Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-19
GROWING PAINS TROUBLE
THE NEW PHILADELPHIA
Housing Problem Partly Traeeable to
Tremendous Transformation Of City
of Homes Into Genuine
Metropolis
"CITY OF HoMELEssNEss" is a

delphia. Citizens who are native here
and to the local manner born have sew
eral forceful reasons for resenting It,
Authenticated evidence of rent goug
ing fires the indignation. The feeling
of helplessness under any system OF
profteering is certain to be one fused
with just anger. This is the first emo
tional reaction aroused by the present
acute housing crisis.
But as inquiry into the situation pro-
ceeds, the sentiments inspired thereby
grow more complex, "No vacancies" is
sign confronting even the house hunter
who may be resigned to being over
charged by his landlord 1t begins to
look as though the profteer himself were
becoming embarrassed. He has not
enough properties to rent even at eX-
| orbitant rates.
Indications that sinister pressure is
| being brought to bear to induce home
seekers to purchase dwellings, at a time
| of inflated prices are not wanting. Yet
| proof Cf such maneuvering is far from
| explaining in full the magnitude of the
crisis.
In many sections of the city real es-
TO shortage of houses on the selling
list. The conclusion is nescapable.
Granted that the profiteer is engaged
in harvesting, granted that so-called
business methods are often cold
booded and cynical, granted that an alb
normal war has dragged ! ost of
oppressive abnormalities in its train,
the fact still remains that Philadel-
phia is too big for its house. Formerly
it fitted that edifice snugly, cozily, in
way to beget sentimental affections and
a sentimental pseudonym. This was the
"City of Homes" If there was one be-
lief which the average Philadelphia
cherished, that was it. 1t comforted
him when the rate of our progress was
tardy. 1t consoled him when great en-
terprises in other cities forged ahead.
kipling's M'Andrew loved the rhyth
mic and thoroughly conservative regu-
larity of the engines of his jog-trot
steamer. That immortal engineer would
have been profoundly disturbed had his
steady vessel suddenly reeled off eighteen
knots an hour. He saw "predestination
in the stride of yon connecting rod"
"Predestination," fatalism of the most
soothing, of the least arousing, kind
was in the Philadelphians consciousness,
also. He admitted that this was "hard
place in which to get things done" He
confessed, almost with pride. to the fine
symmetry of big business and big polti-
cal interests here, and if he had quams
that initiative was thus stiled there was
ready and healing balsam in the utter
ance, "This is city of homes" All
logic shriveled before that conviction,
Just as it did in the old tourist days on
the Atlantic when, according to the stock
fable, the passenger complained, Stew
ard, these biscuits are sour "Ies,
Madam rejoined the obsequious, yet
unruffled servitor, "but then, you know,
we never lost life"
Is it any wonder, then, that Philadel-
pha, the once calm, the once seasoned,
the once eminenty self-satisfied, in
word, the quondam "City of Homes is,
apart from the genuine hardships of the
present scene, trife daZed? Something
is actually happening.
A process OF metamolphoSiS is under
way The old excuse is atrophied. in
seething congeries of the homeless
vast new potentialities are terminating.
Mighty new energies are let loose. Many
of them We're. harnessed for the war,
but amid the surge of patriotism we
were counting chiefly on their effect upon
Berlin, rather than upon Philadelphia.
Workshops of hitherto inconceivable
magnitude multiplied. Thousands of new
workmen, hundreds of dynamic new
entrepreneurs, invaded our precincts.
Germany is not noted for her humor,
but that nation would have found food
for laughter, albeit of bitter sort, on
being informed that a large measure of
her defeat was being contributed by
static old "City of Homes" She knew
better. She was falling before the power
house of the war.
1t is preposterOus to imagine that the
influence of all these mighty engines
subsidized with the declaration of the
armistice. Furthermore, not all the de-
velopment was the result of the war.
Much of it was inevitable. Day-by-day
changes are subtle. Regarded in terms
of decades they become strikingly patent.
Philadelphia, in truth, differs far more
widely from the city of 1909 than did the
community of that date from the one
of 1890.
A new mental adjustment is in order.
Any outsider could accommodate him
self to the alteration with ease. To the
Philadelphian, with his preconceived no.
tions and tradionally conservative out
look, the process comes much harder He
is most apt to be alarmed at the difficult
ties and inconvenience of the transfer
nation. They are formidable, it is true.
1t is unpleasant to tussle with profteer-
ing. 1t is intensely disagreeable to be
compelled to face awkward living cond-
tions, distressing to consider Philadel-
phia as being tumutuous, froward, tenn
porarily uncomfortable as place of
residence. But with any vision which
ranges beyond the instant, it ought to