Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-24
HOOVER LAUNCHES
HOUSING Campaign
Says Home Ownership Con-
tributes to Social
Stability. I
Continued From First Pase)

The President said, in welcoming the
confereeS:
II appreciate very much the high
| sense of public service which has
brought you here today. would not
| have asked you to come If had not felt
| deeply that there was real need. For
some years the business community,
| our municipalities and great numbers
OF associations devoted to the promo
ton OF public welfare, have interested
themselves in the problem of more ade-
quate housing and home ownership.
Ahead Of Other Nations.
st will say at once that we have O
larger proportion of adequate housing
than any country in the world, but we
still lag far behind our national ideals
of homes for all our people.
| Substantial advances have been
1 made in some parts of the country:
| great experience has been gained, and
| it has been the wish of many of these
groups that there should be thorough
national inquiry with view to sum-
nation of this experience, the mobiliza-
! ton of existing movements and the pos
sible development from it of new
state Of thought and action"
In emphasizing the Importance OF
home building. President Hoover stated:
Adequate housing goes to the very
roots of the we'll being of a family, and
the family is social unit of the Ma
ton. 1t Is more than comfort that Is
involved, 1t has important aspects OF
health and morals and education and
the provision of fair chance for grow
ing childhood. Nothing contributes
more for greater happiness or for
sounder social stability than the sur
roundings of their homes. 1t should
be possible in our country for anybody
of sound character and industrious
habits to provide himself with adequate
housing and preferably to buy his own
home"
Financing Chief Factor.
Making it plain that he considers
the financing of home building as the
most important one involved in this
problem, Mr.. Hoover said:
1.-THE financing of home building, es-
pecially for second mortgages, Is the
most backward segment of our whole
credit system. 1t is easier to borrow
IS per cent on an automobile and repay
1t on the installment plan than to buy
a home on that basis-and generally
the house requires a higher interest
rate. The whole process of purchase
and finance involves a ceremony like
a treaty between government, and yet
the home is certainly as good collateral
as an automobile; it depreciates more
slowly, If at ALL and its owners will
make harder fight to keep 1t. The
home has tentacleS of sentiment as well
as bonds of practical necessity that bind
the occupant to it. Part of the dim
Guilty lies in inadequate financial or
ganization and part of it you will md
in obsolete laws.
There are other important phases of
the problem beyond the financing of
the individual home owner. The prob
lem Of creating real and systematic
home areas adjacent to industry and
to our cities which can be safeguarded
from commercial invasion and destruc-
ton needs exhaustive consideration.
Such areas have been created both here
and abroad with great success. The
helter-skelter building of homes adj
iacent to our cities produces many in
adequacies and wastes. Such ques-
ton. at once raises large problems Of
city and industrial planning as well as
problems OF finance. The automobile
has made such communities far more
practicable than ever before.
Wants Broad Inquiry.
ct am in hopes you can find the time
and organization to go even further
afield than individual home ownership
into this whole question Of housing
This will at once carry you into the
apartments and rural fields as well.
/. Besides these questions. there are
problems of architecture, aesthetic ques-
tions and questions of convenience, as
we'll as problems of construction-all of
which have large importance and enter
into rural as well as urban homes
Il would suggest to you that there Is
also an important economic bearing OF
this whole matter beyond even the bet
terment of the family With constant
improvement of methods and labor saw
ing devices We constantly set free work.
! erS from established industry who must
be absorbed in new or expanding indus
tries if we would have for them employ
ment and the articles or services which
comprise advancing standards of living.
There is no doubt we shall make new
inventions and new needs, but the great
| est present field for the absorption OF
! our national present industry lies in
| better housing. There are some emer-
gency questions arising from the pres
ent depression to which you can, be-
lieve. assist in solution.
Many Intricate Phases.
II shall not enter upon the many
phases of the subject" the President
said In conclusion. They are we'll
known to many of you My general
thought has been that we should FIRST
have determination of the facts in
| S'0Ay hupoAl dlV OlreCllOIl, followed Dy
a weighing and distillation of. these
facts and the formulation of collective
Judgment OF the leaders of our country
in this special knowledge.
Not only the wide scope of this sub
Iect, but its many intricate problems
involved will all require time for in
vestigation and study. have not pre-
sumed that you could undertake to d.
rect such task as this and bring ii to
| r0nnIlciOH1 within fauy
months, or that you could undertake It
without large assistance and co-opera-
ton.
I'VE wish TO set up something more
| than an ephemeral discussion It is
obviously not our purpose to set Up the
FEDERAL Governments in the building
OF homes. There are many questions OF
local government involved. 1t is my
nope that out of this inquiry and the
conferences that will follow 1t we should
make so well founded contribution 70
our national understanding as to give
direction and coordination to thought
and action throughout the country"
Lamont Is Chairman.
Secretary OF Commerce Lamont has
been named by President Hoover to
serve as chairman of this planning
| committee. John M Cries who for
division of building and housing in the
Department of Commerce. will act Us
executive secretary.
| Following the initial meeting with
the President at the White House the
members of the planning group are
meeting this afternoon with Secretary
Lamont at the Department Of Com.
merce, when q more definite program
based on the scope outlined by the
President was TO be worked out. Funds
have been proVided Tn cover the entfre