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It is further the intention of your committee that the Public Housing Administration should liquidate the small-farm housing program, which was undertaken on an experimental basis before the war. existing houses should be disposed of as expeditiously as possible. The deferred contracts should either be converted into contracts for rural nonfarm housing or terminated by negotiation with the local authorities. Your committee believes that this program should be liquidated under the powers already granted to the Public Housing Administration, including the power to cancel contracts and obligations held by the Public Housing Administration in connection with such contracts.

VII. HOUSING RESEARCH

The imperative need for the Federal research program that would be authorized by title III of the bill has been emphasized over and over again, in earlier reports of your committee, in the reports of the Joint Committee on Housing, and in the reports and studies of many official and unofficial groups. These reports have pointed out the relative technological backwardness of the housing industry, compared to other major industries, and have described some of the conditioning social, economic, and political factors that have caused this lag. The housing business is far too important a segment of our economy, and the benefits that could be derived from modernizing it are too large in terms of the improvement in the housing conditions of American families as well as in stability of employment and investment, to permit us to accept this situation any longer.

Your committee believes it is important to recognize the complexity of the research problem in housing. There is a too-common belief that the research task is purely one of engineering. Engineering progress is vitally important, but it is important to recognize that some of the significant impediments to progress are social or economic and that means must be found to remove these obstacles if engineering research is to yield maximum benefit. Research should therefore be directed toward first identifying specific problems, both economic and engineering, and then to finding solutions for those identified problems. A realistic research program will recognize the fact that most of our housing is built by the relatively small-scale builder. In 1938 the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 86 percent of our home building was carried on by builders who constructed between 1 and 5 houses in a year. While the number of large-scale builders has undoubtedly increased since that time, particularly in the large metropolitan areas, all available evidence indicates the large majority of our building is still done by the relatively small-scale builder. Therefore, any research program, to be truly effective, must take into account the production problems of both large and small builders, and must be concerned in considerable degree with the future development of more economical and efficient building organizations.

For example. the typical small builder today cannot afford to experiment very much with unproven ideas, or to overcome singlehandedly, for example, the obstacles of overelaborate building codes. Nevertheless, hundreds of these small builders perform identical operations and cope with the same kinds of financial and management problems. This points out the fact that modest outlays for research on the production problems of the small builder may be expected to yield large and

widely usable results. The Housing and Home Finance Administrator in his testimony in support of the bill pointed out two illustrations of the results which could be accomplished in this direction. These were in connection with the roof truss and the septic tank. The Administrator reported that, with an outlay of only $150,000 for research on these two items, it had been possible to redesign these elements so as to permit savings of about $80 and $150, respectively, per house. These redesigned elements would obviously not be applicable to every structure, but, if they had been applied to only 10 percent of the new homes started in 1948, they would have resulted in cost reductions in that year of approximately $20,000,000. Similar savings could result year after year.

All presently available investigative devices must be put to work to identify the precise nature of the productive process carried on by these enterprises and the factors that condition them and prevent them from growing. In many cases, it will be necessary to develop entirely new devices, and employ them in developing better methods of financing home production, model building regulations, health, safety and sanitation codes, adequate guides for lay-out and planning, and many other such aids to the builder and the local officials with whom he must work. It is obvious that many lines of inquiry must be pursued simultaneously and that many different types of talent must be employed.

In this connection your committee desires to draw attention to the recognition of the varied nature of the research task which was given by the Housing and Home Finance Administrator in his testimony in support of these specific features of the bill. In speaking of the need for drawing on the resources of all existing agencies of the Federal Government, as well as other public and private research facilities, Mr. Foley said:

I want to emphasize the point that while, in finding solutions to the whole housing problem, leadership must be supplied by the Housing and Home Finance Agency, that Agency cannot by any means undertake the entire task. The factfinding problems are too broad and too many, and we must bear in mind that what we are seeking are answers to our problems, rather than exclusive credit for finding them. That is why in the research title itself the Administrator is called upon to utilize to the fullest extent feasible the research facilities of other Government departments, and to consult with and advise those departments concerning ways and means through which those facilities could contribute additional services. The Administrator is further authorized to undertake studies cooperatively with industry and labor, with the agencies of State and local governments, and with educational and other nonprofit organizations.

I think this serves to make the point that the role of the housing agency is to throw light on the significant problems, to formulate and suggest methods of dealing with them, and to see that there is developed and promulgated an appropriate and consistent body of data from which intelligent judgment can be made. This is a role of guidance and leadership, both in providing a factual basis for the formulation of national housing policy, and in showing the States and communities, as well as private industries, what types of action would be most helpful to them in their own attempts to provide better housing for our people.

Your committee thoroughly agrees with this approach to the problem. The problems are so broad and varied that the full resources of all existing agencies should be enlisted. For example, the research task would be immeasurably more difficult than it is were it not for the fact that through the years the National Bureau of Standards and other bureaus of the Commerce Department have developed special skills and facilities for conducting basic research in the broad

scientific field, including work on the physical properties of building materials. Specialized laboratories like the Forest Products Laboratory and other bureaus of the Agriculture Department have likewise amassed a great deal of useful data and experience. Similarly, the Bureau of the Census has done pioneering work in developing methods for surveying the conditions of the housing inventory, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics has constantly been improving its methods of recording current residential construction volume. The Commerce Department's Construction Division has for some time been assembling and analyzing data and publishing reports on the production and consumption of materials, and the trend of construction costs. Much of the valuable research and developmental work of the Public Health Service has a direct bearing on the establishment and maintenance of good housing standards.

These are valuable research facilities and their accumulated experience would be immediately helpful in many of the most vital areas of research. It is important to note, however, that housing has necessarily been only one of many subjects dealt with by these agencies because of the necessarily more general scope of their respective programs. Housing has therefore frequently been a more or less incidental concern. The research authority in this bill would make it possible to continue the work now going on and to draw all of these important groups into an intensified effort to advance our knowledge about housing, and to supplement these efforts and fill in the gaps through its own technical housing research and studies.

It is also important to note that despite the varied facilities presently available, there are many vitally significant gaps in the existing investigative facilities. These must obviously be closed as promptly as possible. This title of the bill contemplates close cooperation between the Housing and Home Finance Agency and the research organizations to accomplish this.

Perhaps the most significant and dramatic illustration of such a gap lies in the field of housing cost analysis. High costs are at the root of the housing problem, yet the existing devices for bringing out even the elementary facts about costs and the factors underlying their persistent tendency to rise and stay above the general price level of other commodities are in many respects extremely rudimentary. This lack of the elementary data necessary to begin the analysis of costs was noted by the Joint Committee on the Economic Report last year in its report on gaps in our statistical resources:

There is need for a reliable general construction cost index for predominant types of residential construction

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The basic purpose of the research program should, of course, be to insure that the benefits of improved technologies are brought to the people in terms of better housing and more stable investment and employment. Your committee desires to point out, however, that the Federal Government has a direct and justifiable interest in obtaining a great deal more information about housing than is presently available. As a result of defense and emergency programs, the Federal Government is one of the largest owners of residential real property. It has, furthermore, underwritten a very large proportion of private home mortgage investments in recent years. It operates a system for insuring investments in savings and loan institutions. It has guaranteed a large volume of mortgages on

properties purchased by veterans. Under the slum-clearance provisions of the bill, the Federal Government will be spending substantial sums to assist communities in absorbing the losses involved in purchasing, clearing and selling or leasing urban properties at lower reuse values. These interests are large and extensive and are in themselves a compelling reason why the Government should equip itself with reliable data.

Your committee is confident that the comprehensive research program provided for in this bill will make it possible to launch a broadscale attack on the underlying technical, economic and social problems in housing. It will make possible expanded technological progress resulting in better housing at reduced cost. It will bring a better understanding of the complex factors affecting the housing market and improved methods for dealing with those factors. It will also result in a strengthening and expansion of our statistical resources for gaging the magnitude of the problem and the effectiveness of our efforts in solving it.

VIII. FARM HOUSING

The provision of Federal financial assistance for the improvement of housing conditions on farms is an indispensable part of any housing program. The effects of bad housing apply with equal force on farm families, and on the health and character of their children, as they do in our cities and towns. Your committee is further concerned with the importance of adequate housing in the creation of a living environment that will attract and hold to the land, as a source of livelihood, those best able to utilize our soil resources to meet present and future needs for agricultural products.

While there has been considerable improvement in farm housing since 1940, the fact remains that after nearly a decade of unparalleled farm prosperity, a much higher proportion of farm than urban dwellings are in bad physical condition, and the majority of farm families lack in their homes many of the amenities now considered essential in urban dwellings. Evidence before your committee indicates that nearly a third of the Nation's farm families derive insufficient income from their farming operations to finance the needed improvements to their homes (and other building improvements essential to successful farm operations).

The farm housing provisions of this bill are the outgrowth of several years of study of this phase of the housing problem by your committee and other committees of the Congress and by the Department of Agriculture. They recognize the intimate relationship between the house and the farm as a production unit. Because of this relationship (through the Farmers Home Administration) as follows:

1. Loans, up to 33 years at not to exceed 4 percent interest, to owners of self-sustaining farms who are otherwise unable to finance adequate housing for themselves or others working on the farms (or other needed building improvements). The loans would not require a first mortgage on the farm property and could be secured by the farmers' equity in the farms. The bill provides that such loans be refinanced through cooperative or other responsible private credit sources whenever feasible.

2. Similar loans, supplemented by annual contributions, to owners whose farms are not presently self-sustaining but which may be

brought up to a self-sustaining level through a satisfactory program of enlargement, improvement or adjusted farm practices. The subsidies, applied as a partial credit on interest and principal payments, could not be made available to an owner for more than 10 years and, in the aggregate, could not exceed $5,000,000 after the third year of the program; lesser amounts would be authorized for the earlier years.

3. Loans and grants for minor improvements and minimum repairs to farm dwellings and other farm building on farms which, in the judgment of the Secretary of Agriculture, could not be made selfsustaining. The amount available would be limited to $1,000 for any one farm or dwelling or building owned by one individual, and not in excess of $2,000 in the aggregate to any one individual. The grant portion with respect to any one dwelling or building could not exceed $500. While your committee does not consider financial aid for major improvements, responsibility for administering these provisions is placed in the Secretary of Agriculture.

Housing on the farms of the Nation has on the whole lagged behind the development of adequate, decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings of urban communities. On most farms, the income from farming operations controls the type of dwelling on the farm. The operator of the farm does not have a free choice of dwellings comparable to the worker in the city. The uncertainty of agricultural income, in addition to the other hazards of agricultural production, have prohibited long-time financing of building improvements on many farms. The types and extent of conventional credit which is available to farmers is usually needed in the acquisition or operation of the farm, leaving little or no credit available for the improvement of farm buildings. Neither the insurance of private investments by the Government nor the urban type of public housing assistance will meet the needs of more than a million farm families for adequate, decent, safe, and sanitary housing and other necessary farm buildings. A special type of financial assistance designed specifically to meet the problems of the farmers who cannot get credit elsewhere and of research and technical services, pointed toward more efficient and more economical construction of farm buildings, must be undertaken by the Government. The authority for such assistance is provided in title IV of this bill.

The financing aids provided in this title consist of loans, which after the fourth year, could aggregage $250,000,000, and, in certain cases, annual contributions and grants. They would be made available on such farms to be desirable, it believes some provision should be made for minor improvements, such as roof repairs, toilet facilities, sanitary water supply, to eliminate conditions hazardous to health and safety (and to protect the borrower's property) until the occupants are satisfactorily relocated. Grants totaling $12,500,000 are authorized over a 4-year period.

The bill also contains an extremely necessary and desirable authorization which permits the expansion of technical services, such as plans, specifications, construction supervision and inspection, and advice and information in the Department of Agriculture, and authorizes the Secretary to conduct a program of research with a view to reducing costs, and to make market studies and assemble data in the farm-housing field.