CONSTRUCTION OF THE SMALL HOUSE I PRESENT-DAY ECONOMIC TROUBLES Immediately after the war the housing shortage made itself very evident, because the landlords discovered that it existed, and realized that they had it within their power to exact extortionate rents. Statisticians got busy and put their heads together and informed the public that within the next five years there would have to be built some 3,300,000 new homes to properly house the people. The building magazines likewise were predicting great things in construction, and all in the building industry were looking for fat years of prosperity, for here was the need and there was the pressure of the high rents. Why should not the thousands of families that had waited build now, when they saw their money going to waste in high rents? All kinds of advertisements were sent out to urge the public to build, and own-your-own-home shows sprang up in every large city, and one could find plenty of builders who would say that one should build immediately, before prices went higher. And seeing the poor, unprotected home-builder, the greed of human nature seized all in the building industry as it had entangled all other business lines, and the price of materials leaped into the air, and the cost of labor became swollen, and all had that bloated and enlarged look which comes over the face of him who is sure of his meal. [Illustration: Before the war he planned for this] At the end of 1918 the average cost of all building materials was up to 175 per cent over that of 1913, but by the first quarter of 1920 they had gotten up to 300 per cent increase over 1913 prices. Lumber had gone up 373 per cent. Labor had also risen to 200 per cent. Mr. Average Citizen found that the home he had been saving his money to build had flown from his hand, like a bird. The sketches and plans he had prepared for a nice little $10,000 home now represented an investment of $20,000 or more. In fact, if he expected to build at all, he had to be reconciled to a small house of six or seven rooms, which would cost him not less than $10,000 or more, or as much as the large house which he had planned originally to build. Then what happened? Mr. Average Citizen did not build. The confidently predicted building boom which the building material manufacturers had looked for did not materialize. Prices were too high, and the public could not be made to believe that they would not come down, and the public was right. [Illustration: Now his plans have shrunk to this] The light began to break as well as the prices, and we find the cost of building materials dropping suddenly. By the end of 1920 they had reached the 200 mark. By March, 1922, they had reached the 155 level, and are still going down with slight fluctuation.