The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-01-27
THEHASKINLETTER
BE YOUR OWN RENT PROFITEER
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN

NEW YORK, Jan. 27-When your
struggle with the rent profiteer be-
comes too eXasperating become a rent
protiteer 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 homeseekers in all
sections of the city are pooling their
savings and building or buying their
own apartment houses, living in the
choicest suites and renting the others
at good profit.
1t is 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 ar
tistc lighting fixtures, an electric re-
frigerating plant, dumb but expert wait
ers, and even balconies and stairs. If
you want to have a pleasant afternoon
some time just get some blue prints
and go over all the marvellous things
that are available for apartment houses.
And the incest thing about it is that
you can get all these convenences at a
comparatively low cost by making your
tenants pay for them.
OF course you must have some cap
ital to put into the enterprise yourself,
| but 1t 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 some tenants 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
Lett, nd fn
| provided the most erratic and naughty
sort of an elevator service The ele-
vator moved only after 10 o'clock in the
morning and before 10 o'clock at night;
moreover. it moved only for the tenants
| in person-guests of the tenants were
compelled to use the stairs.
| II simply can not stand it any long
| err declared the wife Of a successful
advertising man, who believed she had
heart trouble and was therefore out
ragged at having to walk the three flights
of stairs to her apartment four nights
i in succession.
But what can we do" demanded a
| 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 80 minutes said the
| wife Of the advertising manager darkly
| THAT elevator boy"
We'll, why don't you take over the
| management" interrupted her husband
| you have nothing else to do
why don't we all take over the man.
agement?" suggested a plump and pros
porous looking broker, who was known
to have influential connections in Wal
street,
The tenants had never thought of Il
before, but now they perceived ii to b,
a great inspiration. Each had n small
sum of capital to invest and the broker
assured them that the rest of the money
could be raised in Wall street. There.
nothing phOny about a proposition o
this kind" he said. "lt'll be easy
Which subsequently proved to be tn,
case.
Two months later the members o
this indignation meeting had becom,
the landlords of the premises: were liv
ing In all the paartments with best ex
posture and were renting the other fiVt
suites at an increased rate of rent
They had to pay rent, too, but onl,
enough to cover the interest on tn,
mortgage Adding to this the pc
cent interest they would have received
from investing their capital elsewhere
they were still getting their homes at 1
lower cost than if they had been payirl
private landlords. The expenses of OPP
Grating the building were met entirel,
by the rents of the new tenants, wht
were unlucky enough to be left out .
| the cbTiOIdtlpl'
This is only one of many recent in
stances which show that the moderated,
well off and the wealthy do not EMO,
being victims of profiteering any NOR
than do the poor, Those who live II
l1-room and five-bath suites do no
care to pay eXorbitant prices for then
any more than do those who live II
two and three room bathess tenements
The only difference is that they do no
have to do it. They have discoveret
this thrifty means Of circumventing il
The latest scheme for Co-operativel
owned apartment house, which is still Il
the form of blue prints, is not som
model dwelling for working people. bu
regal palace, with all the elaborat
appointments OF royalty. II is TO be
l6-story structure, erected on one o
the most valuable sites in the city, witt
a large restaurant on the ground floor
which is to be conducted by promi
: nent restaurateur and Is TO furnis
service TO all the individual apartment
IN the building, For the families VIII
nrefcr home cooking there will be all O
the latest labor saving devices TO hel
perform the work when the servAn
problem refuses to he solvcd-even b
The management. For it is announce
, that the management is to provide tn
chief cooks and bottle washers of eGc