Nation may face housing crisis
Housing construction below demand
WASHINGTON (UPI) — The nation is about 1.1 million houses farther away from its goal of a suitable home for every family than it was in 1965.
Two severe credit shortages in 1967 and in 1969-70—have depressed the construction of housing units to well below the demand.
"We face a full-scale national housing crisis," Housing and Urban Development Secretary George Romney said in a recent speech.
"Even including expanding production of mobile homes, total housing production since 1965 has fallen more than 1.1 million units short of the volume needed just to match population growth and the loss of existing units through
fire and other causes," Romney said.
"In addition, far too little progress has been made in replacing the 6 million occupied units that are dilapidated or otherwise substandard.
"The directly related effect is that the cost of obtaining decent housing is skyrocketing."
Romney said in some cities, which he did not name, home prices have climbed by $1,000 or more a month.
"Some 35 million Americans generally move each year," Romney said. "Because of the overall shortage, more and more of these families have difficulty finding suitable units to choose among when they move."
Interest rates on conventional mortgages fell in April for the
first time in 17 months. But the decline was small and in most cases did not offset the effect of of rising housing prices.
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the largest association in the housing construction industry, warns the prospective home buyer that he faces bleak prospects if he plans to wait until interest rates decline before buying.
The Association, of course, has an interest in avoiding a buyer's strike. But its view seems to be supported by government statistics.
"There is no indication that interest rates will come down," said NAHB President Louis R. Barba. "But even if the did, housing costs will continue to rise."
Furriers to boycott animals
NEW YORK (UPI)—Say that for years you've dreamed of owning a genuine leopard skin coat. Time and time again, with your mind lingering somewhere between the nearest furrier and an African safari, you've imagined the coat hanging in your closet.
Today, however, your dream has become a nightmare filled with hundreds of conservationists parading in front of you with signs proclaiming "Let the Cats Go Free" or "Furs Look Better on Their Original Owners."
Your luxurious dream coat suddenly sprouts legs and stalks back into the underbrush. And like it or not, you're feeling the impact of how conservation is affecting fashion...and how fashion is adapting.
The threat that fashions like the leopard skin coat pose to disappearing species has aroused the conscience not only of those who want the animals around, alive and perpetuating, but also the conscience in many quarters of the fashion world. Many furriers have announced they will not use any of the disappearing species such as the leopard or others considered endangered.
Currently, the Red Data Book, the most widely accepted authority on animals considered endangered, listed 889 although not all face imminent extinction. The book, which is supplemented or revised twice a year, is published by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, an organization based in Morges, Switzerland.
Endangered species
Among the animals used by the fur industry that many conservationists consider critically endangered are: the tiger, sea otter, Spanish lynx, red wolf, polar bear, vicuna and spotted cats.
But during a 10-month period between 1968-69, pelts offered for sale included 64,481 lynx, 79 polar bears, and 17,915 sea otters in the first year since the protective ban on sea otters was lifted (the Alaskan population of the otter is estimated at 50,000. So reported Women's Wear Daily, the fashion trade publication.
A report by the Fur Dressers Union showed that in 1968, New York Fur Dressers prepared the pelts of 6,009 leopard, 7,006 jaguars, 4,000 ocelots, 1,656 cheetahs and 159 tigers. The "African Wildlife News" reported that in 1968 the annual world catch of spotted cats was estimated at half a million, of which 350,000 were brought into the United States.
In June, 1968, William G. Conway, general director of the New York Zoological Society, said in a magazine editorial, "The Consumption of Wildlife by Man" that "...the unregulated shooting of tigers, leopards and jaguars . . . has resulted in a nihilistic industry which knows full well that there will be no tomorrow and does not care."
10 KANSAN July 7
1970
That same year, however, New York furrier Jaques Kaplan spearheaded a movement among furriers to boycott certain endangered species. Kaplan took an ad in a New York newspaper and discouraged the use of spotted cats, listing them and certain other animals he would not make into garments.
Kaplan said he received many letters from other furriers who felt that the elimination of these wild animals would kill their business since, they said, there would be little else left. But Kaplan said that he stopped using the furs at that time and still does the largest retail fur business in New York.
His new collection, for example,
consists only of white mink that
was ranch bred solely for pelts.
In designing around endangered
animals, Kaplan prints, dyes and
shears his mink to resemble
everything from seals to tigers to
abstract paintings.
Another furrier, Leo Ritter, announced that he won't use the skins of leopards, cheetahs, and jaguars, and Ben Kahn Furs said it will boycott all the animals listed in the Red Data Book.
"Since we acquired this book (Red Data) in 1968, we have strongly adhered to it and have not sold, promoted or advertised the fur animals listed in it."
"The furriers should be the real conservationists," said Ernest Graf, vice-president at Ben Kahn's. "It's for their own good to keep these animals alive and prosperous.
The cutbacks announced by the furriers have, of course, helped the fiber "fur" industry. One New York synthetic fur making company, Allura Fashions, Inc., reported $14 million annual sales, compared to $4 million when the company started offering fake furs in 1964. Russell Taylor, Inc., in Detroit reported just under $7 million in 1968, compared with only $800,000 seven years before.
For those New York furriers who do not choose to be "real conservationists" willingly, a new state law, effective September 1, will prohibit the sale within New York of certain endangered wild animals or wild animal products, raw or manufactured. New York is the heart of the nation's fur producing industry.
The synthetic furs have appealing prices, about one-tenth of authentic pieces; they're light weight, and do not require summer storage.
Nationally, the Endangered Species Act, which recently went into effect, makes it legal to import or ship interstate in any form about 135 endangered species. Both the New York and the federal law provide exceptions, however, on certain animals needed for research or educational purposes.
Sen. Alen Cranston, D.-California., has proposed taking the federal law a step further. He has sponsored a bill that would ban the capturing, hunting, killing, transporting, taking, selling
or purchasing any endangered species of fish or wildlife in the United States.
But the bill, the Nature Protection Act, would not include any animals raised in captivity that are bred solely for their pelts. Ranch mink is one of these.
Nevertheless, the slaughter of wildlife goes on. But conservation groups such as the Audubon Society and the World Wildlife Fund are busy educating fur wearing enthusiasts of the necessity to preserve the endangered animals.
Friends of the Earth, a relatively new conservation group is asking women to sign a pledge vowing not to purchase fur coats or other fur articles made of the animals that are endangered. Among the prominent women who have already signed up are: Mrs. Jacob Javits, Mrs. Ernest Hemingway and Mrs. Leonard Bernstein. Demonstrations have even been held in several cities in San Francisco. However, protestors were joined by an unexpected group of supporters for another group—the Black Panthers. Their signs read: "Be Kind to Panthers and Other Heavy Cats."
Amendment could force scout merge
WASHINGTON (UPI) — Rep. Edith Green (D. Ore.) is takinq another look at legislation she has proposed that would ban sex discrimination. People have complained it might force Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to merge to continue getting federal assistance.
Mrs. Green said her House education subcommittee was rewriting the measure, proposed as an amendment to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, after hearing testimony from Mrs. Frankie M. Freeman, a member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.
Mrs. Green sought to change the wording of the 1964 law to include the word "sex" in a section that reads:
"No person in the United States shall on the ground of race color or national origin be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."
BARGAIN IN FALSE TEETH
COPENHAGEN (UPI)—Swedish visitors have found a new shopping attraction in the Danish border towns of Grena, Elsinore and Frederikshavn—false teeth.
Barba blamed the housing slump on government money managers who sought to control inflation by keeping money tight. He called for selective credit controls to guarantee housing a "fair share" of the money that is available.
Buyers claim the price—$100 for teeth and fitting—is right and the work is better than in Sweden. Other popular shopping items on the border are Danish dairy products, modern furniture and pornographic magazines.
Romney said inflation and tight money "are critical aspects of the housing problem."
"In my opinion, this overall
economic restraint should not be allowed to victimize key sectors of our economy disproportionately," Romney said. "We simply cannot afford to continue that kind of victimization. We must find a better way to spread the effects of economic restraint more evenly across all sectors of the economy instead of finding them concentrated on a few sectors that happen to be of high national priority."