| Show THE LANDLORDS SlOES SlOE-S Editor Tribune Ordinarily there Is soS llttlo to bo gained by replying to loiters from disappointed people that time Is wasted In considering their complaints In this mornings Tribune however a wall from ono of tho hundreds of exits poratcd hunters of houses echoes the Ideas of a great class and deserves consideration con-sideration A Renter appeals to capitalists cap-italists to build houses for rent to relieve tho awful congestion Ho pictures tho profits from such a business The boat reply Js that there aint no sich Ask any one of a dozen men who deluded with the same Idea have built places lor icnt and learn their experience The plain reason Is that the ordinary tenant js a vandal Tie treats the premises 12 occupies occu-pies as ho does the livery horse ho nlres as something to be worked for all trero Jg In it If you want to know the dllfor once between the way people tuko oaro of their own property and yours Just soil a tenant the house he has been occupying occupy-ing and note the change within a month 1 am not talking of trashy tenants of poor tenants tho fact Is they are tno most decent kind of renters Jit Is your hlEhtoncd socioly man your tenant whn occupies somo high position In public of llco or a railroad or a ble corporation or does the social racket to bulll up I a fine practice in his profession wno Is I the worst vandal Ho places an clectrin I llcht ngalnst a highly polinicd door ansi calmly lots tho varnish scorCh and smell while ho cocks his leg on a footstool reading read-ing his dally paper He lets his 100 Sc Bernard dog wallow In the lawn you have laid at such an expense Ills wife sees the children scratching the paneled cherry stairway with a pencil while she herself serenely rocks the chair that Is scraping > a piece of finely Ilnlshcd lincrusUi behind be-hind e o This Isnt a fanciful picture Nor are these despoliations because this renter doesnt know any better It Is Just because ho looks upon the landlord as a sort of enemy As an example Some time ago a wellknown professional man who Is a 1 UQ t1A55 luiimc WaS ri5trii and pretty and as spotless as you can ilnd thorn sold his attractive looking home to a newcomer from the East Jt happened that the purchaser I didnt want to site possession ol hisS his-S nremiHCS for six months and so rented I the place for that period lo the gentleman I gentle-man from whom ho bought It Presto I chnngol You would have thought the I seller had some sort of peculiar malignity toward the premises ho had Just disposed dis-posed of and that his nature had been I suddenly transformed From being fas I Udloua careful painstaking housekeeper that family became a distinctive careless I abusive tenant Thoy ceased to water I the lawn they tore the roses off as If I they were sagebrush the children swung I the gales off tho hinges the kitchen walls I were smoked to a Ulnish tho electric I globes were smashed the paneling was marred the paper torn In short dcvlllsh I ness could hardly have accomplished moro wanton dlalructlon Who could Imagine that the transition from the roJc pf an owner to a tenant would work such an evolution of character The reverse tho example of one taking care of things the minute the tenant becomes owner Is seen S dally And yet those same vandals and renters in generalwondor why it Is moneyed mon-eyed men dont build houses to rent when there Is such a heavy demand p 55 I have purposely refrained from mentioning men-tioning plumbing for fear somebody might laugh It is so much easier C for a tenant to telephone his landlord that the water froze In the pipes last night please send a plumber right away to thaw them out than It IB lo turn tho water off on a bitter cold night At least onehalf might say twothirds all the money received from rent has to bo raid by landlords In repairing devastations devasta-tions of tenants and restoring property Ordinarily If ho Is an observing man the landlord leaves these repairs and Improvements Improve-ments till his despoiler moves outto give the next fellow a chance If tenants only knew If they could but realize tho truth of this old adage that Ho who dances must pay the fiddler and renters as a body In paying high rents are simply pay Ing tho penalty of their misdeeds they might aqt differently Nor Is the mental makeup of the ordinary Individual such that ho seems to realize that ho and his family are different to others rights than to his own The man who conducts a rental agency hears this stereotyped phrase all day long Now wo take good care of a place you know we havo owned a homo of our own Look out for pee plo saying that your property will be In splinters at the end of tho year There are a lOw conscientious careful painstaking tenants Every renter who reads this will think he Is one The real article tho careful tenant has to pay forth for-th mischief of his class as a rule Just as tho honest man pays tho bad debts of the beat And as long as the good tenant ten-ant has to share In the expenses created by tho bad tenant perhaps It is Just as well to stop being decent and join the majority unless one gets some enjoyment from being decent 4 55 I i havent spoken of one Important fea ture of tho rental business beating the rent I dont care to give tenants any now pointers but Incidentally I would remark that In Utah the landlord has no rights the tenant Is obliged to respect and that a renter can occupy a house from twp to six months without putting a dollar up except lo some cheap John lawyer for tiling demurrers answers etc The cheapest way for a landlord to get rid of a tenant several months In arrears Is to pay him 10 to quit and waive past Indebtedness a No slree Mr Renter you are de cldodly off when you conclude that the Indisposition on the part of local cap italists to build as an investment is due to a lack of confidence In the future of this city It Is just duo to a lack of confidence In renters thats all a state of mind borne of some very vivid ox porlcnces There Is plenty of money hero to put into anything that will pay a sure low Interest on the investment but nftr the depreciation and losses on ion Ln property Is considered there Isnt any such return a a P Now I am perfectly willing to be brand ed ao a tyrannical bullying bru tai Intolerant landlord and any oth er adjectives that Mr Renter wants to toss Into his basket of Invectives but I don t want to build any more houses to rent I have been renting houses for mv sell and others for ten years and have a little knowledge whereof 1 speak Jf renters took the samo cure of othcra prop erty that they do of their own there would bo 500 houses going up for rent In Salt Lako today S FACTS |
