The Price of Disaster: Seattle’s Post-Fire Rent Gouging

There is loud complaint against the extortion practiced by the holders of property. Not all, or indeed, any large proportion of the property holders of the city are justly within this censure, but there are enough to make instances of over-charge very common and to make a reputation unfavorable to the reputation of the city and discouraging to its prosperity. We hear of many instances where there is doubt for business rooms, for dwelling houses and even for ordinary furnished lodgings have doubled, or more than doubled, since the fire, the idea of the landlords seeming to be to turn the calamity which has befallen the city to the highest profitable account. Leaving the decency of this policy out of the question, it is damaging to the last degree to the growth of the city; it makes it difficult to do business and makes living high, not only working hardship upon the people already here, but forming a positive bar against the incoming of new population. This, of course, affects everybody’s interests, none more than those of the extortionists themselves. This is a time when all should work together with a view to the public good, and when any such who fails in this duty is an enemy to the public interest. Certainly there is no surer way of damaging the town than by turning its calamities into a resource for profit, and the citizen who does it merits not only censure but contempt.