The labor standard., 1919-09-01
TENANTS UNION
 PLANNED TO CURB
 GREEDY LANDLORDS
Protest Mass Meeting to Be Held Acting Mayor of Hartford Also Takes a Hand to Combat fsBlOOd-SuckerS"

BlOOd-SuckerS
 HARTFORD-Evid patience. has ceased to be a virtue" regarding greedy and blood-sucking landlords in this city, and some of the indignant victims have planned a mass meeting for the purpose of forming a Tenants Union.
 Aroused by repeated increases Tn their rents and threatened eviction, seven determined Hartford tenants have resorted to the temporary organ ization of an anti-rent profiteers' league and issued a call to fellow victims to attend a mass meeting of protest at Parsons Theatre. Tenta- tive plans call for permanent organi- zation of a great union of tenants to combat greedy tenement owners by collectively refusing to tolerate high CT rents and boycotting unreasonable owners.
 The Leaders
 Instigators of the movement are Charles A. Bergman of 288 Windsor avenue, Ebert w. Lowe of 24 Warren street, James Countryman of 12O Can ton street, Floyd Weaver of Belle vue street, Andrew Sterling of 37 Warren street, Edward Hicks of q Loomis street, and Gabe Bailey of 91 Sufield street.
 The initiative was taken by MT. Bergman, who had just received an ultimatum from his landlord to sign a lease at an increase of $5 month or quit the premises, within eleven days. It represented an increase of $10 a month for the same rent inside of nine months notwithstanding the landlords promise that the previous raise would be the last for consider able period, at least. He said the others were indignant over grievances of similar nature.
 Protest Mass Meeting Plans for the mass meeting are. in complete, but an effort will be made to engage Parsons Theatre for some date about the middle of September, the time to be announced later. Speak CTS will be available to present pro- posals for the tenants of the city to band themselves together without de- lay as the only means of relief, but the affair will be entirely informal and open to free discussion.
 Unmerciful Landlords MT. Bergman expressed himself as of the opinion that tenants hold out no hope of relief through the city council, but felt that, in view of the general indignation against tenement profiteering, the movement would be so popular as to attract a great mem bership powerful enough to force landlords to reasonable terms. "At present, we are entirely at the mercy of the landlords" said MT. Bergman, "and, although we have common grievance, we cannot do anything be- 44 .%oI ua I,{- officers could be elected at the meet ing at Parsons Theatre and commit tees immediately selected to formu- late plans for action. Every means will be taken, he said, to expose un- fair tenement owners.
 Acting Mayors Statement
 Asserting that Eve must all put our shoulders to the wheel and do our ut- most" Acting Mayor Charles Del AL ton, Jr., in a statement says that every effort will be made by the city government, through the different mu- nicipal commissions, to combat un- warranted rent increases in Hartford. The acting mayor contends that the situation is as serious, if not more so, than when we were at war.
 His statement follows:-
 "Every effort will be made by the
 
 vestigating committee and the board of aldermen to combat unwarranted rent increases in this city. This situ- ation will be followed energetically, too, by the various commissions and departments watching the welfare of those who live in this city.
 Publicity will be given, as in the case of food profteering, because many cases of rent increases are purely profiteering.
 Serious Situation
 "We are all gradually beginning to realize that we are facing very seri- ous situation in this country, as seri- ous, if not more so, than when we were at war, and the solution depends on each and every citizen realizing that their welfare and the welfare of the country depends on the sacrifice each one is willing to make for the good of the country.
 41These are not days when one can get or have all that one desires, and individual sacrifices must be made. We must produce; we must hold ex- we must cooperate; we must make concessions; we must all put our shoulders to the wheel and do our utmost, and by so doing we will pull down the high cost of living.
 We are on the wrong track by thinking that we can ever get wages to catch up with the high cost of liv- ing. The higher wages go, the high CT everything else goes"