NO-RENT STRIKE.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXVIII, Issue 5245, 11 April 1908, Page 6 (Supplement)

NO-RENT STRIKE.

MAV YORK SLUM TENANTS. The New York correspondent of Llm London " Daily Mail" wrote on 2hUi Dcccinhcr :- Under the leadership of a. sturdy young workgii I, nicknamed .loan of Arc, (he I mrming mull il odes of Iho most crowded section of darkest Mew York Ircgun to-day a strike which promk-ics to develop into out: of the most, picturesque industrial struggles e\, i wilnußsoU in this city. The strike is directed against the exorlnlnnl n*nls doinuiHlod for lln/niserable tenement flats in which the laboring population 0! 1 lie i-asl sido spend vvi'eteiied and unhealthy existences. It is (lie custom in Hie slums of New Yolk for (lie landlords lo 1 11 mi out I lie houses Io agents who, by constantly screwing up iho i*«*i 1 1s, make a huge prolit oul of iho necessities of the poor, ('uses were < lied to me today of agents who obtain l.'JlOil yearly oul of loneimmt dwellings wliieli they themselves lease wholesale for 1,1000. If is no uncommon lliiug for a working man 10 he e.impelled lo pay IJ or I..'* a month lor three tiny and till li.s rooms on the six Mi story. Recently (lie. agents endeavored (o 11 d<l yel another three dollars lo (lupines they extoll Thirl y thousand loinilies have, now bunded together in a solemn pledge not. to pay any more mid lo discontinue I lie pay inriif ol all reals unless a general 1 eduction of *JO per real, is granted. Ihe ' loan of Arc" of I lie. move menl is a nineteen year old gii 1 named Cecilia Al'kin, whose two Ino I hers have lost their employment owing (o Hie presonl hard times Willi eyes dashing with enthusiasm, she told me. lu-du.v Mini if the ugenls I nod to dispoKH«*ss the striking ten nnfs every case would he fought in l lie. courts, with endless ilelu.v 111 id consequent loss Hills caused to flt-e real fanners, who, Ihe girl iH sure, will soon Is I .rough I In lerms. As soon us an eviction takes place, she mu ill. the dispossessed family will lie. sheltered h.v one or other of I lie .TO,OOO fund lies who ui <- mi. st riko. A iiiiihs iiieetiu-g of lenunls composed of every nuliomilil.s under the sun is called at the licnihpiurfers for next The landlords have so fur refusivd point blank lo nuike mi.v concessions, and are beginning proceedings to dispossess some hundred families in Monroe and Cherry streets. When I In- collector called (his morning for tln- reals the lennnts, instead of paying, mulched up to the roofs waving led pluciii'ds denouncing- the liindlordb as " bloodsuckers."