210 City Homes on Country Lanes 



can only be supplied where the element of personal 

 interest is displaced in favor of the element of disin- 

 terested and consecrated public service. 



The first test of the new system will come on the 

 side of financing. Will capital invest under such con- 

 ditions? Capital craves security, and the best possible 

 assurance of reasonable profit. When these two ele- 

 ments are present, the real capitalists the mass of 

 thrifty, forehanded people neither ask nor expect ex- 

 orbitant gains. 



To the extent that the Government commands the 

 confidence of the investing public, capital will undoubt- 

 edly respond to the invitation to invest, on the basis 

 of a disinterested and scientific report, to be followed 

 by a disinterested and scientific administration. The 

 homebuilding public itself is able to finance its opera- 

 tions in large part. It possesses one singular ad- 

 vantage, as compared with any other public ; that is 

 what might be called "the citizenship asset," or the 

 increment in value instantly added to land by the pres- 

 ence of permanent population, and the improvements 

 that necessarily accompany it. This consideration en- 

 hances the security, both in amount and in character, 

 and should powerfully assist the financing of such 

 homebuilding projects. 



The Liberty-Bond campaign demonstrated the tre- 

 mendous potentiality of the public as investors. Next 

 to the need of sustaining the country in the midst of 

 war, perhaps nothing would appeal so powerfully to 

 this great potential capitalist as a constructive policy 

 that aims to cover America with independent homes. 



