Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-10-23
Senator'S Urged
To Safeguard
D. {. Rent Act
Lusk Tells Group
Its elimination
Will Mean Chaos

The Senate Banking Committee
was urged today to amend tne
House-approved national rent con-
troll bill to make certain that the
District Rent Control Act and the
Office of the Rent Administrator are
not wiped out.
Rufus S. Lusk, chairman OF the
Joint Defense Housing Committee.
who made one of the principal pleas
for the security of the Rent Control
Act, declared if the proposed ma
tional rent control legislation IS
allowed to superseoe it, utter chaos
will result.
The joint committee, which Mr..
Lusk represented, consists OF dele-
gates from the Building Owners and
Managers Association of the District,
the Washington Real Estate Board,
the District Building and Loan
League, the Operative Builders As
ISOLATION and the Washington Tax
payers Association. 1t was organized
in March, 1941, for the expressed
purpose of seeking rent control
law LOT Cne DlSuTlCC.
Present Law "Does job"
Mr.. Lusk pointed out that the Dis
trict rent law, in actual operation
now for 10 months, has done the
job it set out to do" In this period.
he declared, rents have decreased
slightly in Washington, whereas
throughout the rest of the country,
in many instances, they have sky
rocketed.
1--WE are not asking for any special
favor for the District of Columbia"
he said. I'VE pioneered in the
adopting Of a rent act much of
which is written into the regula-
lions of the OPA for the entire
United States. All we ask is that
Congress recognize a fact; merely
that the District of Columbia, in
passing a Rent Control Act, did ex-
actly what the Federal Government
asked the States to do about year
ago. Ours was the first jurisdiction
to have rent control, about six
months before any other part of the
country"
Maurice H. Thatcher, Washing
ton attorney VINO said he rep
resented some commercial concerns,
urged the committee to retain the
present rent control setup, but to
broaden the existing law to give the
commission control over rents
charged for business properties.
Increase Attempt Cited.
He cited case in which occupants
Of one commercial building, in which
publishing concern is located, were
served notice in August that their
rents would be increased 100 per
cent. He pointed out that it would
be difficult for the tenants in this
building to move, because of the
lack of space in other buildings and
the problem involved in shifting
heavy printing presses in this period
of manpoWer shortage
Mr.. Thatcher said the District
law had operated satisfactorily in
solar as it applied to residential
rents and that the people of Wash
lngton are pretty we'll satisfied
with the present setup."
William C. Burt, representing the
GreenWay Citizens Association,
comprising tenants in DEVELOPMENT
OF 300 apartment units in South
east Washington, related to the COM
mittee the experience of the tenants
with administration of the rent
control law.
Greenway Case Brought Up,
He pointed out that Robert F.
Cogswell, rent administrator, had
indicated that the case of the
GreenWay tenants was the largest
and most important handled by his
office.
The GreenWay case was started
last February when certain tenants
petitioned for decreases and, Mr..
Burt said, it is still pending. The
landlord, he declared, countered by
filing petitions for increase in sub
stantially all the apartments. These
increases, he said, would amount to
$4,000 year, and some of the in
dlvldual increases would run as high
as 81 per cent.
Mr.. Burt said the experience of
the tenants demonstrated that ten
ants in the District ARE subjected
TO long, arduous and expensive liti-
cation which is not imposed on
tenants OF other sections of the
country"