hearthstone, which raises man to his true estate.

(Signed) Calvin Coolidge




THE HOME AS AN INVESTMENT

By HERBERT HOOVER


One can always safely judge of the character of a nation by its homes.
For it is mainly through the hope of enjoying the ownership of a home
that the latent energy of any citizenry is called forth. This universal
yearning for better homes and the larger security, independence and
freedom that they imply, was the aspiration that carried our pioneers
westward. Since the preemption acts passed early in the last century,
the United States, in its land laws, has recognized and put a premium
upon this great incentive. It has stimulated the building of rural
homes through the wide distribution of land under the Homestead Acts
and by the distribution of credit through the Farm Loan Banks. Indeed,
this desire for home ownership has, without question, stimulated more
people to purposeful saving than any other factor. Saving, in the
abstract, is, of course, a perfunctory process as compared with
purposeful saving for a home, the possession of which may change the
very physical, mental, and moral fibre of one's own children.

Now, in the main because of the diversion of our economic strength from
permanent construction to manufacturing of consumable commodities