Page:Industrial Housing.djvu/43



This excellent workmanship is due largely to the co-operation of labor. Bayonne is a difficult city for building construction, since its inaccessiblity[inaccessibility] [sic] from New York City and from other New Jersey centers makes it unattractive to workers in the building trades. In order to induce men to come to Bayonne, it was necessary to pay bonuses to the building craftsmen in certain trades, to cover the cost of their transportation from other cities to Bayonne. As an example, the masons received $14 a day. Notwithstanding these premiums, even higher rates were offered by contractors who were bidding for labor at the height of the building boom. A serious situation developed in the Bayonne housing, which threatened to wreck the project. The architect stepped in, and, at a meeting held at the site of the buildings with several labor leaders present, he made a personal appeal to the workmen to remain at their tasks. He told them how the sponsors of the undertaking were making an experiment to prove that ideal housing could be brought within reach of the workers. Such a demonstration, said Mr. Thomas, meant everything to the welfare of all American labor, and the experiment would fail if the Bayonne Housing Corporation were compelled to pay extravagant wages. The workmen heeded the architect's appeal and, almost without exception, they stuck to their jobs, and gave their best efforts to produce. Labor, therefore, deserves a full share of credit for the success of the undertaking.

In construction, the exterior of the buildings is masonry walls, built of hollow tile with outside facing of brick. This construction is more economical than solid brick walls, on account of the air spaces in the tile which do away with the necessity of forming air spaces by furring the walls. The walls were dampproofed on the inside and the plastering applied direct to the masonry. As noted previously, non-fireproof stairs are the cause of a shocking loss of life in tenement house fires, but in Bayonne the stairways, as well as the dumbwaiters, are of fire-resisting construction, the first floor is fireproof, and firewalls divide each building in the centre. Otherwise, the construction is timber for floors, roofs and interior walls and partitions. The