The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-09-17

huIilotI ANY,
One of the most vital problems
which the Negro masses face is the
problem of housing. How very vi
tai, in fact, how actually menacing
this problem now is will be realized
when it is known that the record of
the death rate in cities shows that
Negro children are dying from two
to eight times faster than the chill
dren of other races. This fright
full mortality, this slaughter of the
innocents, is due directly to the ter
rible housing conditions imposed
upon the Negro masses under the
present oppressive capitalist system
which is based upon rent, interest
and profit.
Rent profiteering, overcrowding,
unsanitary and beastly conditions
are at their worst in the segregated
districts where Negroes are COM
PEELED to live. Unable to move out
of these miserable ghettos, the Ne
gro masses are forced to pay the
most exhorbitant and outrageous
rents for houses in every state of
dilapidation and lack of sanitation.
They are the prey of the greedy
landlords and grasping capitalists
who literally suck the life-blood out
of them.
Negroes Jim Crowed.
Exploited at the point of produc-
ton where they are paid the lowest
wages for the most taxing and men
ial labor, Negro workers are set
upon at the point of consumption by
rent hogs and landlord sharks who
take advantage of their segregated
condition to gouge and bleed them
to death. Terrible indeed is the
plight of these workers caught in
the meshes of this vicious and lethal
system of profit-making and rent
gouging. Impoverishment, degrade
ton, disease, and death-this is the
terrible toll which Negro workers
are forced to pay under this vicious
system which yields ill-gotten gain
and blood money to few capitalist
parasites.
Negro Landlords Just as Oppressive
1t is fact worthy of special note
and full of great significance that
Negro landlords and real estate
agents are ready participants in
and active supporters of this vicious
system which pauperizes, degrades,
and brushes the masses of the Ne
gro race. 1t is an undeniable and
weighty fact that Negro landlords
and agents are no more considerate
of the purse, safety, health, and
lives of Negro tenants than any
other landlords.
Indeed, it is to be observed that
Negro real estate agents have been
very active class in increasing
rent. They are exceedingly active
and skillful in the business of per-
suading landlords to put in Negro
tenants at doubled rentals. What
does it matter to them what these
tenants do, or how they live in order
to pay these oppressive rents =? What
does it matter to these Negro
agents and landlords whether black
babies live or die? Only one thing
matters with them as with all land
lords and capitalists of whatever
race, and that is profit.
Profit For Landlords-Slums For
Workers.
The higher the rent, the greater
the commission, the larger the gain.
And again, the less coal burned, the
fewer repairs made, the greater
the profit. So rents are raised,
steam heat and hot water are hard
ly to be obtained, and repairs and
sanitation are neglected by black as
we'll as by white landlords and
agents. With results for the masses
of these workers that are terrible
to contemplate. Destitution, degen-
ieration, disease, and death, these