The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-02-14
HE is OPPOSED TO 1T.
Real Estate Man at Logan Against
License Plan.

To the Editor of the State Journal:
One would think from reading the
editorials in the State Journal that
the real estate men of the state were
all very eager to pay license OF $50
q year to support a state immi grafton
bureau. In this I think you are in
error. I, for one, am not. I have been
in the real estate business at Logan
for q years, and have paid out quite
little sum of money advertising this
section of the country. BY such
means / have brought in a number of
men from Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri
Illinois and other states who have pur-
chased farms here and become good
citizens
The legislature now threatens to
fine me $50 year if I do net quit it.
L did not think that I was doing
wrong, the land was here for sale,
much of it lying idle, and is now oc-
cupied by good citizens who purchased
1t and made a home of the same. If
I am to be fined $50 year for bring
country, L will step down and out and
let the prairie dogs take the land SO
far as my efforts is concerned.
This immigration bureau" and I'll
cense" system was Matched at the re-
cent real estate convention at Topeka,
which was composed of a very small
per cent of the real estate dealers of
the state. The object of the bill is to
create a few good offices for the chos-
en- few and make the rest of us pay
them an annual tribute of $50 for the
privilege of living.
What is this bureau of immigration
any way? I notice that some of the
advocates Of the law speak of the great
immigration that the ''state bureaus
of Colorado and Missouri have brought
into such states. Maybe they have. ]
do not know. But I have been in the
real estate business for , have
received thousands of advertisements,
circulars. statistics. photographs, etc,
advertising Colorado and Missouri, and
every one of them has come from pri-
waite real estate agents who have paid
for them with their own money. I have
never seen nor known of any advertis-
ing done by such Estate bureaus nor
of any immigration, factories or set
tiers brought into such states by them.
But if they do? If the settlement OF
the country is a matter of such i'm
portance that a state bureau of immi-
grafton should be established to ad-
vertise the state and bring in immigra-
ton, why should I be fined $50 year
for doing the same thing?
1t is said that this license of $50 a
year is to be used by the bureau OF
immigration to advertise the state
etc. If I am to pay $50 a year for ad-
vertising l want to do it in my own
way, advertising my own county and
town, and the properties l have for
sale.
The real estate business is an honor
able and legitimate business, and I see
no more reason why real estate men
should be required to pay a license OF
$50 a year than the grocer, the mer-
chant, the dentist the editor or any
other class of men. If it is thought adj
visible, however, to regulate the real
estate business, it can be done by re-
quiring such men to be men of good
moral character, proper qualif aations
and to maintain established ofil-es. A
license Of $50 a year is certainly I'M
reasonable and unjust.
T. M. SULLIVAN.
Logan, Kansas.