26 Hattie Plum Williams 
TasLte [V. PRopRIETORSHIP oF Homes 
| Residence in America Residence in America 
| More than 5 Years | Less than 5 Years 
| Number Per Cent, Number | Per Cent. 
| 
$$ | r= | 
Motaliheads;ofmamiliesh ane eee 696 100.00 | 359 100.00 
Homes owned: | 
BTS SU NGI Ete Garena aliens a Sua, aie 422 | 60.8 31 8.7 
Miontgagsedin ase na sens 4 apeenrtrs 96 Tay 40 Telpal 
Flomesmentedar acinar entire | 178 25.5 288 $0.2 
Three fourths of those who have been in America five years 
or longer own their homes either free or mortgaged; while one 
fifth of those who have lived in the country less than that period 
are home owners. A mortgaged home is more often a sign of 
advancing social position than it is of careless financiering; and 
it is in these homes where sometimes overwork and neglect of 
the family are most evident, on account of the strenuous efforts 
made to pay off the debt occasioned by the move into a better 
neighborhood.”° Some of the families living in rented homes are 
young married people who prefer living alone to sharing the 
parental roof. In these cases, the head of the family worked 
until his marriage for his father; and, as is customary, turned 
all his earnings over to the parents, so that when he came to 
set up his own home he had nothing to start on. A few of the 
native-born heads of families and some of those who have lived 
in America a generation show no tendency toward home owner- 
ship. 
In so far as the single family dwelling is indicative of good 
housing conditions, the Russian German settlements are most 
commendable. There are factors, however, which, though tem- 
porary in themselves, are constantly present; and which offer a 
real problem to a semi-rural community which ought to be en- 
tirely free from a tenement population. Overcrowding in the 
settlements and unsanitary conditions are the chief of these 
20 A larger percentage of families own their homes free and a smaller 
number, mortgaged, in the north settlement where the dwellings are 
smaller and the people less ambitious socially than on the south side. The 
proportions are as follows: North settlement—homes free, 69 per cent.; 
mortgaged, 10 per cent. South settlement—homes free, 56 per cent.; 
mortgaged, 14 per cent. 
Teg 
