The Rental Agitation on the East Side Archibald A. Hill During the last few days there has been an agitation on the East Side, New York, over the question of increase in rents on all classes of property. This has brought out many of the picturesque events which usually accompany such agitations there. A young girl, hitherto unknown, suddenly found herself in the "limelight," and Bertha Leibson is to-day called the "Joan of Arc" of the East Side. Tenants' associations were formed to fight the landlords or lessees, and meetings are being held under their auspices. So far very little has been accomplished by these organizations. Internal troubles are disrupting the largest of them, and it is now splitting up into rival camps. The newspapers took up the matter, political interests asserted themselves, and the men and women of the section who are striving for a different social order grasped the opportunity to make converts, each to his particular social faith. For a time it was thought that there might be incidents similar to the meat riots of a few years ago, but this likelihood now seems to be past. It is undoubtedly true that rents have been raised in all parts of the city, but especially in that portion lying below Fourteen street and east of the Bowery. There the greatest agitation has resulted. In the three municipal courts in the district there were filed in the first ten days of April about thirteen hundred petitions asking for the eviction of tenants. Out of this large number very few actual evictions took place. In most cases, after petitions had been filed, tenants and landlords reached an agreement before the case was returnable in court. For example, on one day on which sixty-eight petitions were returnable, thirty-eight did not respond when called, showing either the removal of the tenant or the settling of the case out of court. In the remaining thirty cases, most of the tenants agreed to move within the time given them by the judge. In another court in which twenty-one warrants for actual evictions were issued, 396 really set upon the street. only one tenant had his household goods The convictrouble tion, then, is borne in on one that the between the landlord and tenant having reached an acute stage, the order to show the tenant that "he meant landlord filed a petition for eviction in business." The tenant, finding this out, either moved or accepted the landlord's terms. Therefore the statement that of setting household goods on the street there were wholesale evictions in the sense was a gross exaggeration. The Class The class of tenants affected is shown by the folTenants Affected. lowing figures: The rent involved in 2941 petitions was ascertained. Of these 78, or 261⁄2 per cent, were for $9 or under; 115, or 39 per cent, were from $10 to $15, inclusive, and 101, or 3412 per cent, were for over $15. The burden will fall on those who pay a rental of $15 or less. Of these, as shown above, there were 193, or 651⁄2 per cent. But the heaviest burden is upon the 2612 per cent who have heretofore paid the very small rentals and have desired two or three-room apartments. Landlords, lessees, court officials and charitable workers agree that these people are the ones who will have to bear the brunt of the difficulty. Many of them are moving into rooms that are much less desirable than those they now occupy, and yet they are compelled to pay the same rental. though not the rental now demanded in their present quarters. For example, one woman on Pitt street who last fall paying $7.50 per month on the top floor had the rent raised on January 1 to $10. which she reluctantly paid. On April 1 the rent was again raised to $12. she cannot pay. She is going into a much less desirable neighborhood and to much poorer rooms for which she will have to of tenants are moving into larger apartpay $10 per month. Others of this class ments and are taking boarders to was This help 1This investigation was made by Mr. Hill Charity Organization Society, and Frank E. Wing for the Association for Improving the Condition of the P The Rental Agitation on the East Side out in the rent. Unless wisely guarded, this will inevitably lead to the old evils of overcrowding, and this, too, in what are now considered the better-class apart ments. The Rate of Increase. It is very hard to obtain accurate information as to the increase of the rent. When the tenants are seen some very remarkable figures are given. In one house where two tenants were asked to leave, the increase in one case was from $11 to $18, or 63 per cent; in the second case the increase was from $9.50 to $15, or 58 per cent. When the houskeeper was seen, she said that she understood this increase was demanded, but that, as a matter of fact, the tenants had been asked a prohibitive price in order to get them out, the real reason being that they were exceedingly dirty. According to the housekeeper's figures for the various apartments, the actual increases in this house have been at the rate of 30 per cent over what they were two months ago. In one case, at another house, the rent was formerly $8.50 and is now $13. On the other hand, some of the increases are only six or eight per cent. But landlords and essees, when seen, have themselves given figures which sufficiently correspond with those given by tenants to warrant the statement that the average increase over rents of one year ago is from 25 to 30 per cent. The basis of these figures is the rent demanded in those cases where the tenant refused to pay and was asked to move. It is by no means certain that when actual new tenants are secured the rate will be as high as the demands now made would indicate. This rate would also correspond with the rate given by some of the best-informed settlement workers on the East Side. The actual causes of this The Causes Assigned. increase can be obtained only after careful statistical investigation covering a large number of cases and a wide area. But of the causes that are given by the people on the East Side, enough may be said to show the complexity of the problem. The custom of the actual landlord to lease the whole house to one party and allow him to make what he can out of the ten 397 ants is a fruitful surface cause of the increase. In many cases the lessee is absolutely ignorant and grasping. Apparently the greatest increases are due to this cause. Lessees have heard of increases elsewhere and want to come in for their share and have asked for a larger increase than is at all justifiable. They may obtain this increase for a short period under the present excitement, but these exorbitant demands, being abnormal, will in time adjust themselves. It seems to be true that the large estates and realty companies are not demanding abnormal increases. One company claims to have made no demands for increased rentals this year except where it has made improvements which justify it. It certainly is true that there has been an increase in the custom of leasing property, and that these lessees do less for the property, and yet demand higher rents. The frequency with which property changes hands is another cause of the increases. One house has changed hands in the last few months three times and each time the rent has been raised by the new landlord. It is these frequent advances, and the uncertainty as to what the rent will be next month, that has irritated the tenant, perhaps, as much as anything else. In one house an exceedingly ignorant lessee, on January 1, raised the rent of an apartment from $10.50 to $11; on February 1 to $11.50; on March 1 to $12, and on April 1 to $13. The tenants in this house held a meeting, sent for the landlord, and told him they would stay in the house at the rent asked on April 1, provided they could have the assurance that there would be no further increase before January 1, 1905. Otherwise he could do what he chose and they would not cause trouble. His reply was that he did not know what property would be worth on January 1 next. These tenants are now allowing him to serve them with dispossess notices and are peaceably leaving the premises. The tearing down of buildings to make room for municipal improvements and in order to build larger tenements not yet ready for occupancy, is the cause, also, of some scarcity of rooms. This, taken with increased immigration, is lessening the available supply. More complete and care ful figures, however, would have to be secured to state this accurately. The reiteration of these facts by the landlords is having an effect on the minds of the tenants themselves and, coupled with the excitement caused by the agitation, is making them pay panic prices in some cases. A lessee told the following story of a first-floor apartment suitable for living rooms in the rear and a small business in front: He had formerly rented this for $20. A man offered him $21 and paid a $5 deposit. Before he could move in, another man saw the rooms and offered $23 to get them and paid a $5 deposit. Again another man saw the rooms and offered $24, which he paid down in a lump sum and moved in immediately. Thus this lessee at one time had three deposits on one apartment and the rent had been raised from $20 to $24. He naively remarked "I did not raise the rent-the tenants did." But all of these causes combined certainly do not justify the rate of increase. in many of the cases, though they probably do in those where the rent has been raised only a small amount. However, this widespread movement to increase the rents and the apparent success in securing the increase, would seem to indicate that the number of families who, in order to be near their work, or to live beside those with whom they have racial affinity, or who, for any other reason desire to live on the lower East Side, is greater than can be accommodated in the buildings now in that section. of There has been no acute Not a Problem suffering caused which Charitable Relief. Would justify the intervention of charitable societies. Not a single application, directly assignable to increased rentals, has been made to the United Hebrew Charities, the Asciation for Improving the Condition of the Poor, or the Charity Organization Society. Out of the 186 cases investigated the past week, 22 were known to charitable societies. Of these nine were being helped at the time. In two cases, help had been refused as unnecessary. In ten, no help had been asked in more than a year, and in one, no application had been made since 1894. Involved. One of the reasons why this large shifting of the population has not caused more acute suffering at the present time, is that under the stress of a crisis the tenant has been able to borrow sufficient money to pay at the next place. Also, inasmuch as the rent is usually paid in advance and as the demand for increased rent came at or near the first of the month, the tenant had the money that he would have paid for his old quarters to pay for the new. But the statement that this Future Problems increase of rent has not caused acute suffering must not be taken as assurance that the tenants can afford the payment of such rents. The suffering may come when the excitement has died down and no public crisis is at hand to help them in their borrowing. What is to become of a family whose sole breadwinner earns on an average sixty cents a day, whose rent has been increased from $8.50 to $13 per month? Under the present emergency he has been able to secure sufficient funds to tide him along. But his future is certainly dark. It would be a very profitable service for some agency to undertake a careful, widespread investigation into the extent and rate of this increase and its effect on the standards of living in New York; also to inquire into the desirability of urging upon builders the necessity of erecting houses with small apartments to rent for a moderate sum. So far as this cursory examination has gone, this would seem to be the greatest immediate need. The possibility of aiding families who have no particular reason for living on the lower portion of Manhattan, to leave it for other localities and thus make room for those who have valid reasons for living there is also worthy of attention. A movement within the district, as brought to light in this investigation, presents a different problem. Families whose rents have been raised in more desirable sections are moving into some of the worst blocks of Ludlow street. Whether the bad neighborhood will be bettered or the newcomers dragged down to the old level, is the problem there. The Newark Conference of Charities and Correction A. W. McDougall The Newark Conference of Charities and Correction owes its origin in part to the interest and enthusiasm of the two delegates appointed by the mayor to represent the city of Newark at the Atlanta National Conference of Charities and Correction last spring, and in part to the fact that the charities were apparently ready for a movement of this kind. The initiative was taken by the Newark Bureau of Associated Charities through a committee of which the chairman, the Rev. Dr. James I. Vance, and the Rev. Henry R. Rose, were the National Conference delegates. It also included the president and secretary of the Bureau of Associated Charities. After some inquiries among charitable societies and of the ministers of various churches, the committee sent out a letter calling a preliminary meeting of representatives of charitable societies and churches at the Newark Free Public Library. The committee proposed holding a series of public meetings on topics of vital interest to all charitable societies and churches, with addresses by speakers from out of town, and reports from Newark charities on "childcaring work, care for the sick poor, for the aged, etc." In other words, the meetings were to present a statement of what actually was being done in the city together with an exposition by an authoritative speaker of the best methods of doing it. There were present at this preliminary meeting representatives of seventeen charitable societies and of twenty-four churches. The churches included five Protestant denominations, a Catholic priest representing the bishop, and a Jewish rabbi. The result of the meeting was the organization of the Newark Conference of Charities and Correction, with the Rev. Dr. James I. Vance as president. An executive and program committee was provided for with the Rev. Henry R. Rose as chairman. This committee consisted originally of nine members and was afterward increased to seventeen and included all the most prominent and active chari table workers of the city. It has had the active control of the conference. At the first meeting of this committee plans were outlined for a series of four public meetings, and the objects of the conference were more clearly formulated by the adoption of the following resolution offered by Rabbi Solomon Foster: "The Newark Conference of Charities and Correction is an organization representing all religious denominations and philanthropic institutions in the city of Newark, N. J. Its purpose is to spread among these various and independent organizations the spirit of unity of purpose, of inter-helpfulness and co-operation. Its work lies above and beyond all sectarian or sectional issues. The work of the organization, therefore, should be purely educational. It is hoped that by means of public conferences the best methods in philanthropic work will be evolved, which advancement and uplift of our city." will eventually tend toward the further Three public meetings have been held thus far, devoted to securing information concerning the broader phases of charitable work and to changes and developments in methods of child-caring work in particular. The subject of the first meeting held in January was, "Unity and System in Charity; how can our charities work together." The out-of-town speakers at this meeting were Robert W. de Forest and Edward T. Devine, both of New York. Mr. de Forest spoke on "The Dignity of Charity; is it not a man's ast well as a woman's work? Do our communities realize its importance?" Devine's address, which was published in the April 2 issue of CHARITIES, was indicated on the program as "Cooperation in Charitable Work; looking at our particular charity from the standpoint of the needs of the community as a whole." Mayor Doremus who was unable to be present, sent a written communication expressing his entire sympathy and hearty approval of the purposes of the conference. Among the local speakers who Mr. |