Another possibility is that the local or state government advance the
money and enable the worker to buy his own home. That is the plan
adopted by the Massachusetts Homestead Commission in its experiment at
Lowell. It is also one of the policies adopted by the Canadian
government, which will loan money to provincial governments to be
advanced for building houses on land owned (a) by the provincial or
municipal government, (b) by the limited dividend company, (c) by the
workman himself. This latter plan would probably commend itself most
readily to the foreign-speaking groups.
Direct loans by the local government to the worker are advocated in
the careful and thorough plan worked out by Mrs. E. E. Wood.[17] One
suggestion is a proposed amendment to the Postal Savings Law,
authorizing loans from postal savings deposits to workers with annual
incomes not in excess of twelve hundred dollars. The investigation of
the application is to be in the hands of the nearest local housing
board. A suggested amendment to the Farm Loan Act is that housing
loans be made by the Farm Loan Board on the same terms on which farm
loans are now authorized. It is interesting to note that this plan
contemplates the continued activity of the building and loan
associations with which the foreign born are already familiar. It
suggests that the first loan be given by the government and the
association be content with a second mortgage, receiving in return the
greater stability that is secured from a transaction carried on under
governmental supervision.
According to Mrs. Wood's report, before 1915, 700,000 houses had been
built or acquired in the United States through the aid of building and
loan associations.[18] She thinks that the moderately paid wage
earner, but not the unskilled worker, was benefited. This conclusion
is disputed by officers of four building and loan associations in
Chicago interviewed in connection with this study. That the
associations reach the foreign-speaking groups seems to be evident
from the names in the Annual Report of the auditor of the state of
Illinois for 1918. The Bohemians had the largest number of societies,
and the Poles were second. The Italians alone of the large national
groups were unrepresented.
Mrs. Wood's plan also calls for a national housing commission in the
Department of Labor, to be created under congressional act, with
organization and powers analogous to those exercised by the Federal
Board for Vocational Education. For the use of this commission it is
proposed that a fund be created by the issue of bonds, from which
loans could be made to certain designated agencies for the clearance
of congested areas and the increase of housing facilities.
The Federal legislation is to be supplemented according to Mrs. Wood's
plan by state legislation, including:
1. A restrictive housing law, a constructive housing law, and a Town
Planning Act. This plan contemplates a state commission on housing and
town planning through which the Federal aid for the state would be
made available; to which should be intrusted the responsibility of
investigating and approving or disapproving housing schemes proposed
by local agencies and associations.
2. A state fund similar to the Federal fund is proposed, and definite
suggestions for its use are worked out. For the local authorities,
local housing and town-planning boards, probably with the county as
the basis of organization, are proposed.
This housing fund, composed of the Federal fund, the state fund, and
in some cases local funds, is to be used to make loans to
municipalities, housing organizations that are not organized for
profit, limited dividend companies, co-operative associations, or even
employers. The plan contemplates that the lowest paid wage earners,
among whom are numbered a large per cent of the foreign born, should
continue to rent; but the landlord should not be a private individual
seeking to make profit from providing the workers with shelter.
The plan also takes note of the plan for co-partnership ownership
adopted by the United States Housing Corporation. The main features of
this arrangement are:
1. Ownership vested in a local board of trustees bound to operate the
property in the interest of the tenants and until the property is
fully amortized in the interest of the government.
2. Formation of a tenants' association to which all residents of three
months are eligible on payment of small yearly dues. This association
to elect a tenants' council to act as directors of the association, to
confer with the board of trustees, and to carry out such duties as
trustees direct.
3. Any tenant may become a co-partner by applying for bonds to the
amount of 25 per cent of the value of his dwelling, and accompanying
his application with a cash subscription of one half per cent of this.
4. Tenant co-partners are given a voice in the management by the right
to elect trustees, the number increasing with the amount of
subscriptions to bonds.