MUST CO-OPS WAIT FOR KAISER?
McMillin, Miles
The Cooperative Movement Must Co-ops Wait For Kaiser? By MILES McMILLINAVAST housing program, surpassing anything yet seen in America, has" reached the point in planning where it is almost a...
...Why wait for Kaiser...
...And it can be done better as cooperative business than as business for profit...
...Once integrated household units are available at the factory, they will be available to whoever has the money to buy them...
...Although Sen...
...Leading the private enterprisers, as usual, is Henry J. Kaiser...
...The big drawback is that there is only one Henry Kaiser in the country and he is going to concentrate on the West Coast...
...Nothing in our national life has been subjected to as much muckraking in recent years as has the disgraceful status of our housing conditions...
...And above everything else, they have learned to cooperate and that goes a very long way in community life...
...At best, they will be scarcely larger than the chain stores, and what cooperator fears the competition of the chain stores with his own cooperative market...
...Even conservatives like Sen...
...Mr...
...Here is where the co-ops come in, according to Harry E. Sharkey, Editor of the York, Pa., Gazette and Daily...
...They have more identical interests, hence they become a closer knit community...
...As John B. Blandford, National Housing Administrator, indicated in a special article in The Progressive some months ago, Government housing officials have conceded that the real responsibility must rest with non-government enterprise...
...As a consequence, the nation has become housing conscious...
...Big metropolitan newspapers, which ordinarily operate on the principle of "leaving well-enough alone," have been turning their ace writers and photographers loose for sensational exposes of the incredible wretchedness and filth of our slum areas...
...Robert Wagner, New York Democrat and author of much of the New Deal's social program, has drafted a comprehensive program for public housing, it is doubtful whether it will ever find any other use than goading private interests into expanding in the housing field...
...The same goes for standardized building materials that will require little processing on the job...
...Sharkey points out, this is the opportunity for co-op expansion, Maybe Sharkey and Kaiser have got something that the co-ops can't afford to overlook...
...Cooperators, he thinks, are the kind of people who could really make it go...
...Kaiser is not noted for writing an article or making a speech on some subject and letting it rest at that...
...Sharkey sees great possibilities for the co-ops in this type of housing development...
...Taft's attitude as chairman of the subcommittee on housing and urban redevelopment of the special Senate Committee on Postwar Economic Policy and Planning has caused considerable consternation in the ranks of the powerful real estate lobby in Washington...
...Robert Taft, Ohio Republican, are taking an active interest in a broad housing program...
...Whether it be Government-sponsored or handled by private enterprise, all signs indicate that low-cost housing will be number one on the agenda for making America a better place for the servicemen to come home to...
...But above everything else, Mr...
...By MILES McMILLINAVAST housing program, surpassing anything yet seen in America, has" reached the point in planning where it is almost a postwar certainty...
...Their positions are more stable...
...Readers of The Progressive will remember his challenging discussion of housing and other issues in the May 21 issue...
...He thinks that this field is made to order...
...Sharkey is asking the co-ops...
...What Kaiser is doing as big business," he says, "can also be done as comparatively small business...
...They are thoughtful and saving...
...We must not get scared at the bigness of his operations...
...He has launched an ambitious low cost housing program, applying the assembly line technique with which he astounded the world in building Liberty ships...
...In some cities the newspapers have vied with each other to see which could turn out the most spectacular portrayal of wretched housing...
...According to his plan, the heart of the home—the kitchen, bath, and heating system—will be assembled and delivered on the job and will be incorporated into an architectural design which will enable the materials to be produced on a large scale, but still give individuality to the finished home...
Vol. 9 • June 1945 • No. 25
