OCR Text |
Show TENANTS AND LANDLORDS IN jot ip war Rent Commission Acts in Washington Up to U. S. Supreme Court HUNDREDS OF OWNERS FACE IRATE RENTERS Gas and Lights Are Cut Off; Candles and Wood Alcohol Alco-hol Are Used BY GKORG1S II. AVATKRS. N E. A. Staff Correspondent, WASHINGTON. June 2s The right 'of a tenant to live In a house and at ithe same time prevent the landlord trom profiteering against him, is being be-ing uotlv contested in Uie national cap-Mtal- As a result there havo been some Incar-mobblngu, and hundreds of landlords land-lords are at outs with thousands of tcnant3. . ... It Is a cat and dog fjghl, which oventually mu3t bo decided by the supremo su-premo court of the Ujilted States. $37,080 Saved. Perhaps the most, aggravated case is that of the Monhioutn Hotel, 1819 G street, N It Is owmed by. the F1-: dcllty Storgo Coi, of which Jams L. lvarrlc'k Ik president. Thore are -210 apartments and . all tho tenanls4om-plaihchr-Jrtfe--&o11 it'enteommissle-n; ! reduced the total rent on tho hotel from $77,950 to H0.26U, an uggrogatc savins oi ?37,GS0, to the tenants, I Soine of the reductions were; Fic: ooms,' reduced from $1S0 to ?100; five rooms reduced from f 120 to 575; I four rooms reduced from J1S0 to $S2.-50; $S2.-50; one loom reduced from $90 to $32,50, and two roon.s reduced from S150 to $50. 1'eniinLs Take Stand. When the Ball Kent commission fixed these rates, tenants refused to pay more. Tho owners of the apartment apart-ment cut oft tho gas and light, and discontinued other services. This Infuriated In-furiated the tenants and they arc refusing re-fusing to pay any rent at all and are burning candles and cooking with wood alcohol. Some of them havo forbidden the landlord to evon comci around to collect the rent. Right in tho middle of these strained relations two members of tho district supreme court. Justices Josiah Van Orsdel and Clinton Roob, declared tho Ball ront law unconstitutional, and left town. Chief Justice C. J. Smyth rendered a hot dissenting opinion, declaring de-claring the decision of the other Jus-tlcos Jus-tlcos all wrong and upholding the law. 31iuiy Mny lie Ousted. This decision came In a case inde- pendent of tho Monmouth Hotel case, and the owners of the Monmouth rushed Into tho municipal court to oust all the tenants. The tenants have sought relief from the rent commission. commis-sion. The rent commission Itself has filed a writ of error with the district! supreme court setting forth the following: fol-lowing: (1) That Oic district supreme court has no Jurisdiction over a national lawi passed as a war measure. (2) That the chief justice of the same court has renderoJ a dissenting opinion, pointing out where the other i two Judges erred. . j (2) That the chief Justlco of the' ton, especially those or umail means, ( will be unprotected between now and October if the court doesn't alter its decision, and that thousands of families fami-lies will booustcd. The case has been appealed to the! United Stateu supreme court, but that' court cannot act on It till Octoboi. lf tho district supreme courtdoesn't grant, relief, It Is estimated 75,000 persons! will be literally thrown from their homes. |