JANUARY, 1924
THE UNITED AMERICAN
problems in his line presented themselves. And this work
didn’t cost a cent. We were all officials of the organization
serving without pay.
We found out the union members were almost ready to
I believe this example of the value of cooperation by labor
fight to get jobs on the houses. They felt they were doing, unions will bear fruit. In America we are very much behind
their own work—that they were their own employers. Each Europe, where workers have developed the cooperative idea
man took a personal pride in the homes. It was a revival of to a high degree. Perhaps it is not too much to hope that
the old guild spirit.
some day in this country the working man may have all his
In March the construction was finished and the wants attended by other working men in the cooperative
scheme.
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started union officials learned some new things.
Here’s what Mr. Allen has to say about them:
homes turned over to purchasers. Some of these were
men who had worked on the houses. If anyone doubts
the success of the adventure Mr. Allen offers this
affirmative answer:
An indication of the success of the plan is to be found in
the fact that we disposed of all the houses and that we have
received inquiries from many other workers who want us to
build for them.
We also knocked into a cocked hat one of the most frequent
cries of the builders, namely, that operations could not profit­
ably be carried on in the winter. These houses were sold to
workers for exactly what they cost—$6050. Experienced
build ir» have told me they would not have sold them for less-
than $7600. Smaller houses in the same neighborhood, built
according, to the usual method, have sold for from $7600 to
$7800
The. sale of stock for the construction of the fifteen
houses that will be started this winter has, according
to Allen, brought $27,000—more than enough to begin
the work.
Because there is a surplus, the company is able to
guarantee To return the money of common stock­
holders who find themselves in unexpected financial
difficulties.
One of the developments of the plan is expected to
be the construction of cheaper houses. These will not
be built this year, it is said, because the homes sched­
uled for immediate construction are to adjoin those
now standing and will conform in design. However,
on lots in an adjoining section now held by this build­
ing company, it is planned to construct less expensive
houses.
The houses, which were designed by a carpenter,
who is also president of the Quaker" City company,
besides being superintendent of construction, are of
two stories with roomy basements. The first floor of
each has a living room, dining room and kitchen, and
upstairs there are three rooms and the bathroom.
Either steam or hot water heat is installed, and elec­
tricity and gas. The porches are large and an effort has
been made to gain the maximum of light by skylights
and well-placed windows.
On the making of the plans for the homes, Mr.
Allen has this to say:
It was very simple ' Several of us got together over a table
and that’s all there was to it. At the conference were a mas­
ter plumber, a master electrician, a master carpenter and so
on. Each man was entirely competent to dispose of whatever
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Phone Main 4389
DR. LEIF UNDERDAHL
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Eve. by Appointment
The modern “Good Samaritans,” contrasting from
their earlier namesakes in precepts and practice, are no longer
content to walk along life’s highway, dispensing charity and
timely aid to stricken fellowbeings, they evidently want to get
credit and—due publicity, for all that is being done in the
name of that worthy humanitarian from ancient Samaria who
rendered aid and help to a fellowman, even of a despised race.
To that end modern “Good Samaritans” have “organized”
themselves and filed articles of incorporation in the State of
California, stating the purposes of their corporation to be
“feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and preaching the
gospel to the poor.” The incorporators have seemingly taken
in considerable “territory’ in their declarations. They assert
that they are non-sectarian and hold that this contention will
give them the “right of way.” Offices of the organization, it is
said, will presently be opened in all the principal cities of the
northwest. Charities of innumerable names and purposes are
already overlapping each others’ territorial boundaries in our
cities where public or semi-public treasuries are sustaining a
retinue of “graduates” who have taken “College” training to
ferret out the needs “of the poor” and the sufficiency or in­
sufficiency of their stores from pantry to clothes closet and
required to give volumnous reports of every case and finally
appear before a board of commissioners to give a scientific
discourse along the lines of psycho-analysis dealing with the
causes that are conducive to an empty larder effect. To feed
the hungry, to clothe the naked, as it were and even to preach
the gospel of better lives, physically and spiritually to those
who have actually lost their way, is- very commendable, but
“college” classifications are taking in too much territory al­
ready, making possible a favorable classification for those of
improvident and indolent tendencies who prefer to lean on dig­
nified community, agencies of charity rather than hustle inde­
pendently for life’s necessities. Wonder how the “Good Samari­
tans” incorporated, will be able to discover more despair, neg­
lect and need than has already been accounted for by the in­
numerable agencies already at work tabulating our “inef­
ficiency” population in the cities of our prosperous northwest?
Phone Main 1165
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Or. Harold 6. Trommald
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DENTIST
Plate and Combination Bridge |
Work a Specialty
Office: 1221 Selling Building
Sixth and Alder, Portland, Oregon f
Reg. Office Hours
The laboring men of Portland who are now paying
fabulous prices to apartmenthouse “lords” of high
rents, because they can not afford to bargain for a
home built by a contractor, might find the Quaker City
company plan worth looking into. Incidentally the
tax burden in Portland might become a little more
widely distributed and Portland suburbs might begin
to look like real live and properly settled sections of a
growing city. Building materials in lumber are de­
cidedly cheaper in Portland than in Philadelphia. That
should make the cost of homes built by a cooperative
organization a great dealt cheaper here than in the
Pennsylvania city.
DENTIST
Regular office hours every day
Evenings by appointment
805-807 Journal Building
Cor. Yamhill and Broadway,
Portland, Ore.
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Phone Main 7909
DR. WALTER J. LARSON |
Dentist
803-804 Broadway Bldg.
Cor. Bd’wy & Morrison
Portland, Oregon
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