Arizona republican., 1920-01-20
Bv Frederic j. Haskin

NEW YORK, Jan. 19.-When you struggle with the rent profiteer be- comes too eXasperating, become rent profiteer yourself.
 This is the clever alternative which hundreds of New Workers are now adopting in order to procure for them selves the home comforts and luxurieS to which they have been accustomed, but which are now beyond the means of moderate incomes. In other words. groups of harried home seekers in all sections of the city are pooling their
 savings and building ors buying their
 own apartment houses. living in the
 choicest suites and renting the others at a good profit.
 It is a most profitable investment.
 In building your own apartment house
 you can have anything you want You
 can have the most attractive kind of
 windows, fireplaces. large rooms, the
 most up-to- date baths, the most artiS-
 tic lighting fixtures. an electric re-
 frigerating plant, dumb but expert
 walters, and even balconies and stairs.
 If you want to have pleasant after
 noon some time just get some blue
 prints and go over all the marvellous
 things that are available for apart ment houses. And the incest thing about it is that you can get all these conveniences at a comparatively low cost by making your tenants pay Tor them.
 Of course, you must have some cap ital to put into the enterprise yourself, but it does not necessarily have to be much. You can borrow the money with which to do most of the building, and also make your tenants pay for that.
 Not long ago, for example, some ten ants in a large, well-located apartment house held an indignation meeting to protest against the nefarious ways of the management. For one thing, the management was stingy with its coal, and for another it provided the most cratic and naughty sort of an elevator service. The elevator moved only after ten. o'clock in the morning and before ten o'clock at night; moreover, it moved only for the tenants in person guests of the tenants were compelled to use the stairs.
 "I simply cannot stand it any longer" declared the wife of a suc- cessful advertising man, who believed she had heart trouble and was there fore outraged at having to walk the three flights of stairs to her apart ment four nights in succession.
 But what can we do?" demanded lady osteopath, who was losing patients on account of the independence of the elevator.
 I'd like to be manager of this place for just about thirty minutes" said the wife of the advertising manager, darkly. That elevator boy"
 Well, why don't you take over the interrupted her hus- band. You have nothing else to do
 Why don't we all take over the suggested plump and looking broker, who was known to have influential connections in Wall Street.
 The tenants had never thought of it bpfnra i,1lf he great inspiration. Each had a small sum of capital to invest. and the broker assured them that the rest of the money could be raised in Wall Street There's nothing phoney about a proposition of this kind he said.
 ltn be easy. Which subsequently proved to be the case.
 Two months later the members Of this indignation meeting had become the landlords of the premises: were living in all the apartments with best exposures, and were renting the other five suites at an increased rate of rent. They had to pay rent too but only enough to cover the interest on the mortgage. Adding to this the seven per cent interest they would have re- eeived from investing their capital elsewhere, they were still getting their homes at a lower cost than if they had been paying private landlords The ->t'Si'SNS VI operating tue DuliUlnS were met entirely by the rents of the new tenants. who were unlucky enough 70 be left out of the corporation
 This is only one of many recent in stances which show that the moder- | itely well-off and the wealthy do not 1 snjoy being victims of profiteering any | nore than do the poor. Those who | i've in eleven-rooms and five baths | iuites do not care to pay exorbitant | 'rices for them any more than do | hose who live in two and three room | ,athless tenements. The only differ 'nce is that they do not have to do it. They have discovered this thrifty means of circumventing it.
 The latest scheme for d cooperative apartment house. which is II the form of blueprints. is not some model dwelling for working people, but regal palace. with all the elaborate ppointments of royalty. It is to be ixteen story structure. erected on one f the most valuable sites in the city, with a large restaurant on the ground loor, which is to be conducted by fish service to all the individual partments in the building. For the antilles who prefer home cooking there vill be all of the latest labor saving evices to help perform the work when he servant problem refuses to be by the marag ement. For is announced that the mana cement 5 to provide the chief cooks and bottle sashers of each menage. although the lueprints show that the dishwashins II