Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1899 — WOMEN AS RENT-COLLECTORS. [ARTICLE]

WOMEN AS RENT-COLLECTORS.

One Who Know* Something About It from Experience. When nearly 30 years ago Miss Octavia Hill first demonstrated that women could collect rents from the poorest class of tenants without injury to themselves, and with benefit to those with whom they were thrown, she opened a door for other women to enter. Slowly and timidly at first, her followers in this country began to try the experiment, but at the present time it has ceased to bean experiment and become an established fact that women can do this work, and do it well. Having been for many years a rent collector myself, I can speak with positive knowledge of the great satisfaction tenants feel in establishing personal relations with the landlady. She is not (or at least she ought not to be) a person to collect rents only; she should be the friend of the tenants, their counselor in case of trouble, and their reliance in any extremity. A good rent collector will see that roofs are tight and drains sound, the small repairs are attended tc promptly, and that unruly neighbors are not allowed to disturb the comfort of the deserving tenants. But she will also see that if a family is in distress, some means'is sought to alleviate their suffering; that if a child is dangerously ill it is sent to the hospital; that if a young girl is out of work she is directed to a place where she may find safe and suitable employment.

It is to encourage this friendly relation between tenants and collectors that I advocate strongly the house-to-house collection of rents. How is it possible for an agent, sitting in an office and having the rents brought to her to know what is the condition of the rooms or of their occupants? How can any intimate knowldege of a family be gained by a brief interchange of civilities as the rent is paid to the collector over a counter? Although it may mean more work for the landlady or agent, I am sure she will be amply repaid by the knowledge she will gain of each family, and the pleasure the tenants will feel in the more personal relationship which is established by house-to-house and room-to-room collection.

There are three points on which I dwell carefully in instructing a new agent in regard to her duties: First, that, for the protection of other tenants and of the property all references furnished by tenants shall be inquired into most thoroughly; second, that house-to-house collections shall be made; and, third, that good faith, extending even to the smallest matters, shall be kept with the tenants. If a landlord exacts prompt payment of rent he should be equally exact in attending to repairs. If he expects uniformly fair treatment from the tenant he should be willing to give the same in return. No one complaint is more commonly made by tenants than this: “My landlord will not do anything for me”—which means too often that drains are neglected and teaks allowed to remain, or that wall paper, paint, and whitewash are unrenewed. The best lesson which can be taught the tenants is that a moral obligation exists on both sides—that if prompt payment is exacted reasonable demands will be complied with. The unwritten law of courtesy to each and all is an important factor in this work. The one thing which has been borne in on me through an experience of almost 20 years as a landlady is that tenants like to be treated as we would wish to be treated ourselves, were the positions reversed. The nearer we can approach to this simple application of the golden rule the more likely are we to succeed in this especial form of work.—Municipal Affairs.