Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-04-04
THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 1918
The Question Of High Rents.

II is only natural the Central Labor
abnormal rent rates that have come 10
pass in this city II represents men who
work for n living in various Industries.
and these workers form a majority OF
renters. There is far less proportion of
house owners among them than among
those who are wealthy, or at least wcll-to-
do Meanwhile. rents are advancing con-
tinually the high level applying TO apart
Incnts as we'll rs 10 dwellings.
I'm accordance with its natural concern.
the Central Labor. nj its meeting Tuesday
evening prepared formal presentation
of the subject and ordered il 10 be sent 10
.Ihc City Council and to the Levy Court OF
New Castle county In this presentation,
while admitting the bearing that high
rates Of taxation have upon the fixing Of
rents for the tenant invariably must pay
the taxes in his rent the Central Labor
mon expressed its belief that rents arc
away out OF proportion. and sad It
would bc able 10 present many cases where
"cxorbitant rents are charged working
mcnt tenants simply because Of the ab-
normal demand for houses and the desire
of the landlords 10 profit because Of the
demand. at the expense of the working
man
Here. we believe, the Central Labor
Union has pointed out the real cause OF the
situation an abnormal demand for houses
and apartments, far beyond the supply
The plain laws of trade, which cannot he
overridden In all cases even by the enact
ment of rest rictive laws, apply 10 the
housing situation in Wilmington. And
one of these laws is that OF supply and de-
mand Given liberal supply, so that the
demand Ii lcssencd, and lower prices will
prevail But with limited supply and an
insistent demand, high prices, even ex-
orbitant prices. are sure to follow
In this instance. the landlords arc TAX
ing advantage Of a situation which en-
ables them to charge all the traffic will
bear and it docs not seem they can bc
restricted in any manner except 10y an
<arncst effort to relieve the situation by
building moro houses. enough TO supply
every demand. as soon as possible. Al
though their course may he irritating,
thcv are not like the "marketecrs Of our
ST rect markets. who insisted upon charg-
ing exorbitant prices III the face OF large
supplies large enough TO easily meet oil
,icmands-and never showed the slightest
disposition to come down until q healthy
public sentiment. possibly coupled with
some Of the food measures adopted for
war purposes. induced them TO reluctantly
sell al lower hgnres
But the housing situation and rent
charges form a serious evil which demands
attention. In days gone by, when rents
were reasonable and wages much lower
han al present, there was a saying that a
workingman should not pay more than
week S wages for months rent And as
rule. this proportion prevailed here. and
probably elsewhere But few worklngmen
TODAY. no matter how high their daily or
weekly wage are able TO rent house or an
apartment at the cost OF week wages.
Therefore, they are being mulcted to, an
excessive extent IN the matter Of rent
charges.
What to do is really perplexing prob
lem. The ren.edy of building more
houses, Of itself, would be a practical
solution But new building operations are
largely restrained by the high prices now
charged for all kinds of building ma
tcrials and the high wages of labor
Therefore, the probability OF entering
upon new building operations with an
assurance OF reasonable profit is very re-
mote, even at the prevailing high level Of
rents.
Another feature of the situation is the
virtual obsession Of many persons engaged
in business for making big profits, through
exorbitant charges, and of many working
men for demanding the highest wages.
The subsistence OF this obsession, and a
return TO a considerable extent to normal
conditions, would no doubt soon bring
about a gratifying change