South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-01-17
REALTY BOARD ONE
OF BEST IN STATE
Local Organization Second in
Size Now Only to In
dianapoIiS.

second largest realty board i'm the
state as a result Of the membership
campaign which came To close
with the dinner Of the South Bend
Realty board a. the Y. VI. O.. A..
Tuesday evening. The dinner
marked the close Of one-weel5
membership campaign which trebled
the membership OF the realty board
and b. giving it total strength OF
los members made it one Of the
strongest organizations in the city.
scott l.. Brewer Of indianapolis,
secretary Of the Indiana Real Estate
Mems association and OF the state
city planning commission, was the
principal speaker OF the occasion
and discussed the 1917 convention
Of the state real estate association,
which will be held here this fall.
Admiral" Herman Tohulka's
forces defeated the army OF Gen
eraI" William Happ in the mem ber-
ship contest. scoring 29O points
10 their opponents $50. AS result
OF the campaign &c actual mem
bers and IS associate members were
added to the board. making il twice
as large as any real estate board
i'm state outside OF the city Of Indian
spolis.
The winners or the contest were
the guests Of the losers at the dim
ner Tuesday evening The commit
tee which directed the campaign
consisted OF Albert v. Weigel, chair
man: Homer Taggart. p. +. Bondur-
ant and Vernon G. Hastings.
IAuds Local Spirit.
In his speech before the board at
It's meeting Tuesday night Mr.. Brew
er expressed admiration for the
spirit Of the local board and its ac-
embellishments. He declared that
from reports he had heard on this
and previous trips 10 South Bend he
expected 10 see the city have mar
velous growth during the next few
years and emphasized the obligation
of the board 10 see that this
growth was along right lines. In
this connection he urged the board
10 use its influence 10 obtain the
passage OF the city planning bill.
which will be presented 10 the state
legislature within a few days. other
bills deserving the endorsement OF
real estate men, he said. were the
proposed bill to improve housing
conditions throughout the state, the
tax reform bill. and the bill call
ing for a state convention 20 draft a
new constitution. upon which action
the passage OF the tax reform law
depends. he said.
Mr.. Brewer praised in particular
the effort being made by the South
Bend real estate board to provide
against the housing shortage which
~ expected i'm South Bend within a
few months and declared that i'm his
knowledge il was the first effort of
the kind that had ever been made in
Any city of the country.
Plan To Finance Convention.
Most of Mr.. Brewers talk was.
however. taken up with the discus
Lon of the coming state convention
Of real estate men which will be
held i'm this city i'm the autumn.
He proposed as means OF raising
money for the convention that the
local realty board purchase deSir-
able land near or IN the city and
place 10 on the market as a new ad
ditiou This was the method used 10
raise money for the Evansville con
venuOu and IL proved most success
tul It has also proved successful
iu many other cities OF the coun-
try
William Hapr chairman of the
housing committee, which is at
tempting 90 stass off or prevent the
impending house shortage here.
gave an interesting talk on the re-
suit OF the Investigations which his
committee Is making. According to
the reports received to date il was
safe 10 predict that between 1000
or 5000 more houses would be
needed in South Send during the
next few years. and of this num-
ber probably as many as a 1900
viii be needed during the present
year
Al the present time it is shown.
despite the fact that this is the time
of the year when there usually is a
large number OF vacant houses i'm
the city there arc only 122 vacant
houses here. The present building
rate in South Bend Is only about
400 houses a year. This presents
serious problem 90 the city I'm TAX
ing care of the people who are COM
ing here this year and during the
next Few years and. according TO the
speaker. IL must be- met by some eN-
traordinary building effort. Hun
dreds OF thousands of dollars were
available for building Operators at
the prevailing rate of interest, &C
cordinE 90 the information which
has been gathered by Mr.. Happ.
When complete information on the
subject is secured 10y means of the
letters whites have been addressed
oy the South Bend realty board 20
manufacturer. bankers and real es-
tate and building companies. the IN
formation gathered will be pub
lished and "a determined effort will
,e made by the local realty board
te provide against the threatening
situation.
Brief talks were made ly a num-
her Of the members present Yer