Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-15

luminous speeches. For a glad day or
two imaginative persons saw Mr.. Tus-
tin as n dispenser of happiness and the
anointed advance agent of the civic
millennium.
1t is plain now that hefty job is
looming on the skyline for any one who
assumes to be the official friend and
guardian of the neglected public; that
it is growing bigger every minute and
that Mr.. Tustin will have to roll up
his sleeves and take a fling at it with
such reserves and re endorsements as he
can muster.
An astonishing number OF people are
wearing out their shoe leather and their
patience and their faith walking the
streets in vain search for future
shelter for their families. Most of them
have orders to vacate their present
dwellings.
They are not poor people. They are
folk who work hard and steadily. They
are good citizens and often they rep
resent the most useful element in an
orderly society. If they cannot afford
to buy houses it is not always their
fault. The roofs that shelter them
have been Pickering back and forward
from speculator to spcculator and the
time has come for profit taking. Houses
for rent are almost unknown. even
though one be willing to pay a thump-
ing rate.
Leases are expiring and orders to
vacate are common. Spring is likely
to see great many families evicted
into the streets to seek shelter wher-
ever they may find it. Vacant houses,
held for sale at high prices in West
Philadelphia and elsewhere, will not
serve to lessen the growing sense OF
resentment in these people or to revive
their belief in the good order of accepted
social practices.
There is every evidence of highly
organized effort to profit heavily by the
necessities of families caught at a dis
advantage. If there is any imagination
in the Department of Public Welfare
this state Of affairs will not be ignored.
The business of uplift will have to
wait until the business of downthrow is
attended to.
Otherwise when the spring series OF
forced evictions begins there are likely
to be some startling and picturesque
rcasscrtions of the instinct of self
preservation. and the money now spent
on the Department of Welfare may
have to be hurriedly diverted to the
uses of new Society for the Proven :
ton of Cruelty to Real Estate Specula- :
tors and Deputy Sheriffs.
Those who now suffer the most
anxiety do not invite, desire or need
the aid or attention of philanthropists.
They are not interested in fine drawn
tpchnicalities of law. What they want
Is simple justice-not merely the strict
Justice Of legal definitions, but the sort
of Justice which is commonly defined and
commonly understood as fair play
They have good reasons to feel that
somehow they are being victimized by
circumstances against which they have
no defense.
II is fair to presume that Mr.. Tustin
does not wish to administer his depart
ment for a purely ornamental purpose
and that he has been giving some
thought to a problem which seems to
have been made to order as a test OF
his department's capacities. II time
is coming when respectable and thrifty
families are to find their furniture on
rho navements and If a considerable part
of the population has to seek shelter In
armories and elsewhere, talk OF play
grounds and parks and bathhouses
will sound pretty hollow.
Unless a plan of campaign is being
considered in the Department OF We'll
fare. Mr.. Tustin will surely hnd himself
before long in a position as odd as that
~ tho man who waits for a rainstorm
to roar over his head before he begins
70 walk nine miles to borrow an
umbrella.
II has to be admitted that the present
bousiny condition is extraordinary and
that II will mass. And there is nothing
in the state laws or in municlpal
ordinances to check a furious pursuit OF
dollars by a real estate speCulator. who
has a vacuum where his conscience
ought to be. But this does not mean
that state and municipal officials need
turn hopelessly from the general ques-
tiOn.
Even spectators must recognize in
aroused public opinion power greater
than their own. Speculative activity
has it's uses. but there are bounds be-
vond which it cannot safely go.
al m IA bu "a lnUif q
right to normal profits and to the in
creased returns that come with increas-
ing demand and values. But the arti-
fcial kiting OF property values to the
point Of explosion and the attendant
efforts to force helpless people to pay
this artificial price or walk the streets
are n peryersion of the rules of civilized
commerce.
Mr.. Tustin's department. with the
aid of Mr.. Moore and others, should
be able to check this mania by turning
the light upon it and on every one who
is part of it. II Mr.. Tustin wishes to
do a realistic service to the community,
he will devote himself to that task with
out delay.
The housing commission, of which
Mr.. Ihlder is the secretary, has sur
veyed the field, and has valuable in
formation to contribute in this instance,
The Tenants Association can boast the
knowledge of difficult experience. The
Bureau of Municipal Research doubt
less can do a good deal toward public
enlightenment. So can the Real Estate
Board, which represents the sound and
permanent factors in the business. TIL,
Department Of Welfare might accom-.
nlisb n great deal by co ordinatipg tb,