The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-01-04
Legal Aid Society Moves Against
Financial SwindlerS.
Bucket Shops and Sharpers
Will Be Prosecuted.
VICTIMS ARE MANY.
Hundreds of Poor People Are
Defrauded Constantly.
Money Sent to Be Invested Is
Never Seen.

New York. Jan. 4.-The legal aid so
ciety has undertaken the task of puri-
flying Wall street. It's detectives are
gathering evidence against bucketshops
and brokers who have been fleeing the
public. 1t has the support of many
fnanciers, but there is hesitancy among
the active members of the stock ex-
change about indorsing the project.
For years the society has conducted
charitable legal work in behalf of the
oppressed poor, aiming mainly to save
them from persecution by sharperS and
Insurers and to secure restitution where
money has been lost. Arthur Won
BrieSen is the president. During the
past year so many complaints were re-
ceived from persons induced by alluring
circulars and smooth talk to invest
money in Wall street only to lose that
the society was led to make a careful
investigation of the subject 1t found,
that hundreds of poor people who had
saved from $50 to $500 had fallen into the
hands of Wall street sharks, mostly of
the bucketShOp kind, but not all, for
firms who make a showing of financial
responsibility were also engaged in the
business
At first the society, after gathering
facts and evidence, simply endeaVored
to secure restitution of the money lost,
and was successful in more than two
hundred cases. The complains contin-
ued and it was determined to make an
effort to end the swindling. The di-
rectOfS ordered the employment OF
counsel for these cases alone, and the
help of leading Wall street men was
sought
During the past week these bankers
and lawyers have joined the society in
it's undertaking: Van Hoffman & Co.
Ladenburg. Thallman & Co, Spencer,
Trask & Co. Flower & Co, James Loeb
George Foster Peabody, J. B. Colgate,
William c. Whitney, E. J. DeCOppett
William NJ. Evarts, James G. Carter
Thomas G. Sherman, Joseph Larocque,
Frederic Coudert, ]. T. Davis and w.
s. Opdyke.
THE holiness of Wall street swim
dlers is unequalled,'' said President Won
Briesen yesterday. by advertisements
and circulars promising enormous profits
they have succeeded in getting many
people to give them money to gamble
in stocks
No matter which way the market
may go the investor never sees his
money again. All sorts of schemes are
Springing up. The promoters have no
intention of buying stocks or of making
a legitimate investment. By fraud and
brazen lies they hold, to every cent that
comes into their clutches.
our society has gone into this field
hoping to do something to purify Wall
street. Our main object is simply to pro-
tect the poor and ignorant, but we shall
follow it up. We go first after the buck
bishops and whoever may be in the
sWtndling business, no matter what may
be his connections. I supposed we will
-
stock exchange. 1t is difficult to get
convicting evidence against these
swindlers, for they generally manage
to get some exchange broker to back
them up.
The stock exchange has made many
1nenectua1 moves against the bucket
shops, but the cases have never been
pushed to the end. Even the brokers
who pose as doing only high class bust
ness are not very DESTROYS of a court
ruling of what constitutes legitimate
stock transaction in the eyes of the
law The stock exchange rules require
delivery of stocks sold, but the men
who gamble in the street seldom see an
actual certificate of stock. The buying
and selling is largely margins, but
the brokers maintain that the rule re-
quir1ng the actual delivery of shares
leg1timizeS the transactions, although
such delivery may never be made, on
account of the repeated selling back
and forth. Thus only the last man gets
the stock, and in margin speculation
the last man is never reached