Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-01-19
MAKING OF CITIZENS.
How the New Ribot Law in France
Builds Homes.

How the New Ribot Law in France
Builds Homes.
In France the state helps the work.
meh and the peasants to buy their own
homes. This Is now in effect for two
years, since the Ribot law was passed.
In this way the poor are taken out Of
the clutches Of the grasping French
building societies, who have been no
torious for their Shylock methods.
One Of the Paris illustrated papers
shows the advantages Of the Ribot law
in characteristic pictures. The one
man is gradually accumulating the
benefits Of his earnings, the other is
losing his in the shape Of rent.
The workman or the peasant can
borrow the money necessary to build
his house. repaying it-since he has no
rent to pay-by small sums every
month. At the end of twenty or twen-
ty-five years the. house will belong to
him.
The state lends the money at the low
interest Of two per cent, but 1t does not
lend 1t to just any one or for any pur-
pose. It lends 1t to a poor man either
to buy a small piece Of land, which he
Is going to work himself, or to build a
small house for himself and his family.
not to construct a great palace.
AS the state cannot know from the
offices in Paris the conditions Of the
Ivinedressers in Bordeaux or the Flem-
ish brewers men, real estate credit
societies have been started at Bor-
deaux, Lille and Chartres, which make
Inquiries concerning the borrower and
act as intermediary between him and
the state.
The borrower must possess the fifth
of the sum he wishes to borrow. Sup
posing a man has saved 800 francs. he
can then begin to buy his house. for
the state will lend him 5000 francs
But as the borrower may die before he
has paid back the borrowed money an
insurance policy is taken out upon his
life to the value Of the sum borrowed,
so that If the borrower dies the day
after the signing of the contract his
widow and children become the own
ers of house without paying a sou.
After the necessary medical inspec-
ton and certain formalities concern
ing the style Of house, papers are ex-
changed and a man begins to own a
house which will be his in twenty-five
years. For this enormous benefit he
has only to pay eighteen francs per
month.
The workman begins a. once to feel
himself a proprietor. He superintends
the building, watches the Dricklayels
and gives his own orders. The house
is exempt for twelve years from cer-
tain taxes, such as the land tax upon
buildings, houses and doors. Also the
law of equal division among the chill
dren Is not to be applied to these
houses, which are to remain always In
the family. Another great privilege Is
that the law canot seize these DWELL
ings any more than the bed or the
workman's tools.
The Ribot law Is not mere beauti-
full dream, but living reality. In st.
Omer there are two houses very SINH
lar to one another. The first one,
which has no garden, pays a rent OF
thirty francs a month. The one next
door. with a good vegetable garden,
belongs to a beneficiary under NJ. Ri
bots law. This man, a brakeman on
the railway, had saved $500 francs,
and with that he borrowed from the
state 4,200 francs. He was his own
architect and director Of works. He Is
now paying twenty-five francs a
month, five francs less than his neigh
Dor, and will own his house in twenty
five years