Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1949-03-25
Sinister, Moneyed Forces
BehindRentC Curb Opponents
BY Bradford v. Carter,
LPA COlumnist

uERE in Washington, we're being exposed to
"A new front for the real estate lobby.
On the surface it's composed of several
hundred ladies who aren't ageing too grace
fully plus handful of elderly men, There's
the little old lady from Akron who weeps when
she tells you about her cruel treatment at the
hands of the local rent control officials. There's
the Rev. Murphy, a retired Oklahoma preach
er with a weather Scared face and shiny suit,
and his story about how he believes men
should be free. They're all members of the
Property Owners League of America.
Then, after a couple of days, the front be-
gan to fall apart. Wherever you saw Rev.
Murphy there was also a blond gentleman
with a strictly cty-slicker camels hair coat.
His name was William Schmidt He's a big
property owner in Chicago, and reporters who
asked too many questions of the preacher soon
found that he's sticking with the ex-reverend
as close as bodyguard
The little old lady from Akron began to
repeat on her act On two successive days she
wept on the shoulder of the same Congress
mans secretary, and word got around. I'VE
don't dare let her go around alone" landlady
from New Jersey confided to me. "You know,
she gets people mad. / think you catch more
flies with sugar, dearie"
Aren't you afraid that rents will go out of
sight II you get your way, / asked group of
the hatchet-faced ladies outside a Congress
sonal hearing room Some will do it, but
this time we're organized and we'll crack down
on them" they said proudly TITS not the way
1t was year ago, We've got our Association
now"
Who brought the ladies here? Who's paying
their hotel bills and train fares2 Who has
their schedules organized, and who meets with
them to instruct them each evening? It's the
same men who have fought every rent control
or build-more-housing measure since 1893.
This is a $300O,O0O lobby, charges Sen.
Adolph SABBATH Cd III, the man with the
longest service in the House of Representatives,
and an old hand at exposing the Vaccinations
of special profit pressure groups,
If we lose the protection of rent controls,
we can charge it, not to the relatively harm
less fanatic types who've been haunting the
halls of Congress this week. but TO the Ma
tional Association of Real Estate Boards Col
laborating with them are some of the most
sinister-and this columnist uses that word
sparingly elements in American politics.
There's Rep Ralph Gwinn (R. N.Y. who talks
and writes the same language as the Bund the
Klan, and the rabble rousing ant-Semites of
Europe before Hitler was defeated,
There's the Committee for Constitutional
Government--which fights every measure to
spread enlightenment or to protect the voters
from powerful interests. And there's the free
mailing of reprint of millions of copies of an
troll, written by Frenchman of fascist back
ground.
Not since the days of the Public Utility
Holding Co Act--when the New Deal fought
and licked the power lobby-has there been
such display of cold, ruthless pressure. Then
Sen Hugo Black discovered that the entire
population of New York cemetery had writ
ten demanding that Congress not regulate the
power monopoly.
What crusading Senator this time will dis
cover-perhaps too late-that the postcards
now pouring in come from men and women
whose only home is a plot in the local grave
yard, where these deplorable shackles of rent
control don't even apply7