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Show OWNING YOUR OWN HOME Ever since the advent of the automobile the humorists in the newspapers and periodicals have been coining jokes about how the people who have homes do not stay in them any more. Arid the great boom in apartment houses in the larger cities has added to the belief that the individual home is becoming passe. Doubtless this condition has been exaggerated, but if it is true that the people as a whole do not care so much about their homes as they used to, there is more reason than ever to encourage the "own your home" movement. Every enterprising city likes to pride itself on the fact that it is a city of home-owners, whether it really does enjoy that distinction or not. And there is a reason for this. As a general thing the home-owner is a pretty good citizen. And he is more apt to stay in his home than the fellow who only rents parking space in an apartment. This is not saying that the apartment is undesirable. It doubtless fills a necessary place in our city life, but the individual home is still the ideal to be strived for. The home-owner is not apt to become a bolshevist. He feels that he has a little property right in his own city and country, and if he is ambitious, as most home-owners are, he wants to increase that property right. He is a taxpayer. He is interested in the improvements im-provements in his home city and is very apt to be a very useful citizen citi-zen in general. Of course the man who rents may be just as good and useful a citizen as the man who owns his home, but this is not gainsaying the fact that the home-owner has it on the renter in more ways than one. A city or town, therefore cannot do itself or its citizenry any greater good than in encouraging in every way it can the "own your own home" movement. It will not do to say that people do not stay in their homes after they have acquired one, because this is not true. The latest inventions of science, including the radio, to say nothing of the electrical conveniences of which every housewife knows the value, have checked the "away frm home" movement, and it is quite possible that there wi!! be a general movement in the other direction, namely back home. Why not do what we can, therefore, through our banks and our civic organizations, to encourage this home ownership idea? Some would-be home-owners are deterred by lack of proper financing, financ-ing, a condition which can usually be remedied. And there are others who are waiting for the cost of building material and labor to come down. But we are not going back to the pre-war standard stand-ard of prices very soon, and building costs are more apt to go up than to come down. Therefore, the time to begin to own your own home is now. And the enterprising city and town will see that this idea is encouraged in every legitimate way.. |