charles Harris Whitaker Géitor of the Octagon, Journal of the American Institute of Architects. Copyright, 1919, by The I'ress Publish UNITED STATES has discovered a new disease. It is known as | But the malady {s as old as man. There have = @lways been housing problems. the housing problem. ina Co. (The New York Rvening World). There, always will be—of a kind. Bat the present one is serious. How did it happen? Why are there not houses? Why are there so 1 , The large nation that has had t many slums? he most experience is England. That % where the present kind of housing problem was born. It began to take @ape when men and women stopped running hand-looms at home and Weut into factories. It came in with the steam engine, the loom and the wad jenny. Factories grew lar; Speculation. The Black Country beg ‘ger and larger. Towns expanded as magic. The worker was forgotten. The building of houses was left to ‘an to eat up the fields and hedgerows, Stioke, soot, dirt, narrow streets, filthy back yards began to produce slums, @arvation, disease, tuberculosis, a high rate of child mortality—a degen- @rate race, in fact. And then England awoke, and for lam fifty years she has been @rappling with the housing problem. Bho has tried every kind of scheme. Wer cities and towns have built mu- Wlctpal tenements. Philanthropiats manufacturers have bullt garden But it remained for the war England what the housing really meant to her. Then @iscame face to face with the fact ‘tat you cannot get the maximum from men unless you give the maximum amount of comfort b Her munitions larder was Bhe had to achieve a scale of the like of which the never saw before. Her old were enlarged, doubled, quadrupled. New planta ‘up all over the land—and then @f a sudden, somebody discovered there was nowhere for the to live. Production fell off. men would not stay on their ‘And Germany was hammering blows just Then England went to work. She millions in building houses. built whole communities, some of large enough for 30,000 people. @he built houses, stores, churches, wohools, laundries, moving picture fact everything that was to make the towns pleasant, | > satisfying. The result was @n output of munitions such as | ‘would feed thousands of cannon, mil- thous of rifies, the greatest navy in the world, and still leave sufficient for the gas the aeroplane, the mines, the sub- chasers, and all the vast equip- of which the average citizen hag not the faintest idea. It was the war production ever at- tained. Yet it is absolutely true that ft could not have been done if Eng- land bad not built comfortable ‘Otises for her workers. PLANS TO SUBSIDIZE BUILDING OF SMALL HOUSES. But now the war is over, what then? The housing shortage in Eng- land is estimated to be about 1,500,- 000 houses. How is England going to take care of it? She is preparing to pass a law by which the nation wit qubsidize the building of smal houses. That is, she will pay part of the cost out of the national treas- rg. In other words, it Is believed ding good houses, and Wngland is determined that the speculators shall ot take advantage of the situation by Dullding cheap hovels that turn is prepared to pay the difference price, If any difference there be, Bébween the cost of good houses bul fiw and their value in five or seven years. She will not pay all the cost. 5 figuses to bear a proportion of it and $s to say, for each five dollars (ap- ‘t there will be a huge loss on it Bhe will compel those towns needing heir sbare is determined by a tax levy of one penny In the pound, That owners of England, realizing the vast acreage needed for these housing schemes, have sent the price of land soaring to the skies, Unless Bng- land can pass a land acquisition act permitting the Government to take land at @ fair valuation, she cannot begin to carry out the housing schemes that are needed, For it is the land problem that determines the housing problem. All of England's methods—the municipal tenement, the garden city. the co- partnership form of community ownership—bave brought her to that there is no solution for her housing problem unless she can solve the land problem. During the war, in London, for exanyple, where the glums and congestion are quite as bad as in New York City, the au- thorities condemned many acres of slums, cleared them away, and erected on the site modern apart- ménts, owned by the city, at low rentals, How uit’ the Lohdon County Council keep the rentalg down? By charging the cost of the land against the taxpayers in the more prosper- ous areas of London and basing the rentals for the modern apartments on the cost of the Ouildings only. In other words, London made the more prosperous people buy the land and give it to the city. Thus there was no interest to be charged on the land cost of those modern apart- ments, All that had to be charged as rental was an smount nécessary to cover repairs, insurance and va- cancies, There may be a small profit in the venture for the city. but there is a low rental in it for the workers who live there, It is @ poor way to solve the problem, because it makes some people dependent upon others, but there was no other solution in this instance, MAY BE SOLUTION NEW YORK WILL ADOPT. It is a solution that New York City may be forced to adopt. Other Buro- pean cities have been driven to it, and when land rises to a price where even the most skimpy tenements can- not be made to pay, then the land value has to be extinguished by somebody. Industrialism in England, combined with the system of holding large areas of land out of use, while at the same time forcing a congestion which made land pay the biggest returns that could be squeezed out of it, have brought their train of ruin almost to the point of disaster. The Govern- ment is preparing to remedy the evil by granting aid from the National into slums peere [hy are ale ~~ eeenaury, that good houses mus po ak ea Nothing else will do. Therefore land, the first nation to develop industry on a great scale, has found that good houses and homes are the backbone of her whole indus- trial machine. ‘That she cannot leave the building of houses to chance or to speculators, ‘That she cannot perma- nently cure the housing conditions of the past unless she can find a way of so dealing with land that its price shall not go up every time she wished to carry out a housing improvement, Have You a ‘‘Camou | Ignorant Essays DELICATESSEN By J. P..-McEvoy Copyright, 1919, by The Press Publishing Co. (‘The New York Eveniug World). ELICATESSENS contain thousands of things, including beans, pickles, dyspepsia and indigestion. Delicatessens have made it possible for wives to gallivant around all afternoon and rush home, a few minutes before Mealticket gets in, with enough beans, potato salad and pickles to make the evening meal, These are ar- ranged faithfully on the dining room table for the Main Provider when he sags in from the clanging mart, and the poor boob is not supposed to be able to distinguish between mayhem and a meal. However, a few months later he shows his distinguisher is working all right when he staggers downtown and invests his savings in a brand new separation, paying alimony at 50 per cent. Every industry must do its share to keep us prepared for hostile invasion, so it behooves us to recognize the vast possibilities uf the delicatessen for both offensive and defensive warfare. defensive phase of it. Suppose a foreign army should invade our country, All that we Take, say, the IT’S THE SUMMER’S NEWEST FA BLACK MATERIAL SATURDAY, flage’’ Bathing Suit? “iy WITH WHITE GROUND yh | Be Sent to Spot f jy Rover HeRes -, Siathe ay. .. tion, and Explode on x Morris M, Titterington, research e: case there should be another war, T! fected that it will travel hundreds objective off the map. enemy stronghold or more of powerful explosive and lated that this mechanical bird of de- struction, irrespective of radio con- trol, will, on @ time clock schedule, reach the selected spot at a selected time, crash down, explode its charge, annthilate everything in the vicinity and be itself annihilated, for the complete destruction of the instru- ” a“ mont is part of the plan. Suderarel + Mr. Titterington, in explaining the Wand device to the Aéronaatical Congress na? jin Atlantic City last week, said noth- ing about the possibility of the ma- ) i » |chine dropping down without explod- |ing within the enemy lines and thus » {furnishing the enemy with informa- tion which would enable him to build a similar machine and retaliate, It \s probable that if the plan ever come: Into operation a device will be pe: fected which will blow up the who'e |works {f the explosive aeroplane \should fall short of or go beyond tha “| mpot at which it is aimed, The idea means that, by means of stabilizing and steering devices, an aeroplane, licking human guidance, may be aimed with the same degree of accuracy that marked the aiming ofthe shells which, from af distance of more than sixty miles, fell Into the heart of Paris during a period of sev- eral months last summer. "The shells had but wight effect, either as @ structive of property, life or mora'e, decause they could not carry enough explosive material to inflict great damage; but a great aeroplane, with almost {illimitable travelling radius 98 related to warfare and carrying con- fined energy of powpr sufficient to fevel, for \inatance, the Woolwortr Tiuilding, would empty a city the size of Berlin in forty-eight hours, The long-distance shells drove 1,000,000 people out of Paria in three weeks, SUNSET CAMOUFLAGE- 6, BLACK AND WHITE GROUND WITH A RED SUN AN® ALL RAINgow COLORED RAYS mance TTR { nt aeraplane would be equipped with two stabilisers or gyTORCOped, one to keep it on ‘qm even keel, #0, to speak, the uw fixed direction ahead. could be carried out on water it wouid be possible to head a steamship from Ambrose Channej Light to the Litard clear across the Atlantic without @ deviation from the course and with- out a roll of the ship—and perhaps yome day this may be done, but a ship on the water ts different from ship in the air in that it Is not equipped with ailerons, the flexible ends of the airship planes whieh are operated by the pilot under the pres- ent system, but may be mechanically operated under the proposed stabil- ized control We have our two stabilizers on the future bombing plane which is to be aimed, with its destructive cargo, © €FFECT OGTAINED”'», -. BY A PATCHIWORKIK OF CHAMELONIC {AATERIALS FE inten he Soy ' The King of Dahomey Calls His Cabinet in Session |Huge Aerial Torpedoes, With:No Pilot Aboard, Will Marked for Destruction, Carry Explosive Charge Capable of Terrific Destriie- Coprright, 1919, by The Pres Publishing Co, (Tue New York Kvening World) OUNG men who piloted bombing machines over enemy territory dum ing the war and their assistants who released the bombs by ing a lever may file objections to the proposition, but take it from scend upon an objective, and by means of a charge of bombs blow sald Briefly stated the plan is—in case of warfare—to pick out a certeim id mark it for destruction. equipped with mechanical guiding devices is to be loaded up with a tom ‘The proposed mechanically guided; other, t9-keep it from deviating trom | If the Idea | “"e sin adie 49 enna 31, 1919 Future Wars Will Be Fought With Manless Bombing SAYS RESEARCH ENGINEER. TITTERING: Planes, 4 i » os ‘ By gineer, their occupation is gone in bombing aeroplane is to be-so per- of miles without human freight, de Then an aeroplane, turned loose in the air. It is calew much as a sheil is aimed from # gum —with allowances for weather condi- tions, such as windage and drift and temperature. Connected with the stabilisers, by electrical devices, the nature of which are necessarily Kept secret, aro three what are -called “servo motors,” one for each control. By “control” is meant the allerom manipulation which fs designed te keep an aeroplane on an even keel keep the planes horizontal, except when, in turning, they should tilt to the right or the lett andthe rudder manipulation whieh keepett je aero plane headed nto the diré¥tion se- lected by the pilot. One serve motor, in a machind equipped for mechani~ cal bombing, would ba connected with the allerons-on the right, another with the ailerons on thé jeft and the third with the rudder, Here is how Mr. — Titterington desoribes; the method of automatic control, bis description be~ ing based on actual éxperiments, tn the course of which a pilot was in the plane: . “We will assume that an air dis- turbance tends to make the plane tilt laterally; that fs, to make one wing drop. The plane moves only about one-tenth of a degree before a con- tact is Made in the horizontal gyre unit, This contact Starts the servo motor, which in turn moves the alle- rons to counteract the force of the disturbance, This contact is con trolled in such a manner that if the plane tilts a certain amount the con- trol surfaces will be moved through & corresponding angle, [f the plane tite twice the ‘original amount the contro! surface will be moved through twice the angle, Thus the movements _ of the control surfaces are propor- tional to the deviation of the plane from its proper position, “If the plane deviates a small amount, the control surface moves a amall amount, and if the plane ‘tiits & greater amount, the movement of the control surfaces Is correapond- ingly greater. The angie of the con- trol surfaces decreases as the plane is ‘brought’ back to its correct posi=» tion so that when it reaches its: correct position, the control is in neutral. -This action makes the movement of the controls very smooth and prevents them fram mov- Ing more than the proper amount. “The directional gyro, ts, as atated before, for the purpose of detecting any tendency of the plane to turn off its course, It consists of a small Syrostepe similar to those used “im submarine torpedoes. This xyroseope * carries contacts which operate the rudder servo motor upon the slight- { ” est turming movement of the’ plane, | Sy The plane, therefore, mast stay | headed in one direction until the pilose {> desires to turn, “When the pilot desires to change his course he operates a switch which disconnects the directional syro, and after he has changed his course by operating the rudder ti the usual manner he closes the switch, vhich again pute the directional gon- trol into operation. The plane will then continue on the yew heading as long as the pilot desires. The hori zontal gyroscope and its motors are would have to do would be to print detailed maps showing thé loca- proximately) that a town collects i®) phat slums, disease, infant mortality, tazes, two cents has to go toward| drunkenness and crime are very helping to pay for the housing de-|jargely chargeable to her neglect of selopment in that town and which’ the houses of her people in the ‘past, a a ty unicipal | That, as Lloyd George said, you can- ith be carried out as 8 municipal rot pulid an AL notion with a CB undertaking just as though the | population.” And you must build an ware building a water-works, Tho} 1 nation after this, or else go tu the towns are not even left to decide wall. whether they will build houses or What are we to think of a country not; the law says that in cases where | that after having indulged in free fer ie fa tr e town falls to carry out a housing food and free clothing now has to adopt the principle of free shelter? eeheme necessary to house its work- ars properly, the State may step in, It is a bad condition, and yet the United States is on the same road. puild the proper houses and charge the cost back against the town. Eng- It is time to turn back, Is it not, while there is still time? Jand is determined to have hor workers decently housed How is the housing problem in New | But can she dc 't? The question | York City to be solved? Bofore aa- | |swering the question, let us take a} depends upon many factors, but ghiefly upon whether or no she can | look at one or two other countries. | |London has a house shortage and a! puy land at a reasonable rate, Dur- ing the war a law was passed per- |rent profiteering just as bad as New maitting her to take all the land she} controlled by @ similar switch. If the pilot desires to climb or descend'or bank his plane for a turn he merely opens the switch momentarily and sets his plane on the proper bank and at the proper angle for climbing or descentiing. He then oloses the switch and the plane wil) continue to fly in the position it was at the in- stant the switch was closed. The aerial torpedo—if it becomes necessary to use one—wil! automatio- ally perform the functions of the pilot as they are set forth in Mr. Titter- ington’s explanation, He did not say anything about the possibility of enemy aeroplanes, guided by buman hands, lying in walt in the agure. for one of those mechanical air tor- pedoes to come along setting off ite explosives in the air with machine guns, but inasmuch ¢s the mechanionl aeroplane is independent of the eo operation of light or wind it tions of the delicatessens, with minute instructions for getting there, and requisitions on them for as much stuff as the invading soldiers could eat. These would be attached to little gas balloons and floated over the invading army. When they got directly overhead we would have snipers shoot them, so the balloons would be punctured and the map and instructions and requisitions would be showered on the heads of the enemy. They would then take the nearest route to the delicatessens and eat themselves to death, | A few hours later we would commandeer enough automobiles to gather up all the dead invaders and take them back to the docks, All it would cost us to conquer @ foreign foe in this way would be what they ate in the delicatessens, and I for one will give my share gladly to any foe who wants to come and help himself. The delicatessen has its etymological side too, Take delicatessen— you can take all of them if you want to—and you will note that it is composed of two words: Delicate, meaning dainty, and Essen, a city in Germany where armor plate and deadly weapons are manufactured. In other words, the products of the delicatessens are “delicate, deadly weapons.” ‘York City. So has Paris, and in the next article we will see what Paris proposes to do. There are many s0- Nutions that have been tried, It is better to look at them all before, de- ciding which will work best in New ted for housing at the pre-war yore City, Some of them may not! but now that the war is over, work at all. One may, and one is value, : that law i@ obsolete, and the : a enough, If It 1 the right one. HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE 4 CABINET OFFICER IN FAR OFF DAHOMEY, AFRICAT THIS PHOTO SHOWS THE CABINET CALLED INTO SESSION BEFORE THE KING. ALL LAY if HIS FEET AS A SIGN OF 8U BMISSION TO HIS POWER, i om | eee ORR TORT