Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-10-27
HOUSING SALES
GIVEN IMPETUS
IN ROCK ISLAND
Government Conducts Successful
Project for Gown Your Down
Home Movement,

The Associated Press has releas-
the following article under a Rock
Island date, having to do with the
governments property sales just
concluded in this city, which was
prepared. for it here:
The own Your Own Home"
movement. for which the United
States department OF labor stands
sponsor. has received a decided i'm
petus in the sale of the houses
built by the United States govern
ment for housing war workers in
the United States arsenal territory,
at Rock Island, Moline and East
Moline. In Is days all of the AGO
houses here were sold to 460 pur-
chasers.
Before the war there we're about
100 employees at the United States
arsenal, but under stress OF war
activities the number was increas-
ed to 1880, with consequent short
age of housing accommodations
Congress appropriated $4,000 for
housing war workers and this
cd TO $4,000 900, of which amount
$4,000 was to be spent for hous-
ing needs in the city of Washing
ton.
Al the time of the signing of the
aTmistce the government had IS
housing projects well under way,
but the number has since been re-
duced By return of land to former
owners and abandonment eff var
iOus projects to about twenty-five
projects. in which 5000 govern
ment houses have been completed.
Two Of the projects are located on
the Pacific coast, a Bremerton. the
navy yard at Seattle, and Mare Is
land near San Francisco The
projects in the middle west are
located in the Rock Island district
and at Hammond. Ind. There are
also completed houses at Niles and
Alliance in Ohio and Erie, Pa. The
other houses are located in various
points on the Atlantic coast from
Maine TO Norfolk, Va, where there
is an important housing develop
ment
The su1dry civil bill, which was
enacted last July, provides for the
sale of all the houses. and Secre-
tary William B. Wilson of the de-
partment of labor of the United
States, under whose direction the
houses we're built, now is direct
ing the sale of the houses and lots
IN the various projects. The first
place at which sale has been made
is in the Rock Island district, and
on that account the result has
been watched with interest and at
tracted an unusual amount of at
tention.
Had $50 Houses.
The number Of government
houses at Rock Island. Moline and
East Moline amounted to 460, the
first step in the preparation for the
sale being to have sale price
placed on the houses by a board OF
survey. On the board of survey
we're: Calvin 2. Williams of the
central works council of the United |
States arsenal; Ben Jacobson. pres
ident of the Tri-City Federation of !
Labor; William H. Kimball. civil I
engineer: William G.. Johnson. t,
president of the Real Estate asso-
citation of the state Of Illinois, and
Gu dlu =. d uuu. a lot IueT JIeSI- /
dent of the Chicago Real Estate |
board and of the National Associa-
ton Of Real Estate boards
This board acted under instruc-
tons to place a fair market value
upon the properties, having in
mind that excess war cost should
be borne by the general public in
stead Of by the individual! workers
buying homes for themselves. In
order to encourage home buying.
the terms of sale were made cash
payment Of 10 per cent Of the pur-
chase price. with the balance pay
able in monthly iustallments of l
per cent Of the purchase price, in
GLIDING interest at 6 per cent. AS
IN additional favor to tenants of
the houses who were unable to pay
the 10 per cent Of the purchase