Radio romances (July-Dec 1945)

Home— the thing most dear to her man overseascan be better guarded by a wife who understands the laws her country has made for her protection 42 IT'S a very pleasant thing to have a comfortable home, a pleasant place where you are surrounded by the things you love, that you have gathered together and cherished over the years — a place that spells happiness and security to you. Sometimes you are so happy that you forget that there are people in the world who don't know that measure of security. I had forgotten, myself, until the other day, when I met a little girl and her mother in the studios as I was hurrying to my broadcast. The mother was obviously urging the child to leave, when the little girl saw me, and cried, "Mommy— that's the Singing Lady. I know it is! I want to say hello to her!" And with that she broke away from her mother's hand and came trotting over to me. I'd just discovered that her name was Dorothy when the mother came bustling up. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "It isn't that I didn't want Dorothy to talk to you, of course, but I've been trying to get her away for half an hour. We really haven't any time to waste — I simply have to spend every spare second looking for an apartment. That's a full-time job,, nowadays. I've been dragging poor little Dorothy around with me — I haven't any place to leave her — and she promised she'd be a good girl and help me house-hunt all afternoon if she could just come in for a minute and see if she could get a glimpse of the Singing Lady.. She listens to you every day, when we're home, but she hasn't heard you for a week, we've been so busy looking for a place to live." I talked to the little girl for a moment or two, and then, more to make conversation than anything else, I questioned her mother. "Are you looking for a larger apartment than you have now?" She shook her head, and I realized for the first time that the poor woman was almost frantic. "No. I'm perfectly happy with what we have now. In fact, I did so want to keep the place, just as it is, until John— that's Dorothy's father— gets back from overseas. But the landlord says we have to get out, and that's that. There's nothing to do but look." It was then that I remembered my own happy, secure home, and I felt terribly sorry for this young mother and her problems. "You don't have to move just because the landlord tells you to, you know," I said. "The rent control regulations protect you." She nodded. "So I understand— but the landlord has a court order for our eviction, and I guess that makes it legal. It's my personal opinion," she added ruefully, "that he simply wants the place for that good-for-nothing brother-in-law of his." I thought about it for a moment, and then had an idea. "Look," I told her. "Why don't you go to the OPA's rent control office and talk it over with them? It wouldn't do any harm, and it might do a lot of good. It's possible, you know, that you really Other People's Ireene Wicker is the beloved Singing Lady of American children. She is heard each Monday through Friday at 5:45, EWT, on ABC. don't have to leave the apartment." Slowly she nodded her head. "All right," she said, but she didn't sound very convinced. "I'll try it. It'll be a relief from apartment hunting, anyway." "You do that," I encouraged. "And I'm interested now — why don't you and Dorothy come back tomorrow and tell me what you found out? I have to run along now." Sure enough, they were back the next day— and both of them simply bubbling over with good news. "We don't have to move, we don't have to move," Dorothy sang out the minute she saw me. We all sat down, and they told me the story. And as I listened, I thought of how many other people there must be who were having the same sort of difficulty, and who weren't fortunate enough to have found out in time what the rent control laws can do to protect them. And I decided then and there, in the name of my own comfort and security, and in the great interest I have in the welfare of children, and their families, to do what I could to see that rent control information was made more generally known. It seems that the "court order," the eviction form, that was sent to this woman, is not a court order and did By IREENE WICKER not mean that she had to move, at all. Her landlord had to get a court hearing and a court order before he could make her leave the premises. Going a step further, she found that under the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act, she was protected against eviction, too. Her landlord wanted her to move because he planned to make a few little improvements and raise the rent on her apartment. This was not allowed under the law. Much to my surprise, I discovered that OPA Rent Controls protect other people besides tenants. Rent Control is a safeguard against artificial inflation in real estate values. Rents can't skyrocket now, therefore real estate sales made on the basis of earnings from a property stay within reasonable limits in price. And therefore, property doesn't take on a false and higher value than it really has and, when people need mortgages, they can get them at reasonable rates. and for reasonableamounts. Landlords, strangely enough, benefit even more. It works like this. First, a man who has made his money from renting apartments or houses can go on making a profit without fear of any unsound or unfair rent competition. Rents remain stable and, as a result, the value of his property remains stable. That means he isn't likely to face a collapse in real estate values after the war is over. It also means that his taxes are kept down, because inflation is arrested and living costs are held down as much as possible. Any one can see how tenants have profited from the law. These days, every tenant knows that there are many others ready to snap up his house or apartment. With the fear of being evicted hanging over them all the time, people would be unable to resist demands for higher rents. A man has to have a place for himself and his family to live. He's got to be sure of it — even if it means collaborating with landlords and paying higher rents than were ever paid before. Remember the stories we used to hear about people paying huge premiums for apartments? Remember the trouble there was in crowded war industry {Continued on page 94)