CHAPTER III
The Bayonne Housing Corporation
THE Bayonne Housing Corporation, as explained in the introductory chapter, was founded by a group of the leading industries at Bayonne, at the instance of the Chamber of Commerce, to stimulate the production of better housing for wage-earners. Its beginnings date from the World War, when, on October 4, 1917, the Bayonne Chamber of Commerce authorized the appointment of a special committee to examine the local housing situation and to make recommendations leading to action.
The Committee as appointed by President Van Buskirk consisted of Mr. C. J. Hicks, of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, Mr. J. H. Mahnken and Mr. George E. Keenen, both of Bayonne, and Mr. W. M. Cosgrove, General Manager of the American Radiator Company. The success of the undertaking is ascribed to Mr. Hicks by his associates. It was Mr. Hicks' vision and persistence through years of discouragement which finally put the project through.
As has been stated in the introductory chapter, the occasion for taking concerted action was the unsatisfactory situation in housing in Bayonne. Wage-earners found living conditions very unsatisfactory. The houses available were generally of a poor grade—obsolete, depreciated, "cold-water" flats of frame construction. The expansion of the big industrial plants was encroaching on the housing areas, and property owners, who expected to sell at any moment, were not inclined to keep their property in good repair.
The Committee of the Chamber of Commerce carefully surveyed the situation, and covered it thoroughly in a report of November 17, 1917. Their report was accepted by the Chamber of Commerce at a meeting held in the following January, when the Committee was continued and asked to proceed with remedial action.
This first report of the Committee is a noteworthy document. Particularly significant is that part of it which, in proposing
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