Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-09-12
TRYING To FRAME
AFFAIR RENTSLAW
Which Shall Punish the
Rentals Profiteer and No
body Else Based on
American Legislative Prin.
cipIes and British Prece-
dents-Fair, Simple and
Direct.
NO TAX CAM0UFLAGE
THEODORE w. MOVES.
Editorial Correspondence of The star.l

The Senate has attached the Pome-
rene fair rents bill to the emergency
agricultural appropriation bill as a
rider. The possibility is suggested
that the House may substitute the
Johnson fair. rents bill for the Senate
proposition. In this event the issue
will be raised between the two houses
in much the same shape that it took
before Chairman Johnson of the House
District committee slanderously at
tackled senator's and the Senate. "A
wise and fair rents-regulating law
may be worked out in conference by
the agriculture committees instead of
the District committees, the latter
being paralyzed into helplessness by
SANDER.
In this situation the following sus-
gestiORs may be submitted In behaif
of Warrington: % The Senate (Pom-
erene) bill proposes n far wiser. fairer
and more effective safeguard against
rentals prohteerlns than the House
(Johnson) bill. The Senate Is, after
due deliberation in committee. thor
ough1y committed to the principle Of
the Pomcrene bill. The House is not
committed to the principle of the
johnson bill. (2) Before the Senate
(Pomerenc) bill is enacted into law
certain changes should be made In 1t.
particularly one which will limit war
rentals regulation by the nation to
the real estate involved In the war
necessities. and thus reduce to a min
- AAN NHpJ inn
of leasing contracts. (3 If anti
pro6teering or fair rents legislation
is to be enacted as part of a national
appropriation bill, nationwide in its
application. the fair rents law itself
should also be national and not mere
Iy local in it's application. Since rent
ais prORteerlnE is not local, but ma
tiOnnI, in scope, and since efficiency
of the governments war work suffers
from, 1t In many places In the United
States, the nation should have the
benefit EVERYWHERE of any renee
dy which may he devised to cure the
evil. Since this kind of legislation
involves for the war time the sacri-
fee I'm the national interest of equf-
ties and constitutional rights by the
indiv iduals affected by the legislation,
the law ought in the interest of the
individual as well as the nation to be
made to apply to all Americana, and
not merely to those who happen to
find themselves in the District of CO.
lumbfa.
House Should Recede.
The House is mot irrevocnbly COM
mItted to the principle of the johnson
bill. The Pomerene bill Is a far wiser.
juster fair rents measure. The House,
not the Senate, should recede.
The chances should favor a yielding
by the House in conference on the
main issue in the interest of wise,
sound and practically effective legis-
lation, if the SANDER issue can be settled
or avoided.
The House was prevented by a
hasty decision upon a technical point
Of order from voting for or against
any other method of preventing rent
prof1teering than that proposed by
the johnson bill: and that method was
fair play that there was vigorous op-
position to it in the House, even on
the final vote, when there was no al
tentative from, doing nothing legis-
latively except to vote for the. john
son bill and trust to the Senate to
correct it.
The Senate, after hearings and due
consideration, deliberately rejected
the johnson bill and the legislative
principle upon which it is based, and
substituted its own legislative remedy
for the profiteering evil, based upon
;eH, to1
upon established American principles
of legislation.
House Not Committed.
Thus the House has not to this day
had opportunity to vote upoi this
issue on it's merits. The Senate has
had and has utilized this opportunity.
Moreover, the Salisbury resolution
a temporary injunction against the
eviction of tenants until Congress can
enact permanent equitable legislation
is in substance an integral part (Sec-
tion 81 Of the Senate fair rents bill, and
its acceptance by the House may rea-
sonably be viewed as forerunner OF
the Houses final assent to the sub
stance Of the Senate bill with any
necessary corrections made in confer.
ence.
Perhaps House May Yield.
The House is anxious to find an ef.
fective and equitable preventive OF
rentals profiteering. and may fairly be
expected. when the issue is squarely
presented to it, TO favor the Senate
proposition as simpler. more direct
more effective and more just than the
novel, complicated, unfair and injury
working Johnson proposition.
1t has been intimated that the SEN
ate legislation is in the interest of the
landlord, and that of the House in the
interest Of the tenant. Analysis Of the
bills. however. shows that the Senate
CONTINUED on Tenth Fage.5