New-York tribune., 1919-05-19
Long 2 Awaited
Drive ON Rent
Gouggers e Opens
Reconstruction Committee
Meets To-day to Organize
S5,OOO,OOO Housing Cor
poration to Gain Relief

This is the week which is expected
to see active start made toward a solu
ton of the city's long standing hous-
ing and rent difficulties.
The State Reconstruction Committee
Will start the ball rolling when it
meets this afternoon to organize the
$5,o00,O0o Housing Reconstruction
Corporation which, according to plans
already announced, is relied upon to
relieve the worst of the pressure be-
fore autumn comes.
simultaneously contractors and
builders from all parts of the greater
city will meet with Chairman Nathan
Hirsch, Of the Mayors Committee on
Rent Proiitcering, to offer suggestions
for rcmedyiag the present situation.
Just prior to this, lest the gravity of
existing conditions be subordinated
amid the optimism which the launch
ing Of definite programmes is generat-
ing, delegation of the Tenants Union.
armed with banners and petitions, is
going to storm the City Hall. This
delegation, which is to be made up of
representatives from The Bronx,
Brownsville and Manhattan, with Sam
uel Orr at the head, will demand the
calling of an extra session of the Leg
lsl&Nrc IN the interests of tenants who
have suffered eviction at the hands of
so-called profteering landlords
Special laws to relieve these people
and instructions to municipal court
Judges to exercise leniency toward all
tQn !, e.
appealed for. The cooperation of state
and city departments is also to be
sought in the unions efforts to obtain
land where bungalows and tent colonies
may be started for evicted ones.
Elaborate plans have been drawn up
by the Tenants Union in this conncc-
ton. a colony of 1000 lots, 25 by so
feet each, is being projected at Bar
rcttc Point, in the Hunts Point sec
tlon Of The Bronx. Mr.. Orr yesterday
dispatched letter to Secretary of War
Baker, asking the government to lend
his union 1000 pyramidal army tents
for accommodation of evicted tenants.
Besides call necessities and housing
facilities" this colony expects to offer
opportunities for swimming, fishing
and boating. Excursions to Coney
Island and similar places are also
planned, as we'll as regular automo-
bile service for the residents CON
vcnience
Another tenants organization called
the Vlgilantcs, anonymous as TO mem
bership, but apparently active, yester-
day sent out an announcement that. if
present hardships for rentpayers are
not mitigatcd, it will forthwith take
matters into it's own hands and embark
upon a systematizcd campaign of ere
prisals" against landlords. Tentative
efforts already put forth along this
line, 1T asserts, have proved highly
successful.
Meanwhile experts, not only in New
York, but throughout the East gcner-
ally, were turning their attention to
the practical steps that must be taken.
with the backing of many influential
bodies now actively assured, to make
the building programme a full success.
One of the most important contribu-
TONS herein came to the State Recon
struction Commission from Grosycnor
Atterbury, the architect, whose advice
had been sought by the commission.
NO real solution can be effected Mr..
Atterbury holds, unless standardized
building Is undertaken.
After fifteen years | am moro
strongly convinced than ever" said
Mr. Attcrbury, chat VIC shall make no