Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-06-20
FUNDSFOR HOMES
DECLARED HIGH
100000 Families Have
More Available Than in
1929. Official Says.

weekly earnings among factory work.
ers there are at least 100000 families
which actually have more money to
spend on home ownership than they
did in 1929. This is pointed out by
the United States Building and Loan
Leagues Home Building and Home
Owning Committee through Harold T.
Donaldson, Lansing, Mich, committee
chairman. The committee refers to
the United States Department Of
Labor figures on factory workers earn
ings and finds most significant the
fact that the prices Of consumption
goods are still low in relation to 1929
levels.
A growing belief that the boom in
home building in England was due
more to a rapidly increased standard
of living among the artisan and clerk
class in the latter part of 1882 than
to any other cause, was cited by the
League Committee and a preliminary
parallel was drawn between conditions
as they are developing here and the
situation in England four years ago.
Increase in Pay Rolls.
The pay rolls of wage earners in
manufacturing industries in this
country increased 50 per cent between
1882 and 1886 and the per capita
weekly earning increased 10 per cent
during the same period" Donaldson
said. Adjusted in accordance with
the cost of living the same weekly
ct nf
year per cent higher than they were
in 1929 In other words, there is more
money which can be released for the
purchase Of homes by this group than
there has been at any time since the
country started on the down road to
depression. The increase has kept up
since the first of this year, pay rolls
being 10 per cent higher in April, 1886,
than in April, 1885
The League Committee chairman
said that savings, building and loan
associations are watching the trend
with particular interest since the
majority of the homes which they
have financed in the past have been
for employees in manufacturing areas.
The IL most important industrial
States in the Union gained $500
100000 in building and loan assets in
the five-year period from 1925 through
1880. as compared with an increase of
about one-third this amount in all
other States Prospects for their
growth in savings members TO meet
the demands which the manufacturing
workers will make upon them for home
mortgage loans beginning with this
year are favorable. Donaldson pointed
out, and until such savings catch up
with the increasing demand the asso-
Citations have their reserve system, the
Federal Home Loan Banks, to rely
upon for long-term funds to retail to
the new homecoming class
Quotes Godfrey Crowther.
Donaldson quoted from a recent
comment by Godfrey Crowther of the
editorial staff of the London Econ
omiSt to the effect that the fall in
interest rates in Great Britain in 1882
could not in any way be credited with
a major contribution to the home
building revival. The English writer's
analysis was that neither this interest
rate condition nor the frightening of
the term of mortgages. nor even the
reduction in the cost of building could
be given ior emphasis alongside of
the much more powerful stimulus
which came from expansion of the
freely dispoSable purchasing power of
the country.
Donaldson said that likewise in this
country the income and cost of living
situation among the wage-earning
families Just above the 20 per cent
who are ClaSSed as in the lowest wage
scale are more important in determin-
ing home building revival than in
creasing rentals. lessening vacancies
and the past six years cessation of
home building.
Estimates have been made of the
amount of money spent by the people
of Great Britain on the prime essen I.
tlalS Of life and in the period from |.
1925 to 1928. such expenditures
amounted to E2,115OOO.OOO a year."
Mr.. CroWther recently stated before |
group of building societies in Eng
land. In 1882 the year the revival |
of home building began only G1,8OO.-
100000 was spent for these essentials. |
Wage and salary earners were getting .
G6oOO0OOO to G7O.OOOOOO a year less.
but their expenditures had gone down
by more than E30OOOO.OOO a year"
Mr.. Donaldson said that the rise of
per capita weekly earnings in this
country is steadily widening the mar
gin above the cost of living in the
manufacturing classes and that there
fore a condition resembling that in
Britain has begun.