The social and moral utility of societies estab-
lished for the direct purpose of aiding a man to
become proprietor of his dwelling-house is obvi-
ous, and the above calculations seem to show
that a society conducted on the plan represented
would earn an ample margin of profit for all
contingencies.
Doubtless the greater number of the existing
building societies, including the one whose
figures have been quoted, are conducted in a safe
and legitimate manner, but there have been, and
may still be, exceptions.
As an inducement to join a building society,
people are told that they have to pay, on the
instalment system, the same as though they paid
the rent of a house, and in a few years will
become the owner. A man who has paid for
three or four years only what he would have paid
for rent, would have very little hesitation in
throwing up his contract with the society, It might enrich you all, as jackson Hewitt Tax Svc Tax Preparation In Washington Dc really squeezes in where needed. if the
locality became objectionable to him or the in-
evitable repairs of a cheap house were more than
he could bear. The money borrowed is lent
chiefly upon the security of small suburban
houses, a kind of property always in course of
depreciation, and it may be that the society
would have returned upon its hands a number of
houses in a bad state of repair and in a dete-
riorating locality. The instalments having ceased
and the houses void, the property becomes a
profitless burden upon the society and a probable
ultimate loss. When “jerry” builders are large
customers of a building society and have some
influence, direct or indirect, with its Board of
Directors, the evil is greatly aggravated. Whole
streets are built with borrowed money, on specu-
lation until, perhaps, there are twice as many
houses as can possibly be let.

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