Year: 1879

How to KH the Goose.

 Many persons are coming to Tucson from time to time to establish new branches of business. If they find things generally favorable they will probably stop here; otherwise they will go further. One of the first things man does when he enters a new place is to see about rents, since they must enter very largely into his calcu- lations of profit and loss; and that Is one of tho most discouraging things which the new conner finds confront ing him here. The great majority Of our people are renters, and the rates which they have to pay are SO high that a person coming in from the States is appalled,, especially when he considers the inferior quality or all storerooms and dwellings which are offered for occupation. He finds that owners of real estate are collecting from 9 to 90 per cent Of the value or their property in rents, each year, and that the tendency is to advance; and he further observes that to obtain quarters where he can make proper exhibition of his goods or where his family can live comfortably he must pay a sum out of all proportion to the business to be done. The consequence is seen in the fact that the legitimate trade of Tucson is not on it's most prominent streets; or if any portion of it is there that it is being crowded of by branches of trade in which there is no benefit whatever to the community; and there is a general dissatisfaction and unrest. Merchants say that if they only knew the future of the town they would go out further to the east ward and build for themselves; but that awful shadow of coming events keeps them back, and they go on ray ing double price in spite of them selves.

 If we inquire the cause of such high rents the answer is that the demand is great and people are willing to pay most anything that is asked; or thal house-Owners are afraid that Tucson will collapse, and they must get their money back on their investments be- fore the crash All of which is well enough for individual cases; but it' won't do for the community of prop erly-holders to adopt. It is killing the goose that lays the golden egg. Those men who fear the City on the San Pe1ro can do nothing better to nurse that town of the future than to tax their tenants out of Tucson by their nigh rents; and they are contributing more toward the abandonment of this high priced locality than the railroad or any other influence will ever do The only value which these adobe piles have has come from the influx of strangers; but if the stranger has toI pay enough rent in twelve months to build up the adobes anew he will move on at the first opportunity and leave so inhospitabie a shore.

 It is said that as money commands two per cent. month real estate should pay the same. But money does not command two per cent. That i, the rate for bank loans of course. but the banks always have thousands ol dollars on hand which are earning nothing at all. IL all the money in the community were put into build. !. ings they would all be rented very soon; but if the real estate were all turned into money the proceeds would :. not loan for six per cent a year. It is 1 the universal rule that the income from real estate, as it is safer than that from money loaned, is far less in | amount.

 We shall be sorry to see the day but the man who now collects $500 | for one years rent of a building which only cost $500 or S2OOO will si, in sackcloth and mourn the departed good times" " before five years roll round.