Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-26
REAL ESTATE GAMBLERS
ARE STILL FOOT-LOOSE
" the Mayors Conferences Fail
Governor Sproul Should Sum.
mon the Legislature

mon the Legislature
CONFERENCES and conversations
~ in the Mayors Office or elsewhere
will not bring relief to people who are
being shamelessly victimized and ex-
plotted by the new crop of amateur
Walingfords in the real estate business.
The meeting of financiers called yes
terday by Mr.. Moore ended, apparently,
without agreement on any plan that
might bring builders, bankers, tenants
and the building trades unions simul
tancously into 60 operative action with
a definite and far sighted program. IL
an agreement of this sort is not possible,
and if a building revival wide enough
to reduce the kited valuation of residcn-
tial properties cannot be assured. Gov
ernor Spyoul should call a special ses-
sion of the Legislature and demand the
passage of law patterned after that
which leaders in the Legislature of NAw
York have approved to limit rent in
Creases during the present year.
Spring will bring infinite hardship to
countless rent payers. II will inspire
in multitudes the sort of bitterness and
resentment that hared ominously at Il
mass. meeting in the Assembly chamber
at Albany.
The Legislature of New York acted
within its rights when it proposed to
exercise the war powers of the state to
put n check upon n group of furiously
avaricious men who, as headlong and
-, - ha,
actually become menace to public
peace. To say that we are dealing with
war conditions is not to view the situa-
tion illogically. The shortage of houses
is due directly to- the war. The abuses
committed in real estate markets by
those who have no legitimate or per-
manent association with the business of
real estate development, are n part of
the transient mania of opportunism
that is n world affection like war itself.
We are for the moment in the violent
backwash of a world upheaval. To sup,
pose that the need for checks and
restraints in the interest of peace and
order ended when the last gun was fired
is to cherish a perilous delusion. The
domestic scene in America is more con-
fused now than it was when we were
in the field. Interests that were dis
located are seeking new adjustments.
They will find them. But there will be
repeated conflicts of purpose in the pro
cess and it is essential that a sense of
patriotism and vigilant public spirit
continue to be felt as forces operating
for justice and nationality throughout
all the period of readjutment.
Private citizens cannot properly take
a different view of the housing emer-
gency than that which an intimate
knowledge of the matter forced upon
Mayor Moore. Mr.. Tustin and other
members of the city administration.
The speculative fever is at its height.
The gamblers in residence properties
need to make their killing now if they
are to make it at all. If they do not
complete the job within six months or
year they will have to seek wealth by
the old fashioned and. to them, in
finitely distasteful method of honest
work
Even a gradual revival of SUBURBAN
and city building would not seriously
interfere with the peculiar enterprise
of these interests. But the announce
ment of an extensive and CO. ordinated
building plan supported by the munici
pal authorities. plenty of capital and,
if necessary. the leaders of the building
trade organizations who might be de-
pended on to go whole heartedly into
the scheme. would have an immediate
effect. II would cause the sudden de-
tlatiOu Of the fantastic artificial valua-
tious created about real estate in vari-
Gus parts Of the city by the crazy proc
css of kiting and re-kiting that has
gone on dizzily since last autumn.
In this way it would be possible to
answer the spectators who say blandly
that a house nowadays is worth what
ever you can get for it in rent or in
selling price.
4 house isn't worth whatever you
can get for it. 1t is like any other es-
sental commodity. Iu the hands of a
legitimate trader it is worth fair profit
over the cost of construction. 1t is
possible to imagine a condition under
which man would give half he owned
for q loaf Of bread If there was any
one about mean enough to profit by the
misfortuncS of shipwrerk or the perils
Of wilderness. But that doesn't mean
that bread should be sold at u million
dollars a loaf.
4 single class Of spectators have
proved clcvNr"r and more resourceful
than the agencie, established by gov
prnment in tho interests of order and
justice. With them some one will have
to DIAL. And it will not do to say
merely. as Mr., Earle said Yesterday,
Tint the housing shortnge is a world.