Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-12-01
Loan and Building Associations.

.ibiiity, it would not appear to mankind
as !. does. But being endowed With both.
aud eomprising the greater part Of every
it may well appeal both to
our sympathie- and our .olieitud..
We live IN a transitioned epoch. Old
condition. are being displaced by new
conditions, old form. are passing away
and new form. are coming IN. Every
Thing j. tending TO consolidation. Not a
day passes but we read Of -one new com.
oination or trust. Opportunities for per
.0nal enterprise, whatever the Energy aud
ability displayed, are few. individuality
will soon drop from the vocabulary Of
life, az men become more ana more the
mere mechanical parts Of great corpora
tion..
Every period Of transition must BE- a
period Of hardship, aud 20 1t must be- with
this. II il then that the ..ruggle for ex-
i.tence IL seyere.t and the greater the
transition the sharper the struggle. We
have but 10 look back through the age. Of
the World tn confirm thi. fact. IL !. seen
everywhere and in every thing. Nothing
ia the worlds progress has been exempt
from thi. law. But ~ hen the new order
u things l. established in the fulne-. Of
it, development, it has Away. been found
fairer and nDbirr than the last. 80 il will
be With this. We need have no fear. for
the social aud industrial future Of our
race
/. has often happened that while stu
dents, Statesmen and economists have
b+en throriling and prOpoanding, men
have been quietly working out their prob
lem. Tor themselves. II has been parti-
ally 40 in The attempts TO solve the great
problems Of the present. And one Of the
results Is the Loan and Building Associa-
ton. It ha. been doing its work unos-
Leutatiuu.ly but effectively, and now, al
Ter the lapse Of half century, after II
ha. extended it, work into every
state and territory, and has dotted our
country with cheerful and happy homes,
IL is but just beginning to receive general
public recognition. While students Of
sociology have been presaging whole cat
Agories Of evil from the socialistic tenden
cies Of our times, these Institutions have
been quietly eouuteracting those teuden-
cies more effectively thas all the essays and
treatises that have been written. We
all fha.
men aud women " no have gained homes
by years Of toll and saving, the land theo-
RE. Of Henry George, and the still more
radical theories of socialists will find no
The blessings of home, whether it be
rude or palntial, have always been and al
ways will be the same. The home il the
fountain of all domestic and moral Writ
ue-. There has been no race, however
rude or barbarous, but its life has cen
L"red there no tribe so uomadic that 1t
would not shed its very life blood in de-
fence Of it, habitation, And as the social
life of humanity has reached high and
still higher development, the value and
7anctty Of the home have risen in the
same degree.
The ''Cotters Saturday night" aud
Home sweet Home" have consecrated
forever the priceless blessing tt the do
nestle circle.
There ia, then, no institution which
tends to foster and perpetuate the home
life in ifs modest and most realistic sense
that should not receive our sympathies
and our aid
Loan and building associations are de
destined to act an important part in this
new phase and development of social and
industrial life, which today il conren-
tratiug the attention of the profoundcst
thinkers.
The principle. which underlie loan and
building ASSOCIATIONS are everywhere the
same, but the methods of their applica.
lions differ widely in different state. IT
i believed. however. that the general law
IF Maine embodies the most advanced
idea, and the most equitable methods vet
applied to these institutions
The loan and building associations Of
thi, state are entirely mutual and CO.
Sh,roboId.rs mr., at n,c, 10.
positors and borrowers. IN. eIertion of
all oficers and consao,,eptIv tho entirc
Of m, ossn,,i,tion +. In THAR