Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-01-09
RENTS FORCED UP
ON TAX AS EXCUSE
0wbv Should We Pay?" Ask
Brokers, and the "Suck-
ers" Pay
eysTEM CALLED ROBBERY
councils Finance Chief De-
clares New Rate Does Not
Warrant Increase

PEA, estate brokers are taking advantage
.Lo tsx rate increase to raise rents out
~ ali prorortion to meet the additohal TAX
~, nranerties will have to bear.
e. aid Joseph z. Gaffnoy, chairman OF
sr.,ncIls' Finance Committee, when told to-
-, ,bot rents on poor or moderately we'll
Ia tenants were being boosted anywhere
rom fifty cents to 49,
0tf thew we're justified. in raising the
,.rts al ALL and don't think they are ne
ia n,ventv-fve cents would be the maxi
80, which they could decently add
An eloquent complaint came to the
,,,.rs,Yn LEDGER II was attached to a
sirc,,Iar senVout to tenants by a real estate
srn, and referred to n passage in the circu-
isr which announced fifty-cent increase in
sar, ON account Of the new tax rate. Tho
somplaint was anonymous and said:
THE SUCKERS" PAY
nxotice the result Of the increase in taxes.
rbe noor little sucker pays the piper every
,re The landlord don't care ; he gets more
,noney out Of it," The note was signed "One
Of the Suckers.
The suckers" protest was borne out
Vben a reporter called on the downtown real
Estate firm in question.
Tbev were inclined to he disagreeablc.
"Why shouldn't we raise the rent?" was
asked. 'tf the people wanted to elect the
kind of Councilmeu that raise the tax rate,
iet them nay for It. why should we pay?
ANYHOW, everybody else is doing It. Other
things are going up. Why not interview
,be food merchants? why come to us? No,
Afty cents is not too much of an increase.
We've boosted some tenants 81. We don't
want TO be bothered, anyhow Talk TO the
politicans We're not politicians were
business men. See the Kaiser"
II was explained to these real estate men
that the reporter didn't call for informa-
ton. but out of consideration for them TO
give them an opportunity to answer com
plalnt Of one Of their tenants.
\ well we have nothing to say. The tax
rate has been raised and we aren't going to
pay IL. Let the people pay
The complaint from the "hfty-cent sec
ton" came from one of the tenants in the
group of houses in the neighborhood OF
Eleventh and Thirteenth streets. Skunk
street and oregon avenue. The tenants of
these houses have been paying SIG month
now they pay Sl6.5O.
Many OF the tenants were interviewed
and they all replied in kind:
what can we say, or do? We must pay
Il or get out Other places are probably
the same
Councilman Gaffney said there was abso-
htely no excuse for this sort of thing he
said the real estate men who did it were
simply making the tax increase an excuse
for getting more money out of their ten
ants,
CALLS 1T ROBBERY
Before the tax increase was passed" he
said. they were getting as much money out
Of the properties as the properties were
worth If they were at all justified in in
ereasing the rents the limit of increase
would be twenty-five cents, More than
that Is sheer robbery l don't even think
they are entitled to the twenty-five cents
though. They should have allowed for the
Increased tax rate out of their own profit
even then it would have remained large
enough"
Or. F. B. Grove. Councilman from the
Forty-siXth Ward, said he had many COM
plants from constituents on account of the
Increase in rents, They ranged he said.
anywhere from 81 TO 50 in West Philadel-
pha, and were blamed on the increased tax
rate
But any one can see" said DR.. Grove.
that such increases are out of all prOpor-
ton to the increase in the tax rate. The
real estate men have just seized on that as
an excuse to add to their income"
Counclmcn i'm Manayunk. Germantown
and the northeast said no complaints had
come to them as yet, One of the German
: town CoUnciimen said that people out his
way weren't 'as easy" as the West and
10 NN L H