The Washington times., 1934-04-11

khe announce S 2
Enens last night
kt g din net s
meeting Of the
W2 sh n gton 0
Rea. a Estate D,o;. ~ Es., -
Board at 2400 ~ ~
sixteentA st. The code was signed
Monday, and will be effective
Tvithin 80 days.
Tne dtrner meeting was real
nnccesS,
1t wsS given In honor Of the
District Commissioners but Com
missioner Melvin Hazen was the
only member Of the board to be
present. Commissioner Allen was
Slightly ili and Maj. Gotwals was
NtherWiGs unavoidably absent.
Charles Rush had everything
arranged so that it would start
clicking right on. schedule. So
promptly at o'clock, President
"A. c. Houghton of the local
Board with president Potter
mounted the rostrum and the
former, in a brief address of
welcome, presented Mr.. Potter.
!. Then came the surprise Of the
'6Vening.
. With all Mr.. Potter's national
Neputation as a pubic speaker
yea, as an orator, if you please
he did not make a speech.
He quietly informed the Real
bors, Of whom there were probably
100 present, that the code has
been signed. Then he informed
the gentlemen that he had trav-
Sled far and observed much in
E4le real estate business since his
selection as president of the ma
Eional association at Coral Gables
last February; he took it for
granted that they were serious
minded, interested members of
The association and would like to
query MIN about conditions he
had seen in the country and in
regard to real property in general
so he would be glad to answer
Rll questions Of that nature.
Tf1es the Realtors plowed in
with the questions. Some Of them
we're pretty difficult, but they
couldn't checkmate that big little
man from Houston, Tex, where
10 railroads meet the sea-"
Jimmy Isalkeld, of the Shannon
IiuchS firm, earned the title Of
Chief interrogation. John L.
Weaver was runner-up.
v Mr.. Salkeld's first question-is
There a probability that, in case
1t is decided there is an emergency
. Of that nature, Government funds
will be made eventually available
Tor apartment financing-brought
brief, succinct response from Mr..
Potter, when he traced the grad
EIal trend of Administration atti-
tude toward that end.
OF course the Federal mortgage
discount corporation-child of the
national association-Will proba-
Holy evolve from the plans for
building recovery now in progress,
Mr.. Potter said in reply to other
questions.
Most of the realtors had a ques-
don on the tips Of their tongues,
but none Of them allowed it to
roll off.
That question was-Should the
building finance organizations
demanded large curtails on first
trusts maturing during the de-
preston?
Too many powerful building
finance people were there.
Mr.. Potter would probably have
Answered that curtailS were nee
kSSary from a hard-boiled busi-
ness viewpoint, because, during
&he boom times, when money was
basy and finance firms were COM
peting with others to sell their
loans to builders, many projects
were just a little over-appraised.
CTtailS were necessary to bring
the property to its true level.
Commissioner Hazen told the
realtors Of the problems that be-
: set the District government, even
to the starting problem-with a
brand new startling joke involv-
ing his absent collaborate, Mr.. |
Allen.
: Mr.. Potter used some rather
forceful language in his discus
SionS Of the code. The besetting
difficulty, Of course, Mr.. Potter
said will be of compelling COM
apliance with its provisions.
Court decisions thus far are
favorable toward upholding the
Constitutionality of NRA and the
real estate board is ready to back
) the code authority in "a courage
ouG, forceful and virile attempt to
enforce compliance with it's provi-
GonS and to punish for failure"
Many out-of town realtors were
present, including George D. Rob-
ertSon and Mason Case, both Of