Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-11-23
RENTS---HOVy no PREVENT
So CRY FROM FT.NURESHHNG

- LIZ n HS~~-1A " w - ~ ANAe -
s. CITY FROM FLOURKSHHNG.
We refer to this subject as one in
which our citizens are individually inter
ested, as matter involving their private
pecuniary affairs, and as one Of vital pub
lie Importance as affecting the future and
permanent prosperity and progress of
the city of Nashville The inhabit-
ants OF all large cities are undoubt-
edly interested in the increase of trade,
commerce and manufactures, as means of
opening mp new avenues of every species
of industrial pursuits The conflict of
capital and labor is necessary sequence
to the progress, advancement and expan-
sion of cities, and TO the higher develop
ments Of general civilization. The equal
ization of the two 50 as to prevent an ex-
acting monopoly on the part of the one,
and scarcity superinducing extortionate
demands on the part of the other, is the
highest and healthiest stage of industrial
and social progress the economist
has yet arrived at When this is
reached, diffusion of pursuits ensues,
and a consequent diffusion of means fol-
lows. Where everybody has something
and is doing something, everything pro-
crosses swimmingly. Twenty honest SO
Der, industrious men, in business on a
capital of two thousand dollars each, bent
upon building up abusiness and afortune,
are worth more to city, in progressive
sense, than are twenty men worth each
$50, 900, whose fortunes are already built
up, and who have no further aspiration
than is derived from boarding what they
have A one-dollar bill in the hands of
either of the former will circulate in bust
ness transactions twenty times while a
one-dollar bill in The hands of the Latter
will circulate once. The filling up of a
city with this class of determined small
beginners is the secret of metropolitan
greatness. In these considerations lie the
success of Chicago, the greatness of St.
Louis and Cincinnati, and the present
growing prosperity of Louisville. 1t is
useless 10 invite immigration to countries
where immigrants cannot be housed on liv-
ing terms, and where hundreds to the
manor-bom are without homes or employ
ment sufficiently remunerative to meet the
pecuniary liabilities the very existence OF
themselves and their families daily super
induce This brings us to the all-import
ant subject of the relationship between
landlord and tenant. If there is one thing
more than all others that has kept
back and almost paralyzed the growth Of
some cities, it is the mistaken notion Oh
the part of property holders as to high
rents.
As the year draws to a close, and a
new year is about to be ushered in, when
there will be many changes of families
and tenantsa we refer this subject to thu
earnest consideration of property holders
for whatever affects the city's interest;
affects theirs. 1t is a singular fact, and
one that is scarcely to be reconcilcd tC
the natural order OF things, that while
property put upon the market for sale j,
no higher, and really not so high as be
fore the war, rents of residences have ad
vanced upon an average of thirty to fifty
per cent. Labor, though it may com.
mand higher wages, is not so remunera,
tive now as then. Expenses Of living
have advanced beyond the increase in the
wages for labor. There is no excuse for
these exorbitantly high rents The pei
cent. on the capital invested is enough to
satisfy the greatest mOneyed cormorant in
the land Yet we find premises assessed
at 81, 600 and $4,000, for which the
holders demand rentals of $500 and $500
per year. This, in five years, will pay for
the whole concern at actual assessed yaIu-
alton. Before the war such premises
rented at from $3.50 to $500 per annum,
For houses elegibly located with six Oh
seven rooms, owners demand 81, 200 tC
81, 500 per annum. The same kind OF
houses rented before the war for 5000 tc
$500 per annnm. These property holders
stick to their high rates, when they arc
the losers as well as the city. In some
instances, we have known houses to lie
idle from three TO six months, because
the owners would not come down {
couple of hundred dollars to living term.
for the tenant, and then the same property
would rent for what the tenant first of,
fered.
All this operates against the city L
drives off industrious, capable men OF
limited means, whose entire income woult
be absorbed by rental and other cX
penses. Take a man with an income OF
81, 600 and young family, how can hc
pay 81, 200, s., Zoo, or even $500 fo
rent, and come out at the end of the yea
worth one dollar more than when he en-
tered upon it! Rents in Chicago, St
Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville, aud even il
New York, are lower to-day than here
In the Southern cities the difference is still
greater, while the avenues for profitable
labor are just as great. Hence
the men of limited means vii
seek those cities. Aside from this, thes,
eXOrbitant rents, for which there are NJ
| justifying reasons, viii lessen the number
of hOusekeepers actually already here
Boarding-houscs and boarding will be tn,
result; for, the young beginner in bust
ness, with small family, finding tha
boarding will be the cheapest, he will
resort TO that more economical but les.
agreeable method OF living. But thcst
high rents increase The price of his board
and again comes in the inyidious compari
son that he can make as much anj
live cheaper elsewhere than in Nashville
In excuse of these excessive demands, it
may be avcrred that houses are scarce
But this viii not hold good For on al
sides, all over the city, stuck on doors
of houses are seen the labels, ''For rent. -
For rent why? Go ask the owner OF
the agent, and you viii find that dozens
have been there before you and gone
away, and that the high price demanded
is what keeps these labels sticking there,