Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-04-16


unite ell the benefts OF savings banks that
pay ten per cent interest on deposits, with
The construction of good dwelling houses
for stock holders, at the cheapest wholesale
prices for building lots and building ma
terials.
Journeynlen mechanics, clerks, and all
laboring people, find the payment Of high
rents in cities great moth constantly de-
vcurihg their wages, and keeping them
poor With small hope OF rising in the world.
The best minds in this large class have
sought and found a remedy, which
we shall Try to explain.
The following, copied from the St. Louis
Democrat, shows the ground work of this
Industrial combination: "a
"These building societies are formed on
the principle of utilizing small savings.
Everybody knows how much can be effect
ed Ey systematic saving, but the great DIFF
fculty lies in investing small sums. This
company affords an excellent and extreme
iy profitable means of disposing of them TO
the very best advantage. The principle of
separation is this :: There are 1000 shares
of stock in the capital of the company, on
which each member pays s. per month.
This gives for the first month $1,000
On this the interest is $41.66. The next
month there is another $1,000 re ceived
and interest on the principal and
the accrued interest is added, and
the ball keeps rolling. Now every
body Knows thai money rolls up like roll
ing SNOWFALL when once it is started and
kept going, and by this plan it is kept in
lively motion. The interest constitutes the
profits of the company, and keeps on i
creasing. At the end Of the year the profits
are divided among the stockholders, after
deducting the expenses, and the payments
continue till the shares are paid up. The
calculation, which experience has more than
verified, is that the profits viii, pay half the
deb,edness of the loan made TO those who
build, and the members stand in two rela-
tons to the society, IS participators in the
profits and as debtors to tse company. The
dividends pay half The Indebtedness, so that
the man who has built sells his shares after
tbey have been paid up, cancels his indebt-
edness, and has his house.
Now, about the house-building. A mem
Der wishes to build house. lie makes
application 10 the 0m2any. The spplica-
tons are taken up in rotation, an the best
security taken FIRST in order. After thu APP
preparation has been made, plans are drawn
TO suit the applicant and the contracts let
on the most advantageous terms. In this
way the accumulated funds are loaned out
to share holders In the shape ofhouses. A
man who has house built this way, pays
ten per cent. interest to himself and the
other shareholders, and when sufficient
profits are accumulated, they are divided
| aud dividend declared. These dividends
are paid TO those who have no houses and
credited to those who have them, thus re-
ducing their liability to the company.
t'Ths companies which have been al
ready formed have done remarkably well.
In the first company each stakeholder paid
up 1925, and this increased with the profits
20 81, 232.S7. The second company has
some two or three years longer TO run, but
has eyenexcee Gsd the anticipAtions formed
respecting its success.
"Tha success Of the first two companies
has led TO the organization of third. The
capital stock is $500, 900, tigided into s., 1000
shares of $500 each. The main feature of
its operation will be the erection Of houses
for the shareholders upon the same system
as in preceding companies"
At the first thought on the subject one is
apt 70 believe that for laboring man TO lay
up in 3 safe bank, only five dollars a
month, and receiVe ten Per cent interest on
the same, would be a very SLOW way to nay
for house and lot; yet the writer happens
to know that the success of this apparently
small economy and fEugahty, united with
the principle of association, gave 10 the city
of Rochester, New York, more freeholders
than voters. II is known that where many
small landed estates exist, not few belong
to women, who are not voters. 1t is every
way des irable to have as many treeholders
in city as possible, as 3 sound, conseUa-
tive element to protect life and property.
Nashville greatly needs at this time new
and wide-swake banking and building as
ISOLATION of the character indicated, to util-
ize the dimes and dollars SO largely wasted.
4 community that consumes from month,
and year to gear, sum equal to its aggre-
gate production, has nothing left for i'm
provements of any kind. You may see the
most primitive log cabins in the heart of the
city, and old wooden houses that look like
harbors for b&ts and owls. Without organ.
lied industry, progress is neEt to impossi-
bic. Progress means not only an hon
est effort, but effort in a straight line,
directed by cultivated common sense.
Madmen ard fools are capable of making
great physical efforts, but they add nothing
to the wealth of State. Our comparative !
poverty in the South is due mainly not to
idleness nor laziness, but misdirected labor,
and the misuse CT the proceeds of labor.
The population of Tennessee is about |
one-fJurth as large as that of the State of |
New York. Tennessee laborers must have |
nineteen million dollars in savings banks to |
be as well of in that regard as thu laborers |
Of New York. Productive industry goes
for nothing in city or farm
ing district. without economy |
and skill in making investments. |
If one-half Of community labor earnestly |
to raiss tobacco aud manufacture cigars,
and the other half patrcnise home industry |
by chewing and smoking what the pro-
ducers leave from their own liberal con-
sumption, what will be the outcome of this
use of land, labor and cash capital? Is this
the way TO lay up money, build cities and |
enrich Southern soil? Shakespeare says that
we should "hold the mirror up TO nature,
show vice his hideous form, and virtue her |
fair attractions"