Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-03-18
The Rights of a Tenant
BY BRIGGS

Editorial from The Evening Bull
letin, Philadelphia, Saturday, March
IS, 1871
A bill which has been introduced
at Harrisburg concerning landlords
and tenants and to afford relief to
tenants where excessive rents are
charged" offers the vehicle by
sessed or boosted" tenant, which
has been continuing disturbance
in Philadelphia for the past six
months and is just now becoming
aggravated, may be reached for in
restigation and discussion.
Reduced from it's legal verbiage of
the statute, the measure provides, in
substance, that where a landlord
shall seek to oust a tenant or by
similar process shall attempt to ad-
vance the rent from the price agreed
upon at the time hiring, and the
tenant shall allege that the new
demand is eXorbtant, the latter
shall have the right to appeal to the
Court of Common Pleas in the
county, and that his petition set
ting up the claim that the rental
asked is unfair or unreasonable shall
act as a stay on the writ of dis
possession. Within thirty days the
court shall grant a hearing and if
in its judgment the claim is we'll
founded, an issue shall be ordered
TO be tried before jury, who may
determine what shall be a. fair rental
for the property.
Hundreds of families in Philadel-
phia who lay no claim to familiarity
or even understanding of all the
intricacies of the law of property
and, therefore, will not attempt to
argue the legal points involved, will
feel that the nrnnnGal In
with what is to their mind justice
and equity, and because it appears
to reach and remedy what in their
recent experience has cut deeply as
an act of injustice, its spirit and
purpose deserve TO be recognized
even if in its present form it may
be open to objection.
The complaints of the tenant
householders in the city, which have
been recurrent since u sudden influx
of war-workers and their families
created an acute condition in the
housing supply of the city last year,
are not wisely to be ignored or
lightly treated. The actual shortage
in the housing supply which existed
for time no longer exists on equal
degree. New construction under
Federal patronage has afforded
some relief, and still more has been
uIoluSt NY tut SCdtlGIluS Ol I1c
temporary population. But in spite
of these changed circumstances
which should have their effect in
the operation of the law of supply
and demand, rentals are even more
difficult to obtain in the city than
they were six months ago, and the
tenant, with no place to go. is at
the mercy of his landlord, who
may require him to pay an arbitrary
advance in rent, or may ask him to
buy at an arbitrary price with no
alternative of rental. The terms in
either case may be grossly unjust,
If the landlord be so minded but
the tenant who must maintain a
roof over his head and those of his
family has no redress or recourse.
Such a situation is by no means
imaginary, but is an accurate state
ment of the situation in which many
tenants have found themselves and
to which they have been compelled
to accommodate their budgets, al
ready hard-pressed by general liv-
ing prices.
Resultant murmurings and dis
content are not surprising, and if it
be true that the law of the Com
monWealth, as it stands to-day, pro-
Vides no recourse and relief for
them, 1t ought to be recognized as
the part of good and wise law-mak-
ing to search out the facts of the
situation in detail and to devise an
adequate statute of relief. Specula-
ton, to the extent of manipulating
corners and forcing artificial levels
of prices in the food markets and
the necessities of life, is generally
condemned, although law has not
been found adequate to prevent 1T,
but none of these abuses is more
serious in it's effect Jon the COM
munity than the application of such
tactics in the market of homes.