The two enjoyed a booming business in the 1920s and acquired some prime property, including a fifteen-story skyscraper in the Loop and a massive apartment complex on Lake Shore Drive.
The chief demand of ARET was that local and state governments obey a long-ignored provision of the Illinois Constitution of 1870 requiring uniform taxation for all forms of property, Pratt charged that the failure to assess such personal property as furniture, cars, and stocks and bonds was not only illegal but left owners of real estate with excessive burdens.
ARET's program also included support for sweeping rate reductions in the general property tax and retrenchment in local governmental spending.
Mayor Anton Cermak and other politicians desperately tried to break the strike by threatening criminal prosecution of Bistor and other ARET leaders and revocation of city services.
In the years after the collapse of ARET, Bistor continued to be heavily involved in Chicago real estate, and became the trustee of Honest Money Founders.