Evening star., 1925-01-09

Association regret that IL should be
considered necessary by any one to
bring forth for congressional action
the question OF the private con-
tractual relation of landlord and
tenant at this time. when there is
every evidence at hand that the acute
emergency which existed during the
war and imm ediately thereafter has
passed, and that the normal process
OF natural economic law Is working,
slowly perhaps, but surely, to COR
rect the unsatisfactory conditions
that heretofore prevailed.
I'VE view with disfavor and appre-
hension the introduction into congress
sional action of the principle that the
private relations between citizens are
clothed with public interest, when 1t
is apparent that no emergency affect
ing the life and welfare of the people
or the destiny of the commonw ealth
exists. If that principle is to be in
yoked in one instance. IL can and will
be invoked In another. and those who
profit today through such paternal-
istic interest in their welfare may be
tomorrow the suffering victims of the
mistaken idea that the fundamental
natural economic law can be changed,
altered or amended.
I'VE believe the enactment of the
proposed law will defeat the very
end It's proponents seek. If it be
admitted that more dwelling places
are needed in order to bring into
play that competition among land
lords which tends to reduce rents,
those who have heretofore financed
or advanced the necessary funds for
building enterprises will not use
their money for that purpose if the
product thus created is to be taken
out of their hands and administered
by public commission. The result
will be naturally the cessation of a
building development movement. and
there will be no demand for labor
and building material that under
normal conditions of progress find a
market through such activities.
Disastrous Expedient Seen.
Thus one result of the proposed
law will be a tendency to perpetuate
the very condition which II is desired
to overcome. Another result will be
the substitution of the doubtful and
always disastrous expedient of direct
action in an effort to solve an eco
nomic problem, the answer to which
lies in the operation of natural law
rather than statutory law
IF the practical economic result
ouONc Scl IOTlH, which is sure to 1Ol-
low the enactment of such a law, be
ignored, we respectfully suggest that
Congress consider very carefully
whether the potential benefits implied
In the proposed law do not sink into
insignihcance when compared with
the seeming violation of the larger,
vital principle of the sanctity of pri-
vate relations between individuals,
and whether the adoption by the Fed
(TOVernment q nrin N
voked to justify the proposed law
will not, IL permitted to spread
through the country unchecked,
strike at the foundation of that lib
erty and independence which Ameri-
can citizens regard so highly.
We note with pleasure a sugges-
ton that the Ills complained of may
be cured by cooperation between
banking interests and real estate in
terests. This is a principle and a
rule of conduct which has always
been followed by the bankers of
Washington and conservative. long
established real estate houses. 1t
naturally follows that the bankers
and the real estate men of Washing
ton will cooperate in the future as
they have in the past. Those evils
from which we have suffered In the
past and which have become the sub
jcct- of complaint were imported from
other places end have not been ap-
proved by either the representative
bankers or the representative real
estate men of this city. Those evils,
which happily ended a year or so
ago, brought their own penalty. and
even as to them there is now no oc-
oasion for the legislation herein re-
ferred to-"