Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-05-21
POSTAL BANK LOANS
FOR HOMES URGED
Experts Say Savings Should
Be Turned Back to Work.
ing People.


building through utilization of the
postal savings system was urged at
social work conference today.
Declaring the United States is
| thirty years behind Central and
western Europe in the theory and
practice Of housing, Mrs. Edith Ell
mer Wood of Cape May Courthouse.
n. j., in an address before a group
| meeting of the national conference
or social work in the New York
| Avenue Presbyterian Church today
| urged the utilization of postal saw
| ings deposits for housing loans to
| working people. Mrs. Wood is
housing authority and author. hav-
! subject.
| From the sama platform Blocker
| Marquette, executive secretary of
| the Better Housing League of Gin
Gf en- , stated that rents and build
| must go up II the American nation
Is to be housed. mot for many
! years has the housing problem been
SO said seT Mr m as during 1921 and
topic discussed by the two speakers
was The Human Side of Housing"
Lot of Workers.
| Mrs. Wood asked If working people
| must live in dingy. second hand, out
at-the-elbow houses when I'VE don't
any longer expect them to eat broken
! fragments or other peoples food or
| TO wear cast-off clothing. But we
/ do-in America-expect the rank and
| file of wage earners to be born. live
| and die in shabby, depressing hand
1 me- down homes.
| The speculative builder does not
put up new houses for them. because
there Is no profit in It, The profess
| sional lender does not advance them
| money to build their own houes for
the item of profit. by putting housing
on a public utility basis like city
| water, 1t was found TO be possible
| in Europe before the war to supply
4 good houses at cost to the work in z
| classes. and IL will soon be possible
again. without the aid of subsidies.
! Western and central Europe are COM
! mitted to the policy of supplying a
| real home for every family. We are
\ thirty years behind them in the
| theory and practice of housing.
What l want to suggest today is a
very small thing-only one step in
| advance, but so practical and so OBJ
viously just that there ought not to
be any difference of opinion about it
the utilization of postal savings de-
posts for housing loans to working
I people.
Use OF Savings.
at is their own money-their own
| savings. The government pays them
| per cent on it, and deposits il with
! banks, which pay the government 2A
per cent. Then the banks lend it out
! at or for their own benefit. Why
! shouldn't the government lend il, in
stead, TO working men who want to
build themselves new homes-at the
same low rate of interest that it
years to repay the principal in, as
| they do in Belgium, or thirty-six,
| as they do In New Zealand?
I I'm Belgium upward of $4,000 work
ing class families have acquired
rates from the general savings bank.
In New Zealand a working man
walks into the nearest post office and
| nils out an application for a housing
loan with as little fuss as he would
I'LL out a money order. About one
tenth of the population owns homes
| built through this means. II is not
| by accident that New Zealand has the
! lowest deathrate and the lowest In
| FAINT mortaliy rate in the world
/ hardly more than half of ours"
Y In his address Mr.. Marquette stated
| that rents have increased from so to
! as per cent since 1914; building costs
are rs per cent higher and during the
1 Of 20 per cent. almost uniformly
| throughout the country in the cost of
home building.
Losing Battle.
I'VE have been fighting a losing
battle during the past three years."
The continued The war trampIed
down our efforts to get better homes
made no real progress, but more
alarming, we have lost ground 1t
has been next to impossible for many
years to build houses for really poor
people. Today it is almost impossi-
BILE to build home that the man of
and $4,000 house has become almost
| obsolete in our average city.
Il am very glad to be able to bring
| a happy note from Cincinnati. Through
| the foresight and generosity of one
I Of our foremost woman citizens, Mrs.
Mary Emery. there is being laid out
| what is probably the most ambitious
| garden suburb so far projected In
the United States. 1t will be a
garden city of j. 600 homes. After years
of planning and studying. her dream
of wonderful garden spot with we'll
| grouped, we'll planned economical
homes is about to be realized. 1t is a
purpose of producing desirable
homes at low costs for people of
moderate means. Yet il is not
\ charity. for IL will be planned in a
business-like way from start to fin-
ish. Dividends will be limited. yet the
| project will pay a reasonable return
! on all money invested.
! "Mariemont is one of the bright
\ spots in the present rather dark field
! of housing. 1t gives promise of be-
! ing the most outstanding example of
| what got housing is that the United
| states has ever had. and it will, we
/ hope, have some influence in this
| country on the future for peopIe of