Evening star., 1918-02-23
Notwithstanding Extortioners.

profiteering.
Notwithstanding Extortioners.
The johnson bill thus checks vastly
more than the extortion complained of;
lit slurs, confuses, embarrasses and in
jures the whole property renting COM
munify, including the just and the un-
just, the few guilty and the many in
Inocent.
Instead of furnishing the actual ex-
tortioners the whole property owning
and property renting community is pun
ished: BY suspicion and hostile inqui-
sition into their business affairs ex-
tending back to April /. 1915: by pun
ishment as extortioners for a greater
degree of difference than 10 per cent
between their rental charges of 1917-1S
and those of 1856. The rented prop
erty may not be of the kind in respect
to which today's extortion is practiced.
may be stores or garages or naked
land The increase in 1917-1S over
1915-16 may be due to the fact that in
the latter period the rentals were un-
duly low. The real estate men claim
that this is the fact: or the increase
may be due to the fact that the tenant
of ,191I-1S is more enterprising than the
tenant of 19l5-16, sees his way to put
the property to new and profitable
use and can afford. to pay and is eager
to pay well 4or the opportunity to han
die the property as his own; or all the
pressure for the lease may have come
from the lessee, in which case the
lessor can hardly be said to have ex-
torted from him.
Before drastic punishment for extor-
tion is inflicted, the accomplished pur-
pose to eXtort- must in justice be es-
tablished. The great mass of alleged
| aSy tort ft<v, I'll LII
will drastically punish are not convict
ed of the slightest eXtortion or intent
to eXtort.
The Johnson bill voids on grounds of
public policy as eXtortionate great
mass of leasing contracts going back
to January, 1917, which represent the
coming together of the minds of les
sor and lessee, in which each party sees
a benefit to himself and which neither
has the slightest desire to void. No
lease ought to be voided as eXtorton-
ate unless the lessee feels that he is
the victim of eXtortion and makes COM
plant.
The Johnson bill makes so many who
have not eXtorted extortionists that
real profiteers escape special odium. In
stead of proceeding Immediately
against these profiteers the legislation
is to be delayed until Congress can be
persuaded to incorporate in it new
tax for the District, lacking all the ear
marks of a legitimate. wise and just
TAX, ana 10 declare tnat tne cOnStltQ-
tional prohibition against eX post facto
laws does not apply in the District.
Slurring Whole Community.
Instead of segregating and punish
ing the real profiteers. the johnson bill
spreads the suspicion and imputation
of profteering indiscriminately and
unjustly over Washington lessons and
ISLANDERS undeservedly the integrity and
patriotism of a whole community.
According to Charles Lamb, the
Chinese discoverer of roast pig long
thought it necessary to burn down
| the house with the pig in it to enjoy
this palate -delishting delicacy.
| 1t is not necessary to burn down the
District property owners whole house
| in order to roast the room-renting
| and house-renting profiteers who ex-
tort from Uncle Sans men and women.
| Reasoning from effect to purpose the
! Johnson bill might be described as a
| bill to authorize the government to
the District since April l. 1915; to ram
sacs, rn"ulst nrts'ly. all the business
| and affairs of District landlords since
January, 1917. with power to compel
| disclosures under oath; to declare void,
as contrary to public policy, many real
| estate leases of 1917 and 1918. arbi-
trarily without requiring any evidence
| of the taint of actual extortion or at
/ tempt to eXtort: to unsettle. retroact-
| lively, the tax books of the District for
! 1917 by injecting an income tax that
is unequal discriminatory and palpa bly,
unjust; to prevent the punishment of
real extortioners by confusing them
| with a multitude of statutory profiteers
| who are not eXtortioners. and by rem
dering odious guilty and innocent
alike: to recover extorted excess rentals
from those who have not exacted or re-
| ceived such rentals and to pay these
excess rentals. arising in the past, not
to those from whom they have been ex-
| torted, but to the District government;
| to create the crime or misdemeanor of
usury in rentals making transa action
| of 1917. which was lawful and innocent
| in that year, unlawful, retroactively,
now: to violate or suspend the constitu-
tional prohibition against the passage
Of an ex post facto law. camoufiaging
this violation by the pretense of i'm
posing District income tax; and for
= other Ike pUrpoHeA