Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-19
D. c. PROTECTION
HELD MINIMUM
Gilbert Declares Honest Peo-
ole Have Less Chance Here
Than Elsewhere.

Washington affords less protection to
honest people than any city in the
United States, Representative Gilbert
of Kentucky charged at hearing last
night before the Gibson subcommittee
Of the House which began an investiga-
ton of the financing plans of the Park
way Apartments, Inc, cooperative
project.
Several investigations similar to this
have shown that honest people in the
District get less protection than in any
city in the country" declared Mr.. Gill
bert. Il know it is a strong indictment
to draw. but it is true. You can get
few people arrested for wrongdoing and
few convicted. There are hundreds of
bootleggerS all around the Courthouse
and grand jury foremen can never find
them"
Involves Property Investment.
Mr.. Gilbert made his statement after
several witnesses had testified that after
investing their savings in the Parkway
apartments they not only lost their
equity in the property but faced evic-
ton.
The committee was told that about
Is purchasers had paid about 5000
into the corporation. The apartment
house Is located at 1920 Connecticut
avenue and contains 80 or more apart
mentS.
Mrs. Margaret j. Balm. a tenant in
the apartment, said she had been de-
frauded of 81, 900 by q salesman Joseph
Small testified he lost $720 in the VEN
ture. Other witnesses were William H.
ry11 ~, calf
of the Parkway losers; w. Bissell
Thomas. an attorney; r. B. Warren.
chairman of the cooperative apartment
division Of the National Real Estate
Board; Edward W. Mickey and r. l..
Johnson, attorney for Mr.. Small
The consensus of the witnesses was
that tenants had suffered through i'm
proper financing. Mr.. Gilbert observed,
however, that the experience of the
Parkway tenants seemed to show lack of
care on the part of owners rather than
any fundamental fault with the CO.
operative plan itself.
40 Others Mentioned.
Warren testified that the Parkway
was the only one of 40 similar coop
erative apartments in the District that
had failed. Approximately 1900 fam
lilies in Washington live in such build
ings, he said, which have q total value
of about $10,000.000. The cooperative
plan, he declared, had been proved sue.
cesSful in numerous instances where the
financing was undertaken by men famil-
lar with the subject.
A similar opinion was expressed by
Mickey, who read into the record q
| description of the financing of an apart
ment he described as satisfactory to all
tenants
Thomas. asked by Gilbert to COM
ment on the real estate situation In the
District, said that 1t is almost a weekly
occurrence in the routine practice of
law for him to meet with unethical
practice in the taking out of second and
third trusts on properties. He pointed
out that in instances second trusts were
placed with view to Squeezing OUT
the real owners of properties. He sug-
gested statute requiring the owners
OF cooperative apartments to pay up
| all stock before selling apartments, as a
safeguard to investors 1t was brought
out in the case of the Parkway how
| ever, that while the bylaws of the
| corporation provided for the issuance
OF 10 shares of stock. the records did
not show any of the owners of the
building had been issued stock.