Evening star., 1941-04-20
IHogwiId Rent Rises Bring
Protests From All Over u. S.
$40 and SIS Houses Costing $50 and $50,
Are Thot the Way to Win War? Letter Asks
BY w. b. RAGSDALE,
AEsosiated Fress Stan Writer.

Aaoeiated Fress Stah Writer.
o.. Houses that was renting for
ten and fifteen dollars per month
have gone to Atty and sixty per
month. Are that the way to win
this war2"
a.. Members of our .. staff and
many hundreds of workers have suf-
fered greatly from sudden and un-
justinably high rents in Louisiana
where national defense construction
is going on
e. There have been numbers of
cases in which tenants of rent houses
were forced to move into the streets
with all available housing facilities
already occupied. They had no place
to 60. Houses which formerly rented
for $50 month are now raised to
$50 or $40 month -
e.. Here in Pittsburgh the last
two months, the rents have gone so
high that it is terrible -"
a.. live in Tacoma rents are
being raised at an alarming rate.
An apartment house association here
goes to the apartment owners and
tells them they must do this or that
or be picketed. Rents have gone up
from $40 to $3.50 per month on all
apartments officers wives are
forced to pay $40 for small apart
ments which formerly rented for
$50 :"
Rent Raised, Salary Not Raised.
-. Rent has gone highway rob-
berry: $40 week for a dingy room
and 5000 month for an partment.
Do you think a poor working man
can afford that? The house owners
are making hay while the sun
SHINES
e.. :. Our rent was raised eleven
dollars a month =. Our salary has
not been raised. :"
". This rent business down
here is too much proflteering. .
Houses that rented for $40 are up to
s65 so would not take this up with
local politicians because it would do
no good. ="
The landlords have gone
hogwild. They have raised our rents
anywhere from Is to 200 per cent
and wages haven't gone up to meet
the raise.
THE landlords in this city have
gone crazy. .. He raised their rent
from s2S to s3s.
Letters Pouring In.
That Is the picture presented in
eolorful blobs to the Consumer Di-
vision of the National Defense Ad-
visory Commission. The letters are
pouring in from all quarters of the
country - Maryland, Washington,
Louisiana. Illinois, Indiana, Cali
fornia. Pennsylvania, Tennessee,
many other States. BY the dozens
and scores, they have come in.
Obviously, neither the White
House, to which many of the letters
have come, nor Miss Harriet FL
liott's Consumer Division. to which
they were referred, could sit still
and twiddle their thumbs while let
ters like these poured in.
Miss Elliott's division went to
work. 1t studied the rent figures
turned up by Isador Lubin's Sta
tistical Division of the Labor De-
partment. 1t stuck probing pins into
the problem from this side and that
1t called conferences.
Rent Rises Getting General.
IN q situation that changes every
time a lease expires, the studies
showed that rent rises were general
and, though they hit localities in
which defense projects were located
first, they were now spreading, even
into the biggest cities, like New York
and Chicago.
A few of the things the studies
showed we're: The biggest rent in
creases are on properties that rent
for less than $50 a month. In the
upper-priced rent groups few in
creases. and even some decreases,
have been shown. Indianapolis,
Jacksonville. Norfolk, Birmingham,
Memphis and Mobile have had bet
ter than two per cent boost in
overall rent prices since December
1899. That of Birmingham amount
ed to 4.s per cent, Norfolk to 81 per
cent and Mobile So per cent. In
this connection, however, it might
be noted that for several years
Mobile had been one of the lowest
rent cities In the country. All of
these increases were in rentals under
the $50 range.
Rents Here Go Up Slightly.
IN the District of Columbia. the
studies showed, only slight rent in
creases have occurred in the under
$50 class and the s30-to-$50 class.
while rents in the upper-priced units
above $50-actually have de-
creased slightly since December.
1889. The Labor Department said
the index of rent in the under-s30
class increased fror1 104s to 104.9;
In the $30-to-s50 group, the index
increased from 1913 to 1919 per
cent, while dropping from 99.6 to
es.4 per cent in the over-s50 class.
IN the same under-$30 class. Man