Evening star., 1925-01-10
REALTY MEN DENY
ADMITTING CURBON
RENTALS IS NEEDED
Feel Rebuffed and Misunder-
stood by Reported Atti-
tude of President.
SAY CONTINUED CONTROL i,
WILL BALK OWN EFFORTS
Statement Asserts There Is No
Emergency Justifying Regu-
lation by Law.

Declaring il "inconceivable" that
their letter to the White House could
be misconstrued as to infer that they
were in favor OF or in support Of
rental legislation, local realtors and
property owners today formally de-
MED that their letter to the President
was an eleventh hour Admission" Of
| the need of rent control here.
At an executive committee meeting
| this morning Of the officers of the
| Washington Real Estate Board and
| the Association of Building Owners
| and Managers. 1t was declared that
| their efforts to show the President
| their intention of taking care of any
! improper practices in real estate
! deals here had not been properly con-
! strued. The committee expressed it
| self feeling rebuffed in the report
/ ed attitude of the President a whose
! suggestion they took steps TO rem
| edy any improper practices which
/ might be found to exist. The COM
| mittee, in it's discussions today, point
| ed out that with rental legislation in
| effect and control of local housing by
| the present Rent Commission. control
! of the local situation has been taken
! out of their hands.
! 1t was pointed out in the meeting
/ Iildl II Dy the passage Ol IIe piOpOcF'+
| bill their inability TO cope with the sit
uation was continued, their intention :"
/ prevent any untoward conditions TIA.
might arise would be prevented.
Sees Law Necessary.
The statements from the commit
| tee today followed the announcement
/ from the White House yesterday thai
| the President regarded the determi-
nation of real estate men and bankers
/ to stamp out any unfair practices in
real estate transactions as an admis
/ sion on their part that such transac-
tions existed. and made it plain. IN
his mind, that rent legislation was
! necessary.
The formal statement drawn up
/ today reads as follows:
The joint letter which the Wash
| ington Real Estate Board and the
! Washington Association of Building
| Owners and Managers sent to the
White House yesterday has apparent
( ly been completely misconstrued In
| some quarters. 1t was based solely
on an earnest desire of a group Of
influential and representative busi-
ness men of Washington to comply
with the suggestion attributed to the
President, that the realtors and
bankers join together in correctin.
the evils of a few
Sought to Assure Cure.
These men believed that they Were
offering to the President a constructive
! and definite proposition TO assure him
that in the event rental legislation Is
| completely removed, these representa-
! tive business men. backed by their or
ganizat tions. would use every possible
| means within their power to correct
any abuses that may arise in the fu
ture in respect to rental conditions III
| the city.
1T is inconceivable that our letter
can be misconstrued as an inference
that these men who are so unaltsrab'y
opposed to rental legislation would CO.
operate in securing it.
individual business men and their
organizations who are willing to give
this assurance to the President for
the future have been completely hand
icapped in the past by the existence
of the Rent Commission and the re-
striction of rental legislation that has
completely taken out of their hands
the control of the situation"
See Law Not Needed.
Reiterating their firm belief that
rental legislation is not needed in the
District and that the Whaley bill
would inevitably result in the very
opposite effect for which it was in
tended. those gathered at the meeting
! were very nrm IN tneT OppOSlllOn u
further rental legislation.
The whole situation was discussed
exhaustively, and every angle was
taken into consideration, with the
result that those gathered al the con-
! ference felt that the continual in
creasing competition among real
estate men and the continual reduc-
tion in the prices of rental properties
showed, along with many other details
diScuaSai that whatever emergency
there may have been during the war
was now obliterated.
Figures have also been brought to
the attention of the meeting that
Washington stands very low in COM
parison with many other cities in
the question of the raises in rentals.
These opinions were based on Depart
ment of Labor statistics which also
show that in the District of Columbia
( rental raises are by far among the
lowest among the general rise among
the items that go to make up the
| cost of living.
President Coolidge has had his con-
victions a to the need of rent legis-
latfon here confirmed, he told callers
yesterday. He has been following
closely the press reports on the rent
, situation here, and had observed, he
was represented as saying, that the
| bank eCS ana realty men were laklnS
, steps to correct abuses complained of.
The President has not read the let
ter from the local realtors, but to
callers yesterday he said he viewed
; their action as an admission of the
presence of abuses here, which needed
correction by legislation.
But the efforts of the bankers and
realty men in banding together TO
correct abuses and look after the
, ill-treated tenants will not be in vain
according to the presidential view, 3
represented by those who talked to
him yesterday. in which he was re-
ported to have said that he was glad
to see them take these steps, and
looked on them as an offer of their
fullest cooperation in the enforce
ment of the rent law when it passed,
His Position Unchanged.
1t was made quite clear TO those
who talked with him yesterday that
his recommendation for rent legisla-
tion for the District of Columbia has
not changed one bit, it was pointed
out. The President was represented