per cent. to the cost of structural repairs, and to the prices of all the commodities which he has to buy out of the income from the lease. This is a risk that he has to take, and in normal times it is balanced by the consequent addition to the money value of his property. But by the Rent Restriction Act of 1915 the Government, having first made the position of landlords difficult and unprofitable by debasing the currency (which perhaps it could not avoid), proceeded to forbid them to raise rents, so inflicting serious injustice on a class of investors who provide the public with the essential service of shelter, at a time when providers of and dealers in food and coal and munitions were earning peerages by making fortunes out of the nation's need. And at the expense of the unfortunate landlord a very comfortable benefit was conferred on the tenant, who was probably earning a larger money income than ever before and made hay while the sun shone by taking in lodgers. A class that is faced by great difficulties and anxieties in normal times, and in abnormal times is sacrificed to the prejudices of its customers and the opportunism of Governments, is not one that any prudent investor will join unless he knows the ropes so well that he is absolutely certain that he is not making a mistake.
