CONCLUSION

We shall be short-sighted indeed if we miss the lessons of past experiences. It would be unfair to have stablized food and fiber prices at levels which reflected the depression lows. It would be unfair also to stabilize farm prices while the price of other commodities and of the elements which enter into farm costs are permitted to rise. But if price stability throughout the economy is accepted as a goal of congressional policy, then there can be no exceptions and no exemptions. Food and fiber prices, together with the margins for the processing and distribution of these commodities, should be brought within the province of whatever legislation Congress may enact to guard against the danger of inflation.

CHART 89

RETAIL AND FARM VALUE OF 58 FOODS, 1913-40

(BASED ON AMOUNT CONSUMED ANNUALLY BY A TYPICAL WORKINOMAN'S FAMILY)
RETAIL VALUE AND EQUIVALENT FARM VALUE

THE CONTROL OF RENTS

The defense program has created an unprecedented need for rental housing in areas within commuting distance of military establishments, shipyards, aircraft factories, ordnance plants, machine shops, steel mills, and other focal points of industrial production. Two causes underlie this extraordinary demand: (1) Defense establishments have drawn thousands of workers and their families from homes in nondefense areas (2) increased employment among older residents in defense centers has encouraged "undoubling" that is, two or more families formerly crowded into one flat are now able to afford individual living quarters.

To alleviate congestion the Federal Government is constructing defense houses where the shortage is most acute, and private industry is hitting new highs in residential building. But the impact of the defense program has been too sudden and too great for the increased supply of rental housing in defense centers to keep pace with the ever-growing demand. In scores of defense localities today there is only a negligible number of vacant rental dwellings in habitable condition. Recent surveys of such large cities as Akron, Bridgeport, Detroit, Mobile, Pontiac, and Utica have reported habitable rental vacancies of less than 1 percent of all dwellings. (See chart 90.) In smaller communities the number often falls below one-half of 1 percent. As a rule, a 5-percent vacancy is considered the minimum requirement for a normal rental market.

The rental housing shortage is by no means equally acute throughout the country. Some nondefense areas have an ample supply of vacant dwellings. The shortage is localized in specific regions of most intense activity and should be dealt with as a special problem-a direct result of the national emergency.

Where there are few or no dwellings for rent, the defense worker or Army family in search of living quarters has no free choice. Rent surveys now in progress in more than 100 defense areas reveal the immediate effect of this restricted rental market: Exorbitant increases are becoming the rule rather than the exception. It is meaningless to say that if the old or the prospective tenant does not wish to pay the higher rent he should look for another place. There is no other place. The only possible alternative is abandonment of his defense job for employment in another area where-after the waste involved in migration-the worker would probably find similarly tight rental conditions. A man in the armed services does not have even this limited power of selection.

A review of the centers of major defense activity shows that acute rental situations have already become widespread. What is even more important, surveys indicate that in many localities the upward trend in rents is only in the initial stages.

SHIPBUILDING CENTERS

Shipbuilding centers were among the first in the defense program to move into high gear. They also were among the first to report serious rent problems. Areas where rents have begun to skyrocket are among the most crucial in our program of naval and maritime expansion. Every one of the four major zones in the shipbuilding industry figures prominently in any over-all presentation of rent increases. This is especially true of shipbuilding centers which had been inactive for years after the last World War.

An example from each of the two major zones-Bremerton, Wash., and Camden, N. J. will describe in detail a condition common to the whole group.

The Puget Sound Navy Yard, located in Bremerton, has trebled its employment since the fall of 1939. A September 1940 report by the Federal Housing Administration recorded only 16 vacancies in the city. To remedy the shortage, defense housing projects are being rushed to completion and trailers have been allocated for temporary use. The upward rental trend, however, has by no means been curbed. A survey covering the period October 1939 through April 1941 found that there was an average increase of 16 percent in the rent of 43 out of every 100 homes; 8 out of every 100 homes had 2 rent increases during this 18-month

Petersbur

VT

CHART 90

THE CONTROL OF RENTS

The defense program has created an unprecedented need for rental housing in areas within commuting distance of military establishments, shipyards, aircraft factories, ordnance plants, machine shops, steel mills, and other focal points of industrial production. Two causes underlie this extraordinary demand: (1) Defense establishments have drawn thousands of workers and their families from homes in nondefense areas (2) increased employment among older residents in defense centers has encouraged "undoubling" that is, two or more families formerly crowded into one flat are now able to afford individual living quarters.

To alleviate congestion the Federal Government is constructing defense houses where the shortage is most acute, and private industry is hitting new highs in residential building. But the impact of the defense program has been too sudden and too great for the increased supply of rental housing in defense centers to keep pace with the ever-growing demand. In scores of defense localities today there is only a negligible number of vacant rental dwellings in habitable condition. Recent surveys of such large cities as Akron, Bridgeport, Detroit, Mobile, Pontiac, and Utica have reported habitable rental vacancies of less than 1 percent of all dwellings. (See chart 90.) In smaller communities the number often falls below one-half of 1 percent. As a rule, a 5-percent vacancy is considered the minimum requirement for a normal rental market.

The rental housing shortage is by no means equally acute throughout the country. Some nondefense areas have an ample supply of vacant dwellings. The shortage is localized in specific regions of most intense activity and should be dealt with as a special problem-a direct result of the national emergency.

Where there are few or no dwellings for rent, the defense worker or Army family in search of living quarters has no free choice. Rent surveys now in progress in more than 100 defense areas reveal the immediate effect of this restricted rental market: Exorbitant increases are becoming the rule rather than the exception. It is meaningless to say that if the old or the prospective tenant does not wish to pay the higher rent he should look for another place. There is no other place. The only possible alternative is abandonment of his defense job for employment in another area where-after the waste involved in migration-the worker would probably find similarly tight rental conditions. A man in the armed services does not have even this limited power of selection.

A review of the centers of major defense activity shows that acute rental situations have already become widespread. What is even more important, surveys indicate that in many localities the upward trend in rents is only in the initial stages.

SHIPBUILDING CENTERS

Shipbuilding centers were among the first in the defense program to move into high gear. They also were among the first to report serious rent problems. Areas where rents have begun to skyrocket are among the most crucial in our program of naval and maritime expansion. Every one of the four major zones in the shipbuilding industry figures prominently in any over-all presentation of rent increases. This is especially true of shipbuilding centers which had been inactive for years after the last World War.

An example from each of the two major zones-Bremerton, Wash., and Camden, N. J. will describe in detail a condition common to the whole group.

The Puget Sound Navy Yard, located in Bremerton, has trebled its employment since the fall of 1939. A September 1940 report by the Federal Housing Administration recorded only 16 vacancies in the city. To remedy the shortage, defense housing projects are being rushed to completion and trailers have been allocated for temporary use. The upward rental trend, however, has by no means been curbed. A survey covering the period October 1939 through April 1941 found that there was an average increase of 16 percent in the rent of 43 out of every 100 homes; 8 out of every 100 homes had 2 rent increases during this 18-month