Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-02-19
RENT regulation
IN D. c. THEME.
Mrs. C.. S. Taylor Upholds Ac.
ton Before Monday Even
ing Club.

Rent regulation in the District was
discussed by Mrs. Clara Sears Taylor,
member of the Rent Commission, and
Hugh Roland before the Monday
Evening Club, at a meeting held last
else question considered was: Is
Rent Regulation Justified in the Alb
sence of War Emergency"
Mrs Taylor said it was, and Mr..
Roland said 1T was not, and there the
matter was allowed to rest by the
club. which did not vote to decide the
winner as between the affirmative
and the negative.
Declaring that there is no doubt
that the District Rent Commission
should be continued, Mrs. Taylor said
1t took a great war to bring to the
attention Of the world at large that
housing Is a real public necessity.
House Rated ms Necessity.
You may go without food. you
may go without shoes, but you may
not go without a house over your
head. Mrs. Taylor said. New York
and Washington had the greatest
need for legislative help. she con-
tinued and explained the two types
of legislation in force in these cities.
Mrs. Taylor said the National Capt.
tai is primarily a city of government
work ers, whose average salary Is
$500 year. with the average salary
of the woman workers placed AT
SLIPS. She explained how increase
in rents means taking in boarders
and how this pushes children into the
streets.
$50 we raise the rents. and NIL the
prisons and the hospitals, the speak
er declared. Where we raise the rent
we create cake-eaters and the op)ec-
tionabIe type of fiappers."
Extortion in rent-raistns is just as
great a crime, Mrs. Taylor asserted,
as holding up a man on dark street,
and 1t was this that made 1t neces-
sary to give the people police pro
lection in the form OF the Kent COM
mission. she said.
Charging that there are great
many empty apartments in Washing
ton now, Mrs. Taylor said that thou
sands will suffer here unless rellef is
found in legislation continuing the
Rent Commission. She said such re-
lief is necessary for the public health
and morals.
Mr. Roland Replies.
Mr.. Roland declared that Mrs. Tay-
lor's sympathy has warped her
judgment" He said the rent com
missioner would not admit that
people Of small earning capacity have
been confronted with the problem Of
adjusting themselves to a change In
the cost of living and the cost of
high living"
There is a class Of tenants, he
continued, who feel that the land
lord should accept what they can
afford to pay. He asserted that the
continued regulation of rents here, as
proposed in the bills pending before
Congress. Is not desirable in itself.
The problem, Mr.. Roland said, is
one arising from the increase in the
cost of living. Rent legislation, he
said. is like giving morphine to a
patient who now ought to be taken
Oft the morphine and given a liberal
treatment Of the law OF supply and
demand"
Condemns Pending Bills.
The bills proposing to extend the
rent law, he continued, are drawn
the theory that every property hold
er is q robbey and every tenant Is a
VICTIM" he said. The tendency is to
create a tenants commission" the
speaker declared.
THE people are not going to sur
render the right to control their
own property until they have to-" Mr..
Roland concluded.
Mrs. Nina c. Van Wrinkle, president
of the club. introduced Arthur D.
Call, who presided during the dis
cussion. The annual banquet Of the
Monday Evening Club is scheduled
for March II.