Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1856-07-14

4 WORD FOR THE WORKING MAN.-The increase
in the value Of property, particularly in a grow
ing city, necessarily involves greater expense to
those who are compelled to rent dwellings and
business houses, and falls with great hardship
upon the workngman, whose circumstances for
bid him from being a HORSEPOWER. Any system
which will, to any degree, relieve this hardship,
should command the calm attention of this class
of our fellow-citzens and elicit the considera-
ton of every phanthropic man.
The following extract from the remarks Of an
able gentleman in New York, embodies fully
the ideas we desire to lay before our readers and
we subioin them most cheeriully:
81 stated incidentally that the pre-eminently
comfortable condition of the work. ngmen Of Phila
dephia was due in part to peculiarly in the ten
ure of land-a peculiarly which have never seen
aaalyzed or eIempE6ed by any pubcist and yet
of signal worth aud worthy Of adoption in other
cities 1t il this: There is a species OF ground
rents in this city old as its foundation, which
have no analogy in any tenure in New ork or New
England, 10 nav knowledge. It, popularity lies in
the apparent cont ADDICTION of holding land in fee
simple, vet subject to rent The value Of all land
in Philadelphia il estimated by this rent, and not
by the capital price Thus, lot Is said 20 be
worth $l2 Sl5, or $lS foot-meaning that 1t is
worth a principal sum of 5000, $3.50 or $500, Of
which the interest is represented in the amou Il Of
rent This is not AL ideal but real since il enters
into the forms of conveyance. For example: A
owns lot say 100 feet on any street, lot here
meaning any number Of feet not % feet "a IN New
1Ork-and desiring TO purchase, asks the price.
He is answered simply, Twelve dollars" which
conveys the precise idea of the value fixed by the
owner without another word Of explanation. The
depth well the location of lot, has Of course
much 20 do with determining the value, but depth
is no part of the popular expression in the word
foot which refers simply 20 the foot on the front
line. Well should be coutent with 'tweve dol
lars" as price, A executes deed 10 him ga fee
simple reserving a rent Of 81 200 10 be paid him,
his heirs, ETC. 5000 in every half year, fixing the
two DAYS of payment on any dayssX months apart,
the first payment not being due tll sI months al
ter the purchase There is usually covenant
thar B shall build on the lot within year; but #
he paws the ground-rent this covenant is by cus-
tom dead letter. Thus man becomes the bona
fde owner OF land without paying dollar for SIX
months. aud then the Ouly one bali years interest
on the purchase money.
But this is not all b. or his heirs forever can
never be compelled to pay either higher rent
than first recited in the deed, nor TO pay of the
principal so long as he pays the ground rent, the
property is his absolutely. II he fail TO pay, the
property be sold TO pay of principal aud inter
est-any excess over such sale accruiug to himself
or his representatives, as the case NAV b. Fur
thcr although b cannot be compelled TO pay of
the principal he has at any lime the r,gbt TO
paw il off and so relieve his property OF the rent
charge. The holder of the rent, A, or bis hens
must accept the original principal sum az any time,
matter how greatly the property may have In
creased in value In sales OF this sort, OF course
the personal responsibility of purchaser is con.
sdered, so, that, should the property deteriomte
A.. A.
deficiency. Practically, however, these cousidcra-
tons have little weight unless ia very large opera
tons.
Now, what Is the working OF this system! II
makes Philadelp hia the paradise of the man OF
small means, who would secure a home for hims
self He ''takes gp lot on ground rent'-that
is the current technical phrase-say tWeUty feet
lot in some street, respectable it NAV be- though
out OF the crowd OF houses, aud pay S. foot or
1920 a year--his first payment being 500 Ak
months after his purchase. de has money enough
70 build his house. aud the cost OF his house lie al
the money be pays, II be SO choose, except the
Sl2O rent. Lots OF fourteen and sixteen feet front
are bought ia this way al 81 or s. rerL say 500
or $50 year. and 81, 800 builds snug house.
Thus there are thousands aud thousands OF
men here who are owners, OF Glass which may
never compass a homestead in the CITY of Nrw
York But more than thi--mechlDics tud build
speculation, and build houses on specuation-the
mason, buckiayer, brickmsker, lumbermau, car
penter, painter, plumber, gas itter, paper hanger
clubbing their mate ,ials and work, taking one or
more houses therefor when finished aud settling
of at . profit, aud doing the like elsewhere.
How admirable is this. How IL stimulates en-.
tsrprse How Il makes the mechanic something
more than his craft denotes-A man Of business,
OF trade, Of progress. Thus do we see Phaadel
2bia housing her 500 600 people infinitely better
than are the same number on an equal area in any
part OF the globe. ] cannot see ali this without
wondering how any mechanic or working man who
pursue his calling here zill choose to live In any
other Atlantic city. We Of NeS York are full Of
seif-coBsequenee. and on many accounts We have
q right 10 be; but OF the best part Of civic ecouo-
mics we are, IL facts be the test, as ignorant a.
KickapOos. Look Al the home Of the Pbil4selpha
cefk mechanic or laborer, and At that ef his peer