Ceiling on Your Home, A (1945)

[Music] that bird on the wing is pretty lucky and these little ones have a good deal [Music] too here are a couple of boys who are really fixed for the winner and this queen and her family have no housing [Music] problem these fellas may be wondering about their next banana but not about the price of a night's lodging they've got a ceiling over their heads and what about these fellas their sleeping was usually done without benefit of a ceiling rent or otherwise 2 million men have married since entering the service and millions more were already married when they started packing packs or swinging seabags a lot of men have gone through this routine sat through the last Army lecture signed the last Navy pay voucher and come home to love and affection and problems lots of problems what do you want Sergeant a job you private you want to know about school or do you have a different kind of problem having trouble finding an apartment or a house like this one all briak six rooms oil burner near all churches and shopping convenient Transportation how much rent for this house for this couple together again after being separated by 3 and 1/2 years of Blue Pacific water well how much Mr agent a little more than you expected wasn't it can you make it Joe go back home sit down again with your pencil and paper and see if you can work it out did I say Home D folks are swell but a fellow would like to spend a little time alone with his wife after 3 and A2 years of Community Living in barracks and foxholes Joe May no longer be a private but his budget is one thing he'd like to keep that way particularly when he sees stuff like this coming [Music] [Applause] [Music] along and Joe yours isn't the only family doubling up there are lots more like yours lots more to come nothing like a nice June wedding with orange blossoms bridesmaids and that very special [Music] ring but today there's something you've got to take care of before choosing a ring apartment hunting used to be fun but even the exuberance of Youth can't change the fact that the situation today is tough we've had a time with housing while you were gone building materials and labor went to war the materials that should have gone into houses like this we going into houses like this Lumber window glass roofing steel paint flooring the Fells who usually built these were building these there was practically no Home Building except in critical production centers where Great War plants sprang up and far out stripped in area's housing facilities this lack of building threatened to send the rents of houses and apartment skyrocketing until the office of price Administration stepped in to protect the People by holding the line not only on prices but on rents as well these men may not be able to Define stabilization but skyrocketing rents are something they understand a lot of subjects are being discussed in American Town meetings these days but one thing most people are agreed on is that rent control is a good thing I think so my name is Johnson I own a house over on Street that's rented full up has been for the past 5 years sure I'd like to get higher rents but I guess if I got higher rent somebody else would be entitled to hire this and somebody else again would be entitled to hire that before long at that rate we'd all be on a roller coaster maintenance and repairs are a landlord's big problem today in view of materials and labor shortages if my tenants are willing to understand some of my problems in that respect I can get along with rent control the way I figure what this country needs is a little more Golden Rule and a little less rule of gold how do my tenants like rent control well why don't you ask them my name is Katherine Kelly I live at 109 6th Street Mr Kelly my husband works in the post office I guess he's what you'd call a salaried man there's a lot to be said for being a salaried man but I can tell you most of us never get rich at it what about rent control I don't know much about it except we were paying $39 a month rent before the war and we're still paying it we just couldn't pay anymore Clark James Clark radio engineer I'm one of Mr Johnson's tenants too what do I think of rent control well mister I've got a family to support and anything that keeps down the cost of living is all right with me rent control isn't perfect there are very few chislers and rent gougers who insist on bonus payments and phony in sales of furniture but by the vigilance of cooperating landlords and other local citizens as well as government officials the public is protected this public and this [Applause] public the shooting War is Over but we're still at war against inflationary prices and [Music] rents next to food rent is the largest item in our budget lifting rent controls while homes are still scarce would break all other price controls such a break of the line would be followed by skyrocketing prices and the kind of headache we had after World War I which started when rents jumped 50% after armus day with this situation it becomes of the utmost importance to hold the line break the line on rent by paying or charging illegal rent and you could help start an inflation whose only result would be the kind of deflation and depression that followed World War I [Music] take the lid off rents and you make it tough for this veteran of World War II coming home to the wife and baby and jobby left what's in store for him when the sun comes up tomorrow and he swings down to the station platform he left four years [Music] ago his future in of love and affection may be unlimited but his financial income will be [Music] [Music] limited remove rent ceilings and you deal a blow to the workers of our industrial Army going back into the factories to finish their reconversion and keep us on the road to prosperous for production the government has been aiding in all ways to stimulate the construction of new homes building material prices are being controlled and building supplies are being channeled to where they will be of the greatest good to the greatest number to the types of homes that most people need but demand still far exceeds Supply and will for a long time to [Music] come it will be some time before there are enough of these and these to satisfy adequately the tremendous pent-up demand of the War years years when we stood shoulder toos shoulder against evil overseas let's all stand shoulder toosh shoulder in our own land to protect these men and millions like them in and out of uniform against the H grown evil of over sealing rents bribes bonuses and Furniture rackets if you were threatened with an illegal eviction report it to the OPA you'll get [Music] help if you know of a rent violation report it to the OPA they'll act on it if you have a rent problem ask the OPA about it they can't find you a place to live but they can give you all the answers to any questions on rent we won the shooting War by working together let's win the battle against skyrocketing rents and inflationary prices the same way so that these honored living who have fought and worked will not have fought and worked in [Music] vain [Music] oh