Evening star., 1946-05-09
Commissioners
Back Business
Rent Control
Reverse Earlier
Stund, Now Favor
Regulatory Bill
picture on Page BIZ
By Don S. Worren

Reversing a stand they took
late in March the District Com
missioners today threw their
support behind proposed legisla-
ton to establish rent controls
for commercial properties in the
District.
Testifying before the Healy SUBJ
committee of the House District
Committee today, Commissioner
John Russell Young said the city
heads lately had received informa-
ton about commercial rents not
previously available to them and
that the Commissioners now believe
very definitely" there is a need for
commercial rent control.
His statement brought q tremen.
dous burst of applause from more
than so witnesses attending the
hearing to urge adoption of the leg
islation.
Hearing to Resume Tuesday.
He was followed by a parade of
witnesses who told instances of
landlords demanding higher rentals
or threatening eviction and at the
end of today's hearing it was an
nounced that it would be resumed
next Tuesday at 10 am.
Organizations listed as supporting
the principles of the commercial
rent bill introduced by Representa-
tive Barry, Democrat, of New York
were the District Medical Society.
the Federation of Businessmen's AS
sociations, the Federation of Citi-
zens' Associations, the Building
Trades Council, the Columbia Typo
graphical Union, the legislative de-
part of the Federation of Womens
Clubs and numerous other civic
groups.
One OF the principal witnesses
was j. Nelson Anderson, general
counsel of the Federation of Busi-
nessmens Associations, who told the
subcommittee the basic reason and
the imperative need" of commercial
rent control lies in the extreme
scarcity Of business accommoda.
tions.
Were there an abundance of
such accommodations" he said.
there would be no necessity what
soeVer for the legislation.
Some Forced Out of Business.
But because of the lack of it.
coupled with unwarranted and ab-
normal rents charged formerly by
a Smau percentage of landlords or
SPECTATORS, but now in ever in
creaslng numbers, many business
concerns here have been or are
being forced out of business"
The legislation, he continued. is
necessary to prevent further and
continued inf1ationary prices in the
held OF commercial rents "of a
speculative, unwarranted and abb
normal nature" In addition. he
said the measure would be fair be-
cause it would afford, in the indi-
vidual case, an opportunity for adj
Justment by a duly constructed au-
thorlty on a finding of the circum-
stances in the individual property.
subcommittee members pressed
Mr.. Anderson for estimates as TO
the number of cases of commercial
rent gouging, but he said this would
be only guess, because even now
many tenants fear to make an open
protest because of fear of "reprisals'
by landlords. A year and a half
ago, he said, it was estimated there
had been rent gouging by 51a per
cent of the landlords. He thought
1t was considerably higher today.
But we take the position that
even a relatively small percentage
OF business tenants should not be
made to suffer because of the busi-
ness space shortage"
Reads March Report.
Commissioner Young began his
statement by reading the report the
Commissioners had submitted late
in March. This opposed the Barry
bill saying its mechanics would make
administration virtually impossible,
as well as costly. Since then. how.
(See COMMERCIAL, RENT A-o1