The Topeka state journal., 1920-04-05
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director.
Washington, d. c.
THE RENT REBELLION.

|
ing whispered in loud stage whisper
in Gotham. Hints of this coming
| cata strophe are almost 2S numerous
as the tenants recently eyicted from
! their homes, and the atmosphere in all
! of the residential districts appears to
! be charged with desperate motives.
| Gradually, the tenants who have
suffered from rent-profiteering dur
\ ing the past year are organizing in
their various boroughs and preparing
for action They have not yet decided
| just what the action is to- be, but all
are agreed that they must take 1t.
| Tenants mass meetings are being held
ron an average Of every other night;
tenants petitions and protests are keep
| ing the printers busy. and the temper
| of these meetings and protests may be
| gathered from the following excerpt
| from an ex-soldier tenants speech
which was delivered from a soap-box
i platform the other evening:
I'VE went to war to protect our
homes, Ladies and Gentlemen, and
now that We have returned We find
them wrested from US by an enemy
more insidious, more villainous than
! the Hun. I need not say who that
enemy is-'
Here loud applause from the audi
ence signified that he need not, but
the speaker could not resist the temp
tation to say it anyway. You all
know who it is he continued. You
have all suffered from his hideous at
tacks. That enemy, Ladies and
Gentlemen, is the rent profiteer.'
| A few nights later, a circular was
distributed from the platform of
ragged tenants to join the Tenants
Rights League of Greater New York,
which is seeking to bring together
into one organization one million ten
ants to resist to the utmost, thru con-
certed action, further profiteering in
I = ~
Full page advertisements in the
daily papers and placards in the street
cars, subway trains and elevated
trains will make these leeching home
breakers run up the white flag and
call for mercy" pursued the circular
dramatically. This is your battle.
Do not look for substitute to do
your fighting. Get on the firing line
with your victimized brother and go
| into action at occe.''
| So far as is known. the only firing
( line the tenants have in mind at pres
ent is situated in the midst of the
state legislature at Albany, but oc-
caSionAlly there is a threat or staging
! a more violent one should this battle
! Legislature on the question of rent
| profiteering has been one to challenge
the admiration Of all students OF poll
tics. 1t has professed repeatedly in
the form of innumerable bills a stern
desire to punish greedy landlords. Ac-
cording to one Albany authority, it
has introduced as many as eighty
one such disciplinary measures during
the present session. Again we have
| heard it was eighteen, but whether
! eighteen or eighty, the fact remains,
as the said authority points out, that
| there is nothing easier than to intro
| duce a bill in any legislative body,
provided you are a member. The
difficulty lies in getting it passed.
For a while this sympathetic but
| impotent course satisfied the tenants.
but recently, as the evictions and dis
| possess notices increased, it was sug
gested to- the legislature that little
action would not be displeaSing. Thus
urged and prodded by their constitu-
| ents, the members of the state assem-
bly, at last reluctantly narrowed their
attention to nine of the most prom
ising bills and announced that they
were about ready to put a few of them
thru.
arrive in Albany, but this time from
outraged landlords, who asserted that
| the passage of any bills curtailing
their activities would simply spoil
| everything. They pleaded with the
! legislature to use a little common
sense. Common sense, they said, was
not to interfere with the free course of
, rents, but to pass a law exempting
mortgages from taxes, so that people
would build more houses. When you
| restrict the price of rents, they told
| their state congressman, you are
merely creating a palliative and are
making no effort to strike at the roots
of the problem. The thing TO do is to
| build build, build!
This rather >bewildered the legis-
lature, and many of its members were
inclined to believe that the landlords
were right, especially since they began
! to hear disquieting reports of the
| tenants soviet and residential Boil
shevism in New York. Thus, all
might have gone well with rent-prof-
| iteering had not the landlords sent a
large delegation to combat an even
I larger delegation Of tenants to Albany.
| This delegation, made the mistake of
| being impolite to the legislators. They
said that if laws were passed restrict
| ing the profits from rents they would
go to court and have them declared
unconstitutional, and they finally
| frankly told the assembly that they
had the inalienable right to profiteer
| if they wanted to.
Now, to profiteer is one thing and to
admit it quite shamelessly is another
which the. landlords soon found out.
| AS one scandalized editor commented,
/ mo one could fail to be amazed at
| their indiscretion. That agents and
| owners should put on all the price that
the trade will fairly bear is, to be ex-
should shake the big stick at the same
ftime and shout percentages which no
one else can consider fair or reason
able is, to say the least, a psychological
blunder- 1t inevitably works to their
/ own disadvantage. Blatant talk just
| furnishes the apology, the excuse,
which demagogues, Tor dreamers, or
both, need to put over repressive legis-
| lation, regardless of economic truth"
Whatever it may have furnished to
the demagogues and dreamers, 1t at
least furnished the tenants with
! splendid argument. After the land
lords got thru. in fact. the tenants
really didn't have to say much at all
They had come prepared to convince
1 the Legislature, by tremendous &C
cumulation of evidence and argument,