Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-09-28
Rate by Mail-Payable In Advance.
MARYLAND and Yir1infa.
All Other States.
Rents and Bureau Removals.


the housing problem in Washington
be solved by moving to other cities
certain branches of the government
service goes at the case from the
wrong angle. He admits that prob
ably the capital will never be moved
but he can see no reason why certain
bureaus. such as the Interstate Com.
merce Commission and the Federal
Trade Commission cannot be shlfted,
even as part of the Shipping Board
was transferred to Philadelphia during
the war. The situation in Washing
ton does not call for such remedy.
What is needed here is more houses
and more apartments, and capital IS
necessary to construct them. There
must also I've some assurance OF equity
both for tenants and owners in the
matter Of rents.
Profiteering is charged against house
and apartment owners. Probably
that charge may in many cases be
justified. But it must always be re-
membered that for nearly four years
this city has been congested beyond
its capacity Of accommodation, and
there has been an excess Of demand
for housing facilities over supply.
Tenants are to a large extent re-
sponsible for this condition, bidding
high for housing and in some cases
in the first stage Of the rush securing
control of numbers of apartments and
subletting at high rates.
Congress has made two essays at
rent regulation in the District, the
Salisbury law and the Ball law. The
former was an expedient adopted in a
hurry to prevent wholesale evictions
under the buy or quit" notices that
were being issued by owners and
agents. The second was more care
fully considered attempt to regulate
rents and leases through commits
sion. The District Court Of Appeals
quently the authority of the commits
sion to act is under a cloud of doubt
pending the final adjudication by the
Supreme Court of the United States.
The situation is wholly unsatisfac-
tory to both owners and to renters.
There is. however, no assurance that
a more equitable law can be enacted
that will stand the court test.
Assuredly, the government should
not break up its organization in the
city and send some of its populous
bureaus elsewhere simply because
some of the property owners are seek
ing a higher return in rents than
it deems justifiable. II the high
rents, of which complaint is made in
this city. are due to a shortage Of
facilities it will be necessary for the
government to scatter a large percent
age of its bureau personnel to bring
relief. The result of such dispersal
would be utterly confusing in the pub
lie administration. 1t would, more
over. cost those who were sent away
heavily in effecting removals. In view
of The higher rates of car fare and
freight the shifting of ten, or twenty,
or thirty thousand or more govern.
mant clerks and their families would
entail a most burdensome cost. And
in all likelihood they would find no
relisf from high rents in any other
place. For the condition of which com.
plant is made is not peculiar to Wash.
ington, but prevails in practically
every other city in the country.
The government should not take
from Washington any clerks but those
who are superhuous and no longer
needed anywhere since the war has
ended. 1t should cooperate in pro-
viding houses or rooms for those who
remain, or in encouraging in every
way this provision of additional ac.
commodations by Washingtonians
This housing obligation was recog.
nized by the government in the war
and the first large housing building
constructed by the government was
almost ready for use when the arms
tice was signed.
Washington landlords should, on &C
count Of the peculiar relation of the
capital to Congress, impose upon
themselves a more rigid restraint
against the profiteering temptation
than is exacted in any other Ameri
can city. Nowhere else is it so es
sential that individual interest shall
il necessary, be sacrificed in consid
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