New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-02-20

and maintenance, the profits of the owners OF
successful houses Of this class must be such
m TO enable them to look with some contempt
on mere eight per cent stocks. and the rate of
the return does not necessarily diminish with
the size of the investment. Contractors build
blocks of the cheaper apartment-houses, I'LL
them with tenants, and sell them at price pro-
portioned to the income, taking the ground
that the investment is as safe as q GeVerh-
ment bond and a good deal more profitable:
1t is often claimed that they pay twelve anu
fifteen per cent. Apartment-houses, Dulit In
mart Of the materials of old dwelling-houses
in decayed parts of the city, and occupying
the same ground have been known to bring
in three times the rent formerly obtained for
the same property.
In all this multiplication of apartments. the
rich and the poor have been well cared for,
but the middle class seem to have been neg
lected. The building of houses in respectable
localities which can offer rents within the reach
of young people who are making living and
not much mOre-which is the normal cOndl-
ton of a large majority of all young families
has not kept pace at all with the rapid crop
of the costly and the cheap houses. 1t
WOulu bWdllUM up liC AhSp'S Va AAN"J -
young man in business or the professions, who
has had the courage to get married, simply to
pay the rent in one of the apartment-Dalaces'
and he is hardly willing. on the other hand, TO
go into an establishment which is too cheap
to be respectable. If he has succeeded
by long searching in finding home at
reasonable rent he has probably just
been informed that it is to be raised on the
first of next May. This has already been done
in q large number of instances among the
middle class of houses, and the rates OF IN
crease have been heavy. The problem OF
"cheap living seems more mysterious than
ever But there is a new answer, which prom
ises something. 1t is cooperation, or every
man his own landlord. Unfortunately, 1t can
be applied only to limited class, because the
possession of q small capital is pre-
requisite. A number of persons combine
together, purchase ground and build
an apartment-house themselves. One or
more apartments are let, and the proceeds
are turned into the treasury. The various
apartments are auctiOned off to the partners
in the enterprise, the more eligible of them
commanding slight premium. Each partner
is then the owner of his apartment which. 1t
he should want t. sell, he must first offer to
his associates A number of these cOopera-
tive houses are already building IN different
parts of the city, The project is still
merely an experiment. If it is success
full it will furnish homes, providing the
estimates of the projectors are veri-
fed by the result, at a great reduction from
the prices charged in the expensive apartment
houses for accommodations which are no bet
ter, and with corresponding saving in the
cheaper houses. If the experiment fail it will
probably be because of the complications and
possible disagreements arising from
divided ownership. If it succeed, the
plan of putting into ones own pocket the
profits that now 20 to the landlord will
be likely to become popular. There is no
reason why, with the help of public-spirited
capitalists, the principle of cooperation should
not be applied i'll the building of tenement
houses also, by allowing tenants to take small
amounts of stock. THE TRIBUNE has already
suggested this plan, and hopes to see it
M,