The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-04-19
Rent Parties and 'Numbers"
For the Profit Of the Landlords
Not So Lucky"

Not So Lucky"
His fellow tenants have not been
as lucky. The landlord raised the
rent of one of them to $110. By
taking the case to court the tenant
succeeded in bringing it down to
$500. The clever landlord--since it
is unfair" to have unequal rents
paid for the same apartments-de-
cided to equalize the rents and make
it $95 turnout the building. This
meant that some of the tenants who
were paying $40 and rs were sud-
denly forced upward on the social
SCALE"
How kind-hearted, this landlord.
Constant robbery, forcing the work
ers not only to work for the land
lord but also to get by any means
possible more money with which to
keep the landlord satisfied.
Rent Parties.
MANY mornings when | get up at
III 5 in the morning to start my
husband off to work." said Mrs. x.
81 hear a bunch of noise and holler-
ing next door. That's the rent party
which continues on thru the night"
The rent party is a common insti-
tuition. 1t is a way of satisfying
the landlord. Everyone is invited.
You pay 25 cents at the door and
inside you can buy drink, dance and
love. Everyone comes. One or two
rent parties a month can sometimes
satisfy the landlords stomach.
"a raise, you say? That means
another rent party"
These same landlords will APP
peared shocked in public at what
they call the moral crimes" They
will call upon the respectable citi-
zens" to save the honor of the COM
munity.
Numbers"
EOR the same reasons quite a num-
Der Of workers in Harlem play
numbers" Police will occasionally
make raids on number parties" and
"house rent parties" but no one
has ever known them to have raided
the homes of landlords and real
estate offices for "profiteering
parties"
The landlords net is l.. complete,
of course, without the wage-cuts and
unemployment brought about by his
brother capitalists.
So what is longshoreman going
to do, when after leaving his house
at 5 a. m. every day, he can only
find three or four days work week?
Or his daughter?
For Landlords Benefit.
Workers living in Harlem are
forced to grasp at any passing sup
port in order to keep their heads
above water. If the rent is not pro-
dlced out goes the tenant. No mat
ter where he goes he will face the
same situation. So for the benefit
of the landlord he holds his trent
parties"
In no other part of this city does
this system work as viciously as in
Harlem. 1t is an outgrowth of
segregation which reserves a whole
section of the workingclass for
special exploitation.
Not only is the landlord fed his
luxury and ease by the sweat of
workers, by their diseases in the
tenements, but also by the selling
of their bodies. All to the glory Of
the landlords!
The real criminals in Harlem do
not live in Harlem. They live on
some such place as Riverside Drive
and have their offices in Wall Street.
Tomorrow the Daily Worker in
vestigator will take you along to
court in Harlem to hear few dis
possess cases. That will be the
concluding article on conditions in
Negro Harlem. Monday we will
introduce you to Latin-American
Harlem.
Workingclass tenants, of all Sec
tions of the city and from other
cities, send in your letters to the
Daily Worker.