The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-01-21

fort of it. while the management will
have all of the responsibilities. OF
course, they will have the bother of
hiring the management
This particular house is not to be
built on the mortgage system. The
owners are to pay cash. They will live
in two-thirds of the building. and rent
the other third, which will provide an
income of about 100000 a year. This
amount Will more than pay the run
ming expenses of the house. SO that
the owners will be able to live in their
apartments for the interest on their
Investment, thus reducing their rent to
about one-third of the usual price for
such establishments.
Altho SO popular at present, the CO.
operatively owned apartment house is
not new idea. More than forty years
ago. a group of Missionaries. noted for
their responsibility and impractical
bility, conceived the idea as the logical
way to reduce their rent. 1t is hard
to believe but even in those days the
matter of rent was causing prolonged
grouches and gray hairs: a home pro-
Yiding reasonable comforts was as far
beyond the average income as at pres
ent. Then the very poor and the very
rich were accepting their stations in
life with much greater eQuanimity,
and as usual it was the respectable
middle class which was having the
greatest battle with the housing prob
lem.
This battle was particularly difficult
and irritating for the painters, musi-
clans and writer's of the community,
whose homes were also of necessity
their workshops The artist had to
have his north light, and the writer
and the musician had to have their
quiet, and the children of both had to
have an agreeable environment. So
eventually, they got together and
MI enrf Of drao OF
least so it appeared to their contem-
poraries), where each of them would
have the kind of home he wanted.
and yet all of them would pay for it
In other words, 1t would be Corpora
tive. After much discussion, a group
of them worked out the plans for such
a home and decided to risk their saw
ings in it. They were to subscribe so
per cent of the cost of the land and
building, and the remainder was to be
was to receive stock in proportion to
his investment, which stock should en-
title him to a lease for approximately
100 years on certain portion OF the
building. Those who invested the
most money naturally secured the
choicest locations.
In addition to the space for their
own suites, there was also space for
rented apartments, the rent from
these being relied upon to pay the
operating costs, the interest on the
mortgage, taxes, and fund for de-
probation. While, in the beginning
there were few failures, the expert
ment proved successful, and since then
whole clusters of cooperative apart
ments have sprung up in various parts
of the city,
| In a strict sense, theysare not CO.
operative, and the real co-operatives
| including the Cooperative League OF
! America, resent your calling them
that. 1t would be more correct per-
/; haps to call them incorporated. be-
cause the co-operatives insist that nc
enterprise is truly cooperative unless
I the control is shared equally by all
who share its benefits. But whatever
you call them. these new apartment
| houses are satisfactorily solving the
rent question for their~owners. They
are the best method which has YET
been found for beating thelrent profit
eer, and it is interesting to know thai
anything SO profitable and business
I like should have been discovered by g
1 faw dreamy temDeramentaI artists.