The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1899-05-11

plant completed for the same reason as that
given by Mr.. Ahern. / hope II Is not the Mr..
Curtis who also said that the money in the
opposition telephone business was not In OPP
Grating but in building.n Why Is no we'll
known banking house called on to recommend
these six per cent securties2 Why should
the banking firm of Holmes, Holmts 4 Bea-
ton be called into existence just at this timer
forgot to ask, is the Mr.. Holmes who is
pooh.bah of the Detroit Telephoi accompanies
the one who sent Mr. W. f. Moss to Evans:
ville to secure a franchise2 And was he one of
of the Detroit telephone people whose bond
for 81 900 was forfeited when the capital
could not raised2 Only $4,000 was needed,
they said at that time, but then presume
that was before Mr.. Holmes went into the
banking business. / have taken the trouble
to look up the subject Of the securities Of these
mushroom telephone companies pretty
thoroughly, and there Is some kind OF pro-
motion scheme in every one OF them i often
wonder whether the Bell Telephone company
| is not responsible for these palpable fakes and
swindles2 II not, how could the opposition
| telephone business be run more to the ulti'
mate advantage OF the Bell monopoly than by
letting the public find out all by ITSELF without
word Of warning, that every cent invested by
the outsiders goes into the pockets Of the in
siders2 Or, to paraphrase the felicitous aphor-
ism Of Messrs. Holmes, Ahern and Curtis,
1.-THE money in the opposition telephone bust
/
noting"
| Investors should remember one thing with
| respect to these opposition telephone schemes
Just as long as the promoters can sell stock or
bonds Just so long can thep start up with as
many subscribers as they please, and pay div.
idends-for a little while. How, then, can the
promoters keep out Of jail, If they pay divi-
dends not earned2 Why, easy enough. Sup.
pose city has 5000 subscribers. Suppose
800 want to give up the service after time,
or can't pay-do the promoters take out these
telephones No, indeed. Why noR Well,
for two reasons. One is, their subscribers list,
printed from time to time, would show loss
and that would never do. But the second
reason is clincher: By leaving the tele.
phones in and making only mild attempt al
collecting, and in charging up the amounts
due from the worthless subscribers, the 'ac
counts raisable' grow and grow, and If there
is any money in the bank from the sale OF
stock or bonds, dividends may be paid. II
afterwards $50 900 or $40, 900 has to be charged
off to profit and loss on account of impossible
} collections-why the promoters are very sorry
indeed, and the law can't touch them. They
can work the game from city to city, Just a.
long as the suckers will bite,
In the course of my investigations founC
that the men, for the most part, who are in thu
game with Mr.. Holmes are, like himself
close personal and political friends of Gov
ernor Pingree, Of Michigan. II 1 remembe
correctly, Pingree was mayor of Detroit whei
the gang got the telephone franchise TO
nothing from themselves as city bosses, ant
sotd IL back to themselves, as directors ant
stockholders of the Detroit Telephone Com
pany,n for $3.50 600 in securities, which securi
ties were divided up among themselves, a
constituting the only stockholders in tn
Detroit Telephone Construction Company
Governor Pingree stood by the boys nobly
He wrote testimonial letter for them, tn
substance Of which was that the Detroi
Telephoning Company was success at rate
of $40 (for business) and $25 (for residences,
That it was paying eight per cent dividend
! and that the whole shooting match was on
grand, sweet song" Charles Flowers,
!, believe, is one of the officers of the Detroi
! Telephone Company-treasurer think. II
a is also corporation counsel of Detroit.
was he, 1 think, who nominated MI
!, Pingree ror governor this last election
3 How well the governor has learned a thin
or two about the tricks Of the promoting bus
ness will be apparent from the following e1
!. tract from his speech at Cooper Union, in Ne'
York, on April ID. Governor Pingree said:
TT Immediately executes mortgage on il
= property and issues bonds usually equal to th
ar iount of its stock The stock and bonds ar
given in liberal amounts to the promoter an
the fnancier, and distributed among the stock
= holders of the 40 small. companies. II
plain to the dullest of us that this proces
: means immense quantities of water in tn
stock and bonds of the trust. But what
A the promoter and flnancier care about that2
q The promoter and fnancier don't care, q
. the governors friends say, ''the money is nc
/ in the operating, but in the building"
now wish to express my appreciation c
8 the article printed in your issue of this morn
. ing, entitled, "Blind Speculation" 1t state
q the case in nutshell. 1 thought, however
q your readers and the investing public woul
like some hard facts that cannot be denied
In this work am glad to have the co-operf
7 ton of Governor Pingree, who certainl
4 knows what he is talking about.
f COMMON, DECENT HONESTY.