Grand Forks herald., 1922-06-10

state, as a cost OF not exceeding s5,-
10000. except farm homes: During
the two years which this imitation.
functioned.s under tho direction OF r.
B. Rlakemore al manager. ana w. J.
Prater as assistant manager, L. bought
or built a totalsof 81 houses and one
barn, of which "a are located in Bis
marck and 21. In; Fargo. Among tho
ceived tKe dement's of tbs department
were Messrs. Lemke. Hagan. Wallace,
Totten {Sr. and Jr.,) Adams. Rem
bach. una othef4 WHO we're EN- bl6yed
directly or indirectly by the state.
Only Ore Psid Fur
We found that only one Of these
houses were paid for. namely, Lem
ske's; and nearly all Of the remainder
have refused to pay or settle with
the association on. the besis. Of the
cost f,gures disclosed by. 3ts records.
The. prospective purchasers all claim
agreed 10 furnish them their respec.
tive. houses at sstim approximating
IS, 10000. the maximum cost provided
by law whereas the records disclose
the actual cSets to. be between &c.
0tO.ob to sil,0oo.o0 or an average
Of 100000 each. 1t further appears
that all OF these houses were con-
structed without any written contract
or sale with the buyer, and- the con-
tracts such as there are consist in
verbal representations made by the
iofficers and agents of the association.
these houses were not let on written
contracts. to responsible construction
contractors. but. instead. the associa-
.tion hought its material and employ
ed labor directly for the building OF
these houses was not let on written
shod method of: doing business the
business OF the department. is in hope
less chaos and disorder.
+ Stat. viii Lose
Fifty-one hou*cs are unsettled for.
and 1t has become necessary for us to
institute a number of lawsuits to en-
force settlement for all these houses,
resulting In great expense and ern>
barrassnen ntsto both the state and the
home buyers The situation row is
this: II the Nome buyers prevail in
these suite. the association and
through it. the state viii loaej from
or total Of about SEQ. 600. 90:
whereas, If the state prevails, most
of the buyers will abandon their
houses >as John N. Hasanf has done.
and leave the state with these high
Epriced houses on its hands.
Now the. state, has sunk more than
i $50 0. 600, Of f!pubic: funds into this un
Efortnnate enterprise. The legislature
appropriated s 100. 900 : and the Bank
of North Dakota loaned it over $41S.-
/ 900. all of which is still unpaid. Al
~ ~, I,n-
ton no i authority to borrow money
from any source. the Industrial Com
mission nevertheless authorized the
lstransfer of this large sum to the as
sociation ou; OF the tax moneys of the
state, raised for other purposes, and
| this 100000, with accruipg interest
Of more than $24.o 900 per annum win
remain frozen for at least TO- years.
1t must, remain that lengtfr' OF time.
because the home buyers haveS 20
! years in which to pay for their houses,
and the law does not permit Of the Is
suance Of bonds until the balance re-
manning unpaid on the contracts Is not
more than one-half of the cost of the
houses. 1s.,E
False Reports Published.
In this connection. permit me 10
quote from paee 50 Of tlhe old Indus
trial COmnhsESon's report for June I.
1szI. wherein. 1T sfsees:
1 "Noexift,ssAname tne very un-
tfssorabsc co1,dassons OF the market tos
buiaane mAteEials tMt nave e4f1eed
since the Home b1idng Aseodassou
begnn opezaes1nsss the: lsla1sxfA Com
mission Is ahe to report t1At u 10
fully proved the eennemy aafd pf1c
tioahity Of homo buiiain9 by tn
state" 90 ~ :
mus, demunstratine both the hone
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