The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-25

that the tenants should pay for the light. heat, repairs and up-keep of the buildings. This was not so bad at that time, when the mark was somewhere near par, but it became ruinous as the currency fell. and now when one gets several hundred marks for a cent 1t means the practical con- fiscation of all leased property while these rent laws prevail. From time to time the rate of multiplication for tine rent has been increased, but this does not keep pace with the toboggan slide of the mark. and the gold val ues remain as they were. In the meantime, the tenant is king and the landlord is practically his slave.
 Real Estate in the Cities.
 These conditions obtain throughout every city and village of Germany, but they are especially hard in the cities. Take Berlin. It is one of the most magnificent cities of Europe. and now is as large,as Chicago and Detroit together. It has buildings which compare favorably with any in those cities It has business quar- ters artistically built with fine stores and offices; it has palaces and apart ment houses lining street after s/,eet and running far out into the coun- try and all of its buildings are ,oc- cupied by as good people and as bad people as you will find in any of our great municipal centers. The most of these buildings are returning prac- tfcally no rent whatever to their owners and the tenants occupy them almost rent free. The owners have no more power over their property than the man in the moon. It is true they have the right to sell, but these rent regulations remain with the property and few care to make non- income bearing investments. The re- suit is the buildings are seldom of- fered for sale as long as the owners can keep up their taxes or live with out spending their capital
 How Uncle Sam Lost an Embassy.
 The rent laws have caused an enormous fall in real estate prices Big properties have been going beg ging. short time ago our govern ment was offered the mansion in which our ambassador lives for one fiftieth of what 1t will sell for when Ger many comes back to normal The price was s20,000, and our ambassa- dor tells me it is easily worth a million or more. The building is large enough for the offices of the mbassy and also the home of the ambassador. It is on the Wilhelm platz in the very heart of the busi- ness and official center, within pis- tol shot of the palace of the Presi- dent and not far from Inter den Lin den and the Reichstag. The state de- partment has refused to give me the rent price which our government is now paying, but in normal times it would easily bring every year one half the amount of the price which was asked for the property. As un- derstand the proposition. 1t was sub mitted to Congress and a bill author izing the purchase of the property was practically passed when some minor local matter interfered and it went by default.
 Later the Austrian embassy in Der lin, property equally valuable, and built especially to suit the demands of great diplomatic establishment, could have been bought by us for $25,00o. and it also was lost. These are samples of tRe penny-wise and pound foolish policy sof Congress which is content to have our diplo- mats live and do business in , the shabbiest quarters of some of the most ~ important. European capitals where it might have bought legations and embassies equal to those of other great nations for song. The hous-