Evening star., 1933-09-16
HOME PROPERTIES
6D85 DEBT FREE
President of Building and
Loan League Disc|oses Fig
ure in Address at Session.

CHICAGO, September 16.-Sixty per
cent of the home owners in America
hold their property debt free.
This was the statement OF Ward b
Whitlock of Springfield, Ill. president
of the United States Building and Loan
League, in his annual address before
the leagues convention here this week
He urged the building and loan aSso-
Citations to use their resources to the
fullest extent possible for starting more
home owners on commonsense plan
of financing which would enable them
TO pay off the debt in a reasonable
time. =,
Hiss address was a direct urge to all
associations to support the recovery
program of the President. In COM
menting on some implications OF the
program, the building and loan leader
noted a tendency to mingle polltcs ana
finance in some quarters, Wnlcn ne olo
not believe a totally healthy sign, anu
expressed his hope that the future
choices for the responsible positions in
the new order would draw upon the
hest human resources in the Nation.
Speaking of business conditions on
the horizon, Mr. Whitlock told the
building and loan men to prepare Tor
a greater volume of home purchases
and OF small home construction.
Trend Shows Ambitions.
"The present trend of prices points
the ambitions of the average cltlzen
to the possession of things rather than
stocks and bonds" he said. Ihe nome
has the same intrinsic value TO tne
family which owns it, be the American
dollar worth 10 cents in gold or loo
cents 1t is the most essential long
time commodity in the Nation today.
The people are ready to invest in
homes. Let it never be said that their
desires were thWarted by their inability
to obtain financial aid. Building and
loan associations have the satisfaction
of knowing that their method OF opera
ton and their ultimate goal has al
ways been to encourage debt-free home
ownership. Had this been the universal
rule in home financing during the past
10 years we would today have little OF
the existing grave distress among home
owners"
Comparing the present status OF the
business with the time Of the league
first convention in Chicago in 1893,
Mr.. Whitlock said that today the build
ing and loan business represents con-
stituency which surpasses the most
fanciful dreams of the nineteenth CEN
tury leaders.
Trustees Of 100000.
1--WE come together here as the stew
ards the trustees. the managers of the
savings of over 100000 people" ne
pointed out. They are the people in
the humber walks of life and number
nearly 10 per cent of the citizens OF
the United States. The vast sum OF
money. running close to $4,000, 900, 600
has been loaned to individuals in like
humble circumstances for the building
and buying of their homes.
"The administration has recognized
; the validity of the building and loan
plan of financing homes in three dis
tinct ways:
81 1t has placed its support .solidly
behind the Federal Home Loan Bank
System. which gives our association ar
opportunity to do more of the home
financing in this country than has ever
been possible before,
90 It has made provisions whereby
more than a thousand localities which
have no building and loan facilities fol-
home mortgage credit shall have Fed
eral savings and loan associations es-
tablished within their borders.
80 Even in its relief plan as en-
bodied in the Home Owners Loan Cor
poration the Government has adopted
the principle of long-term credit, pay
able in installments, as the way out"