The defendant can open up the
judgment and put in a defense if he can show misrepresentation and
fraud. This year, when several applicants applied for new licenses, the
board found this condition and the licenses were refused.

The applicant for license must show affirmatively that he is trustworthy
and competent. In the past the state took no pains to find this out. The
licensing board operates as a poor man's court of redress in
transactions arising out of the land business. In the past the
purchaser's remedy was a more or less satisfactory suit at law.

The licensing board can make investigations and hold hearings on its own
motion. In the past the initiative had to be taken by the party claiming
deception.

Last year the board granted licenses to 4,600 brokers and salesmen,
denied 20 applications, revoked 2 licenses, and has at present 60
hearings pending on applications for licenses in 1921.

The Wisconsin license law does not reach the owner who has worthless
land to unload upon an unsophisticated purchaser. Besides this, the law
has other limitations. But nevertheless it is a step ahead.

Pennsylvania, the Southern states, and cities in many parts of the
country have required a license fee or an occupation tax from
real-estate men, but such laws do not regulate, because, as the
above-mentioned report states, "no matter how high the fee, the usual
run of licensing or prosecuting official will not use his authority to
establish moral standards." Furthermore, "in New York and most Northern
and Western states, even the slight check of the occupation tax is
absent and there is no formality to be observed in entering our
profession by any person, no matter how unreliable, irresponsible, or
incapable, and whatever his record."

After agitation covering a period of twelve years, the real-estate brokers
of California succeeded in 1917 in having enacted a law for the regulation
of real-estate brokerage. In 1918 this law was declared unconstitutional by
the Supreme Court, on the ground that insurance men were exempted by the
wording of the act and that such exemption made the law discriminatory.

The Real Estate Commissioner of the state gives the following synopsis
of the law:

The act "provides for the issuance of licenses to two classes of
persons--the broker himself, who, in addition to taking out a
license, is required to put up a bond running to the state of
California, and the salesman,