The New York herald., 1921-01-02
MANY CHARGES IN
REALTY'G s LEXICON
Rent Laws Havo Forced New
Definitions for Old Accept
ed Expressions.
BY RICHARD O. CHITTICK.


Executive Secretary Real Estate Board
of Ne1o York.
In one important particular the year
1920 was unique. 1t evoked prodig-
ious amount of interest on the part OF
tenants in the ownership Of residence
property. 1t may also safely be said
that never before did this solicitude ex-
press itself SO vigorously or in such a
queer variety of ways as in 1920.
Furthermore 1920 will go down in
history IS a year In which old words
took on new meaning and certain
our established vocabulary were well
coined into the family of current phrase
ology, and now stand. for the moment
at least strongly intrenched.
One may recite in this connection
such words or terms as "profteering
landlord" "rent gouger," "sit tight"
These convey a definite meaning. "Rea-
sonable rent" nearly as popular, but
far less definite not TO say battling as
to its precise significance, is another
Housing crisis" housing shortage and
existing emergency" must not be over
iOOhtd. i1lSiliSSllibs lAtiSloiSt IiiOSt
whose meaning is not open to doubt, let
us turn our attention to those upon
which the schoolmen on the one hand
and on the other the merchandisers In
housing. so to speak. do not agree.
1t is not the purpose OF this article
to go into painful and acrimonious detail
on the subject of the April and Septem-
Der landlord and tenant legislation. popu-
larly and unpopuarly known as the
April and September rent laws, but to
deal. as one might say and very briefly,
with the historic background and the
human facts. This will of necessity in
clude in this general category both land
lord and tenant In passing l am of
the opinion that the word landlord is
an obnoxious relic of feudal times, is
responsible for a lot of class feeling
and should be replaced as soon as pos
sble by a. softer and less suggestive
word. Let us take therefore tho terms
"housing crisis and emergency"
The April rent laws were enacted az
set forth in wordy legislative preamble
on the theory that public emergency
existed The laws startled the COM
munity; in respect of the landlords
they may even be said to have gall
vanized them. They kept the tenants
respects. and had, as the billboards an
nounce concerning other theatrical per-
formances, many novel features.
But the Legislature panicky in the
face of much unfounded clamor and an
approaching election, thought that these
features would be more captivating IL
they showed a more convincing array OF
teeth. So in September they put in
more teeth.
Many impartial folk think that tho
September laws were entirely uhneces-
sary and that if the Municipal Court Jus
tices had administered the April laws
uniformly and according to sensible
rules in the formulating of which the
Real Estate Board took part and which
were approved by the Board OF Munic-
ipal Justices but were not binding on
tho Justices. the ugly situation would
have worked itself out
The September rent laws were erla rted
on the theory that great crisis was m
pending on October / and that 100000
families were about to be turned out into
the cold cheerless streets on that October
day. This was impossible. If for no
other reason than that the April laws
made it so. Seldom has the vaporing OF
uniformed persons done greater harm
Housing Crisis Was n BuGaboo.
Inc JOint Legislative housing come
mittee, perhaps forgetting that In its
report to the Legislature on September
20 it had stated that the April rent laws
worked well and prevented evictions.
could not forego the pleasure, within the
same week, of urging the more drastic
rent laws. And since these laws were
enacted two Justices of the Municipal
Courts have denounced them and one has
publicly stated in effect, that the alleged
October crisis was n bugaboo.
The Real Estate Board fully agrees in
this conclusion. 1t reached the conclusion
before the laws were passed and so adj
yised the Legislature The details of this
phase of rent legislation has recently
been carefully set forth by A. c. Mac
Nulty. counsel for the Real Estate Board
The point of this story is to call atten-
ton to very interesting and practically
unnoticed development of the year 1920
1t has been shown recently by figures
of the Tenement House Department and
the building bureaus that housing pro-
duction in the last ten years, including
1919, about equalled the growth In popu-
lation. The SLACK OF former over
productive years has all been taken up
IL is not denied that the people OF New
York city are, in spots, living closer than
they should. There is some doubling
up" There should be none. Rents arc
higher They will not come down until
more housing is produced.