The evening world., 1918-05-21

rents.
Yet, though rents go up, standards of service go down.
Tenants complain that, notwithstanding a 10 or 20 per cent
advance in their rent is expressly explained as necessary to cover the
expenses of making our tenants comfortable" there is scarcely a.
detail of apartment house service which landlords have not permitted
TO drop below formerly recognized levels of adequacy.
The rent may be five dollars a month higher, but the elevator
runs less regularly, the hot water is more than ever Intermittent, light
in the halls is ofcncr forgotten and look Of the premises appears to-
be considered of less and less Importance.
Old tenants arc informed they must pay more next year, but the
landlord will make no promises as to painting, rcpapering or repairs.
In fact in many cases he even seeks to evade responsibility for
supplying heat and hot water next winter by inserting a special clause
in the lease.
The experiences Of last winter, so far from suggesting foresight
and preparedness, seem to have left in many landlords only a sneak
ing determination to shift definitely to the tenant all consequences
of cold or coal famine hereafter.
This is not true of all New York landlords.
There we're some who furnished heat to their tenants straight
through last winters cold spell.
These will be found ordering their next seasons coal supply
during Coal Week, which the Federal Fuel Administration has now
Get for the six days from June 3 to 8.
The other kind of landlord will get his coal, as he gets his other
supplies, on the usual hand-to-mOuth plan-while at the same time he
cNacs higher rents from his tenants on the plea that he must "kecp
them comfortable!
Also We shall hear not a few New York landlords claiming that
their cellars are not big enough to hold even the smallest reserves
of coal.
In the case OF hundreds OF apartment houses this is probably
true.
Nothing better illustrates the kind of realty development which.
by sacrificing everything else to rental space, hasty building and
quick returns, is responsible for much of the injustice and dscom-
fort of which New York rent payers have to complain.
The fact is, the speculative side of apartment house building
and renting in this city has had more attention than the service
side.
The former has been studied and stimulated in the interest Of
property owners and even more in the interest Of the realty middle
man, who is one of the sharpcst and bodc:t of all spectators.
The service side concerns only the tenant. If the tenant is
numerous cnough-as he generally 81 in New York-to keep the pres
sure of demand for housing fairly constant, landlords and spectators
in apartment house real estate do not worry as to whether he is get
ting all the service he pays for, nor do they sit up nights to devise
means Of making such service at once more economical and more
efficient.
If the service they give begins TO cost them more they cut it
down. AT the same time, they raise the tenants rent and ask him To
believe they do Sc in order that he may be better cared for.
In any other kind of business this getting the customer both
ways-chargins him a higher price for a thing of lesscned value
wouldn't work long,
But there is Away. a demand for apartments, nobody knows the
ms and outs Of any one apartment house until he has lived in it, and,
once settled, the cost and inconvenience Of moving tend to make the
tenant submissive and to favor the landlord against the normal effects
Of competition.
Some apartment house landlords in New York regard service
some adjunct.
When it comes to raising rents, ALL should be compelled to
reckon such service solely on the basis of value rendered.