The Way to Get Rid of Them Unquestionably in all cities there are Jandlords who take advantage of the scarcity of housing to prac-rise most outrageous extortion. As to such men the primal impulse in the human soul is to follow the example of the citizen of Israel as recorded in holy writ and take the malefactor outside the camp and stone him with stones.
And there are multitudes of other landlords who are compelled by the great increase of costs, which they feel as deeply as the rest ut us, to increase rentals which cause resentment for which there is no foundation in reason. For years rentals have been very low in this city. The "To Let' signs were continuous in every residence dis- ced: trict. It was natural and justifiable that with increased demand the owners of such properties should try to make good the losses of past years.
The remedy for high rentals is a surplus of rentable property. There are two reasons why we do not get it. The first is the convietion of property owners that they cannot induce tenants to pay rentals which will yield returns on present cost of building. The second, which is really part of the first, is the systematic and organ; ized attacks on landlords generally.
The State of New York has enacted a law forbidding the evict tion of tenants who refuse to pay increase rentals, and the final tribunal has decided that it is a valid exercise of the ''police power," Constitution or no Constitution. The city of Los Angeles has an ordinance limiting rentals to 11 per cent. on the money invested in the "building," which the trial court has held unconstitutional, with the suggestion that it might have been different had the ordinance said 11 per cent. of value of the entire property.
That is obviously not the way to get ample housing at reasonable rentals. It is the way not to get it. The way to get plenty of housing space is to make possible builders believe that it will be highly profitable to provide it. Within a reasonable time the situation will adjust itself.
But far more important than even the question of housing is the question of the effect of such legislation in impairing the right of private ownership in all property. For the public to take part of the possible income without compensation is to take part of the property itself. If the law can take part of the property, what part? How far can the law go? The Bolshevists propose to take it all. Who will name the line where the process must stop?—"San Francisco Chronicle." pig STUMP IN 2
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.