1672-11 History-City of Miami Beach (. .'E' ' f 1 , . ..
shortly South Florida would burst from the pressures of a population over a
million. Said Ballinger: "Had anyone in September declared in the full hearing
of others on Flagler Street that he thought the boom was nearly over,he would
have been rushed to the old stone jail and locked up as hopelessly insane."
That same September another blow struck, this one from a new and unex-
pected sector. Seven Ohio banks pooled their resources to issue an anti-
Florida advertising blast that echoed all over the Middle West.Stunned by the
transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars from their establishments to those
in Florida, the Ohio banks hit back hard with a tough question for Middle
Westerners to ponder:
"You are going to Florida to do what?To sell lots to the other fellow who is
going to Florida to sell lots to you. That is about all you can do in Florida
unless you want to work "
Theirs was only the first of a series of outraged attacks.The Scripps-Howard
chain of newspapers printed a series of articles declaring that the boom was }
over in Florida, that all the profits had been made, that the binder-boys had
been run out, and that Santa Claus was(lead. The Asheville, North Carolina,
Citizen suggested that martial law be declared in Miami; returning investors .
were contending that rent profiteers made it impossible for anyone less than a
millionaire to get a night's lodging. "Florida is a regular madhouse,"screamed
f
As the embargd tightened its grip, the Albury Docks overflowed with bath tubs.
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;ti, the headlines in a South Carolina paper.Citizens in Richmond,Virginia,call-
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..ii, a ted for a special legislative session to devise ways to counteract the damage
.- , done to Virginia by the huge migration to Florida.
1 > On October 9,Florida leaders met with most of the New York publishers at
the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Among the representatives from Florida were
�'r Gov.John W.Martin and five prominent Miamians:Merrick and Roney,both
members of the realty board; Frank B. Shutts, founder of The Miami Herald;
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I.E. Schilling; and William N. Urmey.
4; Ballinger, who covered the meeting for the Herald, later wrote: "Splendid,
- convincing speeches were made by Governor Martin, by Herman Dann and
4t. Barron G. Collier and many others. They were answered in kind by the pub-
11 ; lishers, none of whom, in the final analysis, seemed to hold any grudge
a against Florida. They declared they had printed the horrible details, real and
1 9 imaginary, which their writers had brought back from the boom as being in-
't finitely more interesting to their readers than the kind of soothing syrup the
'`a promoters and the publicity men of the boom were peddling. When it was
,t? over,everyone felt better and the Floridians went home hoping that what they
I halfway feared was not yet upon them,namely a real estate slump such as the
• j stock market periodically experienced.Virtually no one of that Florida delega-
1' tion would have dreamed the boom in Florida would be as dead as a salted
mackeral three months later."
- I.r On and on the embargo dragged. One ingenious Miami contractor came up
i' �I with an imaginative scheme to smuggle in a carload of bricks. He had bricks
sent down from the North billed as lettuce.The car was iced down to fool the
,' authorities, but the trick was discovered in the Miami yards. All hands in-
. . volved were discharged, and no more iced bricks came through.
1 In November the realty board shortened the binder period from thirty days
to ten days, hoping to discourage the return of the binder-boys. At Coral
• '' iGables,Joe Mitchell Chapple was named to succeed the late William Jennings
k( ,I Bryan as head spellbinder.
By Christmas, Miami was a billion-dollar town as 1925 bank clearings
i reached that lofty figure first had a b
issued 7,500 real estate licenses
forthe of whichtime.It only 3,000been were
usy stillyear.activeThe incity earlyhad
1111 • 1926. A chamber of commerce survey in late December showed a surplus of
t, ; rooms and apartments, thus easing the high-rent problem that had hurt the 4
area.
In November, Lon Worth Crow had issued a statement,putting the Miami
Realty Board on record as a strong opponent of dishonest real estate practices.
1 He pointed out that all fast-growing cities face serious problems in controlling
unethical practices: "Wherever money is plentiful, the people spend freely.
mail ' The professional crook knows this and takes advantage of it to enrich himself.
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all- Another condition which plays into the hands of the dishonest class is the
age nation-wide advertising of Miami. Many cases are known in the office of the
Miami Realty Board where business men, who would not purchase a corner
at lot in their home town without first making a thorough investigation of the
ire property and the agent, have purchased Miami lots they have never seen and
)th often through agents of whom they know nothing.
Id; "When businessmen will make purchases in such an unbusinesslike way
they actually invite fraud and the only wonder is that there have been so few
iid, cases of fraud as there are. . . . I am sufficiently optimistic about Miami to be-
md lieve that this city has as large a percentage of honest and honorable real estate
ub- brokers as any rapidly growing city in the nation, but like other rapidly grow-
.ge ing cities, there is the other type, and it is the other type that the Miami Realty
Ind Board is attempting to curb, but we find it a very difficult task when visitors
in- and other businessmen, all over the North, deliberately lay themselves open
the to swindles. . . .
vas "Warning the citizens of a community against going to Florida or making
1ey • any investments here, with the selfish purpose of keeping the money at home
the where certain financial organizations can reap a rich harvest from the use of
ga- these funds, is not a beneficial act to a community but a harmful one, and
ted T.E.Donovan and C.D. Wallace believed in the power of big signs for pulling in real
estate prospects. (Romer)
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wIli I only to the financial advantage of the few who control the community's fi-
nances and reap the reward from this control."
`` ! Crow further pointed out that the board was now receiving information
a from realty boards in other cities about possible undesirables who might try to
enter the real estate field in Miami.The board would then move to block the
=" i# issuance of a license to that person.He also stressed the fact that the members
of the board who were found guilty of unethical practices were immediately
suspended and in some cases expelled from the board. In moving against real
. estate dealers who were not members of the board, Crow declared that the
a board was using its influence to bring these people tto the attention of the
courts.
As the year ended, Crow stepped down from the post he had held for two
4 straight years and readied himself for the presidency of the Miami Chamber of
Commerce.Three hundred board members assembled at the Urmey Hotel for
s:r
the seventh annual dinner.
Crow listed twenty-seven of the board's major achievements. He was par-
'.titicularly proud that the board had started and practically completed a million-
dollar, fifteen-story Miami Realty Board Building; that it had assisted in the
1:h
.. organization of a better business bureau for Miami; that it had inaugurated a
through the local papers, setting
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forth the meaning of the word"Realtor"and explaining the responsibility that
=: . . .; the Realtor owes to both buyer and seller,and that it had assisted in organizing
the Redland District Realty Board and the Havana Realty Board.
)-;
Manley stepped forward bravely and called for the Realtors to chase out the
"bird dogs"—crush the tricky operator. "Have faith that Miami is to he the
largest city in the South," he said. "Remember, too, that climate as an asset
never fluctuates and be assured that the coming 12 months will be the most
active in Miami's history." t
Manley was partly right—it would be an active twelve months.
The 15-story Realty Board Building dominated the N.E. 1st Avenue scene. IMBRI
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