July 19, 1919





REC 6 RD    AND    G U-I D E







Licenses for Brokers

The Real Estate Board has under consideration the
question of submitting to the legislature a bill requiring
the licensing of real estate brokers and agents. It is
understood that the measure will be framed along the
lines of the Cahfornia law, which provides for a license
fee of $10 for brokers and $2 for each employe acting as
salesman. Candidates must qualify as to character and
repute, violations of the law are punishable by fine or
imprisonment, and licenses may be suspended or re¬
voked for misconduct.

Under the California statute the real estate business
has become established on a high basis and general sat¬
isfaction is expressed over the working of the law.
Michigan, Oregon and Wisconsin have recently passed
similar laws, and in Louisiana and Virginia real estate
men have been included among those liable for voca¬
tional taxes. The National Association of Real Estate
Boards, recently in session at Atlantic City, provided for
the inauguration of a nation-wide campaign for the en¬
actment of laws giving the realty profession the same
protection as other industries and for the establishment
of license fees in order to give the Government a line
on realtors within city or State jurisdiction.

The proposal is in line with recent undertakings in the
commercial and financial fields to ehminate from au¬
thoritative recognition those who conduct their opera¬
tions in such a way as to bring disrepute on the reputa¬
ble members in the same business. Recently it has
been proposed by the New York Stock Exchange to
regulate the curb brokers; physicians, lawyers, arch¬
itects, auctioneers, and many others have subscribed to
regulatory measures to their own advantage and the
protection of the general pubhc.

There can be no reasonable objection to law which
will not curb individual activity nor prevent by pro¬
hibitory fees the entrance into the real estate field of
any man of good repute. Proposals to restrict the num¬
ber of licenses and to require highly technical examina-
^ tions should be carefully considered before adoption.
Over regulation and an attempt to make a close corpor¬
ation of those engaged in realty operations might prove
as undesirable as the present non-regulatory conditions.
All that seems to be necessary is that the civic author¬
ities shall be provided with such slight supervisory
powers as to enable them to safeguard real estate in¬
vestors from those sharp practices that react upon the
whole body of men interested in the development of real
estate and building.





Coal

Basing its conclusions on figures of coal production
printed in an authoritative publication in that trade
the Record and Guide last week was led to minimize
the scare over a possible coal shortage during the com¬
ing winter. A typographical error in the news columns
of the coal trade paper gave the production of anthra¬





cite since January 1   as only ten thousand tons instead
of ten million tons less than the preceding year.

The facts are that up to July 5, the Governmental sta¬
tistics give the production as 40,204,000 net toijs as
against 50,812,000 net tons in the same period last year,
and 61,617,000 net tons in 1913. This falling off in the
output of the mines is due to several causes. There
was considerable coal carried over from last year, ow¬
ing to the mild weather; following the armistice manu¬
facturing diminished and the demand for steam coal
became less urgent and the use of bituminous coal,
which before the war was prohibited in many localities,
was continued after the armistice because inunicipal
authorities failed to enforce ordinances against it.

Forty per cent, of anthracite mined is marketed as
steam coal, under the names of buckwheat, rice and
barley sizes. These small sizes are the screenings from
the breakers which reduce the lumps from the mine to
the domestic sizes known as egg, stove, chestnut and
pea. Unless the steam coal is sold production at the
mines must be curtailed because without advancing the
prices of domestic sizes to prohibitive figures the opera¬
tion of the mines would be unremunerative. Storage
space at the mines is also insufficient for the large
amount of steam coal that would be left on the mine
operators' hands if only domestic sizes were sold, even
if the financial side of the problem did not prohibit the
piling up of large stocks of steam sizes.

Railroad shipments for this year are twenty per cent.
less than last year, and with the crop movement just
beginning and the movement of troops still large, the
railroads may have some difficulty in handling the large
amount of coal that will have to be carried between now
and the beginning of winter if something like normal
conditions are to be obtained before the cold weather
sets in.

It must be remembered, however, that this time last
year conditions were similar to those existing today, al¬
though the causes were not the same, but that in the
months following there was great improvement. In the
next four or five months it is possible for the mine
owners and railroad administration to effect a consider¬
able betterment of the situation. For one thing the de¬
mand for steam sizes is already stronger, owing to the
great revival in all lines of manufacturing, and with this
handicap removed mining operations have been renewed
and domestic sizes, for which there are more orders
than it has been possible to fill," will be in greater supply.

The bituminous production, with which New Yorkers
are less concerned, is about 26 per cent, under last year,
or 70,000,000 net tons. Mining, however, has been for
several weeks at a rate equal to consumption. This will
have to be materially increased if reserve stocks are to
be built up. Labor shortage, largely due to emigration,
and small supplies of cars, are responsible for condi¬
tions in this field.

Those who have their storage bins filled will have