The morning call., 1894-02-20
A STRANGE HISTORY.

Under a new extradtion treaty with
Argentina the British Government has
succeeded in laying by the heels an arch
scoundrel of peculiar type, who by his
frauds has brought ruin into hundreds of
homes and is the indirect but responsible
cause of many suicides. Ii the British
public were addicted to lynching Jabez
BalfOuT. ex-member of Parliament, here
tofore prominent in the temperance cause
and in various movements connected with
the nonconformist denominations, would
be promptly run up TO the nearest lamp
post upon landing. Not in this century
has another such colossal villain in COM
mercial dishonesty played brazen life in
any country. Two of his confederates
now wear the convict's uniform, and if the
law has not lost its cunning Jabez will
join them when he has been brought back
from the Argentine Republic. where he
thought himself secure. II is interesting
to follow this mans career.
BalfOur was the creator and head Of a
number of companies now Familiarity
known as the Liberator group. They
were building, mOney-lending and insur-
ance societies. drawing their capital from
the hard-earDed savings of people of mod
est means, who had accumulated from a
few pounds to several hundreds of thou
sands, and were attracted as investors by
the bait OF high interest and the security
OF seeming Responsibility and piety, which,
as results show, were only unctuous can't
The very name "LIberator' was cunningly
contrived to entrap the large mass of nom
conformists, whose principles are at war
with state-suppOrt churches, and BalfOur
prominently figured as a champion OF those
Or inciples and a platform reformer of
moral and sncial evils. In such a man
there could not fail to be trust. II Jabez
Balfour could not be trusted to honestly
handle the money of other people. in whom
could confidence be placed? But it was
necessary he should be surrounded by
other men OF reputation. a body of diree-
tors was magnetiZed to act on the various
bOards-men of probity-but of no more
use in the exercise of qualities needed
in directors than if they had been born
blind. Among them was DR.. Dawson
Burns, woTld-kDOwn in the temperance
cause. whose high reputation for qualities
not essential to supervision lured many to
destruction. The boards, in short, were
largely constituted of fools, and the kDaves
who did the work did 1t well. The collapse
OF these companies came one after the other,
and the history of them in the Bankruptcy
Court is about as unSavory a mess of fraud
and simplicity as has ever been served up.
The companies were manipulated to assist
each other, and the transfers of stock and
properly left astounding profits in the
hands of the manipulatOrs. BalfOur was
the genius who regulated the wheels of
the machinery, spared the directors
trouble. fed the public with glowing &C
counts of prosperity and visions of hope,
and cooked The finances to suit the occasion.
Altogether about S30.OO0.0GO has disap-
pearad and Balfour's share of the plumber
must be considerable, for he lived as a
man of wealth, had two houses in the rural
paradises. and entered Parliament with
hopes of entering the Government as Post
master-General. for which Office his friends
believed him eminentlY fitted to be a sec
ond Rowland Hill.
When the collapse came Jabez knew
what would follow. He did not wait to
say adieu to any one, but collected what
property was portable and fled. He is an
ungainly little man with big head. red
face. short. thick neck. a bulging body and
short legs, but nature has favored him
with bullying disposition, immense
capacity Of energy. and an amazing reser-
volr of confidence. He had begun a com.
mercial career of some kind in Argentine
by getting into brewery, when the de-
tectives took him to Jail for extradition.
1t is not likely be would have resuscitated
the finances of that republic, but he might
have mended his own. The lesson Of his
life will not have been learned in vain if it
restraints the gullible from putting faith in
directors who are supposed to be good
business men because they are respectable
10 something else, and If it brushes the
system of fgure-head dummy dictatorship
led by the nose through the skill of an all
trusted manager.