Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-03-16
SAYS HOUSING IS
1 THE MOST VITAL
Hearing Given on Bills in Leg
islature Tending to Remedy
the Situation in State.
BIZ sraciaI Cor~espondent.

INLAN iOIN, AldTCn lO.-IhG DlR-
gest question before the present legis-
lature is that of the housing and rent
protteering situation, the House
committee on Taxation was told yes
terday afternoon by Il number of
speakers who came here to urge fav-
orable action by the committee on
House bills Nos. 1919 and 200, intro
duced by Assemblyman Hansen. of
hudson county, and backed in par
ticular by City Commissioner Cannon
of Jersey City.
Bill No. 200 is the most vital. It
would require landlords to give ten
ants a reasonable time to find new
dwelling quarters when they raise
the rent and the tenant cannot meet
II. Now the tenant has only a
months notice and in the present
scarcity of houses it is many times
impossible to find e quarters in
the thirty days of grace. The bill
further would make it impossible to
dispossess tenants during the months
between October and March, when
the weather is severe and a moving
would impose hardships, and when in
many cases profiteering landlords
take advantage of the tenant who
has put in his winter coal and does
not care TO move.
The other bill. House No. 1919,
would stimulate building new homes
~ NV NAAlVS u lAIc Stalc Wy cAtIlpl-
Ing from taxation until 1925 all
structures erected primarily for
housing purposes which are built
two years within the time of the
passage of this act. This act would
not become effective in any munich
pality until first approved by a vote
of the people.
Among those who appeared in be-
half of the measures, particularly No.
200, were Mayor Charles f. Gillen of
Newark. Commissioner Gannon Of
Jersey city, George l.. Record of
Jersey City, Mayor Terrence of
>Kearny, DR.. William ]. Hanrahan of
of Newark, John +. Gregory Of the
same body in West New York, Mrs.
Robert W.. Dolson, Newark; Mrs.
Augusta /Durfee, Newark; Robert
Wallace, for the Jersey City Chamber
of Commerce, and Health Officer
Craster, of Newark.
cannon urged the passage of the
bills as a Humanitarian matter" He
declared the people cannot go out
and find new quarters. He urged the
measure to stimulate the building of
homes and said If the legislature
passes it that body would do more
than any other in the United States
toward solving the housing problem.
Mr.. Record discussed the consti-
nationality of the bill to exempt the
homes built within the next two years
from taxation. He said if the Fielder
bank book tax act could be held con-
s~titutional by h supreme court. he
saw no reason why this measure
should not be declared valid. You
will double the state population in ten
years by this exemption" he declared,
because the people of New York and
Philadelphia will flock to New Jer-
sey to benefit by 1t. The people are
at the mercy of gopging landlords n
what are o men as statesmen going
to do to relieve them. Baltimore has
adopted this plan. n 1t is not any
more the single tax idea than was
that idea to exempt churches or was
the movement in Jersey City to ac-
quire its own water supply an adj
vance toward socialism.
THE question Is, can we take this
immediate step with safety for New
Jersey. I cannot see why we cannot
try It as an experiment. You
ing with 1t in Jersey City. Pittsburgh
Northwest Canada and Baltimore
have adopted it and why cannot we
try it. / think the supreme court will
uphold YOU hand il you try to rem
edy the present situation by this
measure
Assemblyman Tozer, OF Bergen,
iio man vi AN S&pi oS
the opinion that the bill would be
unconstitutional. However. he said
he would not go SO far as to say that
the people of Jersey City ought not to
have the right to say whether they
faNor it.
people are going without sufficient
food to pay the profiteering land
lords" declared Mayor Gillen, of
Newark. 1.-The situation is SC bad
that the legislature must awake to 1t,
as there is nothing as serious as this
housing problem before it. The pro-
iteering crooks are taking the roofs
from over the heads of families and
in some cases while the heads We're
away in France. This legislation is
more important than the bridge and
tunnel bills or anything else. Specula-
tors are coming int this state and
robbing us. This situation is pro-
ducing more unrest Bolshevism
than anything else"
John Il. Gregory, Of West New
York, who has been rent investigator
there, presented a number of names
petitioning the legislature to give re-
lief. Robert Wallace, of Jersey City's
| Chamber OF Commerce, said if the
house exemption bill is passed 1t
would enable a number of new in-
dustries to come to Jersey City.
The women who spoke old of per-
sonal experience in rent controversies
with protiteering landlords. One said
| that a fiat which rented for S18 Il
| month three years age now costs $40
a month.