Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1346

Carbon of a letter from Heath at Woodstock Hotel, 127 West 43rd Street, New York City to Lawrence B. Elliman, 660 Madison Avenue

February 3, 1941

Dear Mr. Elliman

You are a practical man. This means that you are adept and efficient in the things that have been done before in your line.

I have been a practical man, but I have also become a theorist. If that last word has not caused you to throw this letter away, I can still remind you that practical results never rise out of anything but sound theory — whether we understand the theory or not.

All practical affairs have their periods of advance and decline. You know how true this is in real estate. When it is in decline, we are bewildered, and when it is ascendant, we take it for granted, knowing little and caring less what causes the rise.

My friend, Mr. W.C. Pinkard, in Baltimore accepts the idea that the real estate interest needs to know a great deal more about the fundamentals of this business. At my suggestion, he is making arrangements for confer­ences between myself and some of his more enterprising associates. The idea is to lay the foundation for a constructive, long term policy to restore and raise pro­gressively the income and, thus, the value of real estate.

Real estate is, in actuality, the most fundamental business. It does not comport with its importance and dignity that it should have no more constructive general policy than that of trying to keep a few jumps ahead of the tax office. The ultimate policy must be for the real estate interest to discover newer and better ways of serving its clients and customers, present and prospective. In this direction, I have much to contri­bute. Would it be worth your practical while to talk it over with me, either alone or with one or two of your associates?

I am in New York just for a few days, but now that my friend, Dr. Robert E. Ely, has asked me to be his guest at the One Hundred Thirty Fifth Dinner of The Economic Club of New York next Monday evening, February 10th, I am arranging to stay over until that time. This will give me, I hope, the opportunity and the pleasure of discussing real estate values with you.

Please let me assure you that my interest in all of the above matters is wholly esthetic and intellectual, and that I do not seek nor contemplate obtaining from any source any material aid or personal prestige.

Kindly address your reply, or otherwise communicate with me at the Woodstock Hotel, 127 West 43rd Street. (Bryant 9-3000)

Sincerely yours,

 Spencer Heath

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