, 1921-12-01
wREcKAcE OF POLITICAL EXPERIMENT.

zone thing for which the people of Nebraska may
be thankful" says the Lincoln Journal, "s that this
state is not now crawling out from under the wreck
of an Inflated political experiment as the citizens OF
North Dakota are doing. Perhaps the most attractive
feature of the program as adopted by the iateiy re-
called state government of North Dakota was the con-
struction of homes by the state and sold to the citi-
Gems on the easy payment plan. 1t was a truly IN
spring picture, this plan of the officials to build homes
with the states money and to sell them to poor lam
lilies who would pay for them like rent
AT a time when houses were in great demand and
costs too high for the average people TO build, this
seemed like a heavenly solution of a very material
problem. No house was to cost more than $4,000 and
everyone would soon be living in his own home. The
state began building homes, some fifty all total, and
citizens moved in. But before the homes were even
completed the trouble began. The cost Of each house,
instead Of being limited to $4,000, ran up to nine, nj
teen and twenty thousand dollars, and the first served
were men high up in the state administrator favor:
Mr.. Lemke's home cost something like 100000, and
the home built for John N. Hagan, commissioner OF
agriculture, cost about $4,000.
1.-THE immediate result was that when the prospect
i've owners learned how much above $4,000 the houses
were to cost, they decided to let the state take over
the houses. The following excerpts from an editorial
In the Fargo Forum gives an idea of the way'the plan
".Mr. Hagan's discovery that his state built house
built in violation of the law, by the way-wil cost
him nearly $1,000 instead Of $4,000, the limit fixed
by the law, is a fair sample of the mess in which the
affairs Of the homebuilders' association have been left.
"If Mr.. Hagan's house SO far exceeded the esti-
mates, and il Mr.. Hagan was one OF the directors OF
the association, what can the ordinary purchaser ex-
pect?
1T would not be surprising if every one Of the so
purchasers of homes built by the state finds himself
in the same boat with Mr.. Hagan, and it is very like
ly that the state will find itself with some 30 houses
on its hands, all built at peak prices and with no
chance of recovering the money expended on them.
The occupants of these houses are simply living in
them as long as they can, trying to get back their ini-
tial payments in rent. They figure that they can walk
out when they have to and charge off the sum they in
vested as rental, as Mr.. Hagan has done. Most of
them will do this rather than sign contracts at the
r-aot1u tnrraaEod fo1tra which will he necessary in or
der to let the state get its money back.
Meanwhile no taxes are being paid on the houses,
and no payments are being made for the reason that
no contracts have been signed.
"Fwhat will be done with the state-built houses pre-
SCENTS a rather complicated problem. The state may
encounter some legal difficulties if it tries to enforce
contracts covering. the actual cost of the houses. The
only way in which it can get any returns is to offer
the houses for sale to the highest bidder IL the pres
ent occupants take the course Mr.. Hagan has taken.
Also. there is just a possibility that the courts would
hold that the present occupants of the houses are en-
ktisd to contracts at the figures promised them.
"'Only one thing is certain-the state is bound to
lose q very considerable sum Of money in cleaning up
the ness s
Test there be those who suspect that this is an
unf-iendly account of the state of affairs, the follow
Ing excerpt of an editorial in the Fargo Courier News,
sficial organ Of the Non-partisan league in North Da-
kota, will serve to convince tho reader that the So
eialstic home-building plan was a complete failure:
Whatever may be the final figures given for the
homes built by the BODYBUILDING association, it is evil
dent that this institution constitutes the one failure of
tne tehgue ADMINISTRATOR. lnere are mitigating cir
cumstances. Of course, for the fact that the houses
cost % much. Material was bought at the peak of
prices, a.. it proved, labor was high, the failure to sell
bonds delayed the work and increased the cost. But
when all allowances have been made that can be made,
1t still remains true that only incompetency can ac-
count for the wide discrepancy between the estimates
Of cost and the cost of the completed houses, and only
ineompetency is accountable for the fact that even
now, 1s months after many of the houses were be-
gun, contracts have not been delivered
THE facts of the case teach the lesson and further
comment Is unnecessary. Today North Dakota is sad
" but wisely rddpg herself of the extravagant or
gies Of the defunct regime"