The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1890-02-08
BUILDING ASSOCIATIONS.
Their Usefulness-GrOwth in Ottawa Two
Flourishing Associations.

citation for the quarter ending Jan
uary LIST, was published Friday. 1t
shows assets OF $2.950.7S including
loans of $2,373.75. The shares in force
are 1913 of the first series and 3l6 or
the second series, worth respectively,
So. 81 and $l.57 each, a profit of PC on
first in Is months and &c on the sec
ond in moNths. The showing is
good one. The statement, which is
accompanied by some valuable point
ers" for money savers and small bor-
rowers, can be obtained by calling on
or addressing +. A. Hathaway, secre-
tary.
The regular Semi-annual statement
of the Ottawa Building and Loan AS
ISOLATION, of which Thomas +. Nc
KinleO is secretary, was published in
these columns some weeks ago. 1t
shows it's usual prosperity and solid
ity, and that the older it grows its
age is we'll into the twentieS now the
more widely its sphere of usefulness
extends.
There is perhaps no known means,
within the reach of the average man
and the average man is he who works
on a salary at day wage-by which
systematic saving of money, and at
the same time increase the value or
his savings, can be effected so easily as
! in building associations, as they are
universally known. Every man de-
sires, when he reaches mans estate, to
have a house of his own or a business
of his own. The money to buy these
things he must save, little 10y little.
How can it be done-by the clerk on
a small wage, the laborer at any equal
" small wage? For a hundred arti-
fetal wants consume the surplus he
has left after paying his bills on pay
day, and he thinks it impossible to lay
by a cent. Then, too, he sees no pos
sible use for the few dollars laid by
each month. 1t lays there; it earns
nothing: it grows diScOuragingly
slowly-why it would take forever
to save enough to buy lot, to say
nothing of a house. And so nine men
out of ten drop into slip-shOd waysand
more slip-shod habits, become dem0ra-
lied and discouraged simply because
they neglect to take advantage OF the
means Of saving at hand. There are
saving banks. and they do a noble
work wherever community is fortu-
nate enough to have one; and the IN
terest they pay, though necessarily
small, adds appreciably to the ac-
cumulatiOn placed in bank.
But a building association pays bet
ter. and the advantage it offers Dor
rowers give it an advantage that the
savings bank cannot offer, as has been
shown by the history of the building
associations: because the member or
the association can borrow at any
time, on real estate security, and pay
his loan by piecemeal, from month to
month, and earn profit on his pay
ments at the same time. which goes
TO reduce his loan, the interest he pays
being in part a payment to himself.
The drSt building and loan aSS0cl-
alton now in existence was organized
in Birmingham, England, in 1875.
This was quite successful, so another
WAS organized at Greenwich in lSO9.
The first one in Scotland was in 1873
at Kirkcudbrlght, under the auspices
of the Earl of Selkirk. They were
recognized by act of parliament in
1894. The shire of MiddleSeX, in which
London is situated, had then about
| 800 societies; in 1870 they had in
creased to little over 1000. In 1874
an act was passed giving these assocl-
ations special privileges and protec-
ton.
Early in the century they were in
troduced into Philadelphia, where
they at once became popular, and as
the result Il greater percentage OF me-
chanicS and labOring men own thell
homes in that city than in any Other
. of this country, perhaps: though
Rochester, New York, claims now
through her own associations, to have
: surpassed even Philadelphia in this
, respect.
1t is said that in this country NJ
building association has ever failed
Many have had reverses, and the shares
have been slow in arriving at matu
rlty. but while banks, mercantile
. houses and insurance companies have
failed or have been ruined by rascal,
employees or officers, the building assO
Citations never have.
The true building association is
partnership institution in which tn,
: members are the partners. The assets
all belong to the members and consist
of the monthly payments made by thu
members and the profits thereon, ant
, has no liabilities except to its mem
! DtTS. ut tollIlucU "ItlI itp
is not to pay each member certain
som of money at certain time, but tC
,, pay each member what ne has paid tt
/, the association IN monthly payments
!, with the accumulated profits, wher
the profits shall reach a certain stated
. amount; or, to put it in another way
the association agrees to give it's mem
bers just phat there is; no more, NJ
!, less. Therefore the liability of thu
association, or the amount which il
owes to it's members, must always bt
lust equal to the assets. From the
nature Of the case the association
: cannot become insOlvent. Any in
crease in the assets adds to the liabil
/, tiles like amount. If a loss SHOULD
! occur it would decrease the assets ant
and also decrease the liabilities to the
same extent. 1t would not make the
association insolvent. In any event
the association is able to carry out it
,, contract with its members. If losses
should occur, the profits would there
by be reduced and the stock would a.
, as consequence, become unprOtitabl'
as an investment. But as it loan,
only to its own members on first mort