A Revival of Home Building Would Bring lmmediate Unemployment Relief

Bv Flovd A. Dernier

Dernier's Service Bureau, Los Angeles, Cal.

Last November President Hoover told members of the National Conference on Home Building and Home Ownership that there was something radically wrong with our finan'cial set-up when practically every other commodity could be pur'chased and paid for in small monthly pay.ments while a home, the most worth-while possession of them all, ,could only be undertaken by the few.

Every thinking person will ,concede that President Floover is right and will also agree that some sort of home building financing plan should be undertaken at once.

Right norv su'ch a plan could be placed into immediate operation by either the Reconstruction Finance Corporation or the proposed Home Loan Discount Bank System with positive assurance that by making it possible for families to build or a,cquire inexpensive, individual homes, the results of such a movement would bring imrnediate relief to every line of business.

It would represent the surest, quickest and most practical way to restore confidence, create employment and start a buying movement.

A plan of finan,cing home building would reach out into every district, town, city and state in the union and every dollar the government loaned to its people for the purpose of 'providing modern sanitary homes would be returned with interest. To this would be added taxes that such improvements would'create, plus the income taxes the government would,collect from the building material lines.

After all, why should not the Federal Government which was created by and for the people, use its credit facilities to enable responsible citizens to build homes on easy terms, protect their home invQstments by making needed repairs and assure presenti owriers againSt foreclosures.

A modern five-room home can be built todal' for $2.000.00 or less and with home owners putting up 20 per cent and a llome Bank Flnancing Institution 80 per cent, ea,ch million dollars m,pde available would start 60O families on the road to home owndrship and independence.

The $1600.0O advanced at 6 per cent with both principal and interest divided into monthly payments over a term of twenty years would represent only $12.50 per month.

It would seem that unlimited money could be made available for this work which in turn would do more than all other creative interests to start business moving forwa.rd.

Money used to build homes and make improvements finds its way back into greater variety of business channels than does any other investment.

A few days ago Mr. H. I. Harriman, Chairman of the Boston Elevated Railway and newly elected President of the United States Chamber of Commer,ce, told members of the San Francisco Aloah Club that he looked upon the work of providing ideal homes for the people of the United States as one that will give more employment to workingmen of the country than did the opening of the West or the building of our industrial system or even motorizing of the nation.

When men like Mr. Harriman, who have no connection with the merchandising of building materials, points the way out of this depression, surely the heads of our government canrlot for long ignore the one plan that can and will do more than all other activities to put men back to work.

A recent survey made by President Hoover's residential committee shows that there is a potential need right now for three million new single family dwellings and that over twelve million of our present homes should be remodeled and modernized. Here then is a field representing non-selfish motives ready for exploitation, one that will receive the united endorsement of all business interests because active building operations do represent the greatest stimulus we have for creating confidence, furnishing employment and opening up safe investments for dormant capital.

There is not, never has been and possibly never will be, a surplus of moderate pri.ced individual homes and renters everywhere have awakened to the real value of Home Orvnership as never before. Object lessons of the past have proven conclusively that while it may be cheaper by the month to rent than to own, eventually through systematic saving they can be proud possessors of their own homes, while those who continue to rent have nothing but re,ceipts, timely pleasures and questionable securities to show for their investments.

Today with lots, lands and building materials available at the lowest possible prices is the time to encourage building of new homes and remodeling of old ones. No more produ,ctive efforts could be employed to stimulate general business activity. No other field of endeavor offers the same opportunities for creating employment.

Surely no other plan is more woith while than that of transforming renters into contented, independent home owners, and the activity a home building movement will create would start all lines of business going forward producing confidence and a buying movement that would automatically make for general prosperity.