unused
lands--swamps and deserts, cut-over and burned-over lands--are being
continually improved and taken under cultivation by private and public
effort. Not one land improvement and colonization company visited by the
writer complained of lack of land. All the companies seemed to want more
settlers and more credit. This fact indicates that there is economically
available land in our country, and probably plenty of it, for a normal
process of reclamation and colonization.

PUBLIC REGULATION OF LAND DEALING

In the field investigation, the main questions of immigrants desiring to
settle on land seemed to be where to find land of the "right kind," and
how, in acquiring it, to avoid being cheated by private land sellers.
The questions as to whether there was land available and what its price
was were of minor importance. In many cases the immigrants had been
employed in war industries and had saved money enough to buy a farm, but
they were unable to decide where to settle and what kind of land to buy
because they feared land sellers. Their experience with these agents
had awakened an almost universal fear of private land dealers.

To facilitate the access to land, the private land-dealing trade must be
put upon a higher level. There must be Federal legislation regulating
land dealers doing business in two or more states, state legislation for
dealers doing business within one state only, and municipal legislation
for the land dealers doing business within the city limits only. Through
co-operation of these governments uniformity of such legislation can be
secured and maintained so far as various local conditions and
peculiarities allow.

Such regulative legislation should aim at doing away with
misrepresentation and frauds in land dealing. As an effective assistance
in the enforcement of the laws all private land dealers should be
licensed, interstate dealers by the Federal, state dealers by the state,
and city dealers by the city governments. By refusing or recalling
licenses a considerable number of land sharks--get-rich-quick charlatans
in the real-estate business--can be sifted out of the trade and the
necessary confidence on the part of land seekers can be secured.

According to a report made in 1916 by the Committee on State Legislation
of the National Association of Real Estate Boards, a sentiment was then
growing in most parts of the country favoring the enactment of laws for
the regulation of real-estate b