334 
Curbing the Land Shark 
('Continued from page 321 ) 
The crook whom this law is designed to 
curb makes no distinction. He plies his 
trade wherever he believes there is a 
fertile field, irrespective of the size or 
location of the county. It is to be hoped 
that the legislature will make the law co¬ 
extensive with state boundaries. Fortu¬ 
nately, the Commission, in a case recently 
presented to it by The Jewish Agricultural 
Society, ruled that the place of the resi¬ 
dence of the broker, not the location of 
the property, determines the jurisdiction 
of the Commission. Indeed, in the case 
before the Commission, the property was 
located in a county not included in the 
law. The Commission entertained the 
complaint because the broker had an 
office in New York City. 
Law with Teeth Needed 
A real estate licensing law with teeth 
should prove much more effective than 
criminal prosecution in rooting out fraud. 
For one thing, it is easier to establish a 
case. Immoral character, general un¬ 
fitness, unethical conduct, unfair business 
methods, are sufficient ground for refusing 
to grant a license, or for revoking a 
license already granted. The investment 
of the Commission with the power to 
hear complaints, should make the most 
disreputable real estate man wary of 
engaging in questionable practices. The 
right of the Commission to revoke a 
license should go a big way toward ridding 
the business of the human leeches who 
would.suck out the life blood of their own 
brothers. Real estate agents perform a 
legitimate and useful function. As a 
class they are men of irreproachable 
character and integrity. By weeding 
out the undesirables, the odium which at 
times attaches to the business will dis¬ 
appear and the business be placed upon 
a higher level. 
A good example is furnished in the 
report of the New Jersey Real Estate 
Commission for the fiscal year ended 
June 30th, 1923, its first full year of 
operation. It had investigated 452 com¬ 
plaints and held hearings in 189 cases. 
As a result, five licenses were revoked, 
twelve were suspended, and information 
in the cases of eighteen persons found 
guilty of operating without licenses was 
sent to the Attorney General for prose¬ 
cution. Almost one hundred licensees 
were warned to discontinue their sharp 
practices. Approximately $50,000 wrong¬ 
fully withheld by licensed brokers and 
salesmen was recovered. 
Commission Alone Not Sufficient 
The existence of a Licensing Com¬ 
mission is, however, not in itself sufficient 
to cure the land shark ills. Few people 
know that such a Commission exists, or 
knowing it, are ignorant of the method of 
procedure in bringing complaints before 
it. This is especially true of farmers. 
That accounts for the fact that out of 
approximately three hundred complaints 
lodged with the New York Commission 
not more than twelve came from duped 
farm buyers. And this is easily under¬ 
standable. Real estate transactions in 
the city are of larger size, even if not more 
important in their consequences to mis¬ 
guided buyers. The money invested by 
the city buyer, as a rule, represents his 
savings utilized to provide a home, an 
added income, or a prospective profit. 
If he discovers that he has been cheated he 
has an attorney to t urn to to seek redress, 
and can afford to pay, for his services. 
The farm purchaser buys not merely a 
home but a. business, a business which 
requires, in addition to the real estate, a 
large investment for equipment and 
operating capital. By the time a farmer 
finds that he has been fleeced he is 
usually beyond hope and without means 
to employ counsel. 
The Legislature enacted the law under 
which the Commission was created but 
the Commission cannot per se become 
fully operative. It resembles in this 
respect a court of law. The court’s 
jurisdiction is limited to the adjudication 
of issues brought before it. It cannot of 
its own motion initiate a suit. The 
Commission can only function full if 
people will lay their grievances before it 
for determination. It is a judicial 
tribunal, not an agency to ferret out 
fraud. In a case instituted by a Jewish 
farmer the Jewish Agricultural Society 
drew up the complaint and will prepare 
the evidence for presentation. A body 
that can act in a similar capacity for all, 
that can undertake to sift out the evi¬ 
dence, formulate the charges, and prepare 
a case for hearing, would make the law a 
vital force in eradicating the land pirate. 
Lacking such an agency, it becomes all 
the more important to spread a knowledge 
of the existence of the Commission, of the 
manner in which it operates, and of the 
end which it aims to attain. 
We need not argue that it is just as 
well to let the weaklings fall by the way- 
side, that there is room only for the 
strong in a business which some believe 
is overcrowded. The man who sees his 
hope in farming has a right to his chance. 
If he fails, let it be through his proved in¬ 
capacity or inherent ineptitude, not 
through the machinations of ruthless 
profiteers. He is entitled to protection. 
But above the fate of the individual is the 
welfare of the community. This cancer¬ 
ous growth must be cut out for the good 
of agriculture and for the preservation of 
the integrity of American ideals. 
JAfter the completion of this manu¬ 
script, the writer learned that the New 
York State Commission had just re¬ 
voked the license of a Farm Sales Co., o:i 
the ground of incompetency. 
An Old-fashioned Plow-handle Talk 
{Continued from page 320 ) 
of people in the whole world than the farm 
family folks who have administrative and 
working duties, and a Grange feast meet¬ 
ing is the place to observe it all. If one 
wants to see a good time exemplified, go 
and see a gathering of a capitalistic labor 
combination in a home atmosphere, the 
best expression of true democracy and 
national security, the world has ever seen 
or known. These people do not want to 
dynamite the constitution in order to 
give them greater security. 
Yesterday we were putting away late 
used fafm tools and I wondered how we 
were able to pay for and repair them and 
then the reverse thought went through 
my mind. How could we get on without 
them? I don’t buy tools just for the 
sake of having a big show by any means. 
Only those that have a necessary place in 
farm economy are used, and yet they foot 
up in cost. Personally I don’t like 
machinery and if we didn’t have men who 
are farm experts in the care and handling 
I don’t know what would happen. 
Now on the other hand what would we 
do without them? I know' we just 
wouldn t do—and the whole business 
from soils to the finished baby food 
delivered to the home w r ould go busted. 
And so the whole lesson after all to every 
farmer who has a desire to keep up, is to 
keep watch of his final goal and then 
educate himself to employ the most 
economical means to that end, whether 
he likes it or not at the outset. 
Why 1 Oppose the Amendment 
{Continued from page 325 ) 
save the children from abandonment some 
municipal or privately managed agency is 
necessary to take care of the children—so 
busy are the parents. Maybe this pro¬ 
posed law is necessary in certain highly 
specialized factory and mining localities 
of which I cannot speak. But even then - 
I am suggesting that the remedy, a real 
lasting remedy, will be found through the 
presently established Departments of 
Education under compulsory school at¬ 
tendance rather than to be cared for by 
Congressional enactment.—H. E. Cook. 
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