The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1900-05-04
CHAT AND CHAFF.

Il suppose when the bids are opened
| for the stock OF the Siegel-Cooper COM
pany. offered to the public In the phil
anthropic spirit of ''profit-sharing with
our patrons IL will be found TO have
been largely over-subscribed.
And. Of course, Providence will be
largely represented, as IL always is
when anybody has stock 10 sell in any
thing.
Providence may usually be depended
upon 10 get feverish when anybody has
anything TO sell-especially IL the seller
comes from abroad.
For Providence is. IL anything. re-
luctant 30 take hold OF home indus
tries.
1t prefers something far off, either as
to its place or time-the fat Kansas
mortgages, Colorado mines. Nebraska
investment banks. for instance, liquid
air again for instance.
The farther off the better.
The bigger the figures and the small
er the available facts, the more eager
Providence folks usually are TO put
their money into scheme. The
brighter the future and the less the
present-why, that just catches us here
In Providence.
oh. I've been in 1t and l suppose you
have. too.
The Siegel-Cooper company's grand
cooperative scheme looks fine in the
prospectus.
1t seems to he a sort of marked-down
sale, a bargain counter in the way OF
an investment There doesn't seem to
be anything the matter with at-just
like finding money.
And yet, for my part, when see a
scheme like that try no restrain my
self by the Thought that nobody sells
anything that he wants to keep him.
self.
And especially do I regard with hesi-
fancy the proposition OF the man who
proclaims that his only desire is to do
me lots OF good as well as take my
money
/ have learned to be scareful OF the
philanthropist in business.
Selling stock for the sake of benevo-
lence Is not new proposition and Of
fers to- let you in on the ground floor
OF a good thing date back TO the period
when Adam sold the Garden of Eden
for house lots just es soon as he found
out that il was no be no longer an Eden.
I'm not saying anything about the
Siegel-Cooper proposition as an invest
ment because j do not know anything
about II.
Neither does anybody else except the
folks who are back of the proposition.
Only, just because IL looks SO entic-
ing doesn't demonstrate that 1t Is as
erticing as it looks.
As l said before. nobody sells any
thing that he wants TO keep.
The Siegel- Cooper company is big
and doubtless prosperous concern. II
made big success in Chicago. where
1t grew up, and then it came to New
York and set up huge establishment
in that town.
incidentally. II remember right. it
borrowed two million dollars to assist
toward this enterprise. and a mortgage
was placed on it's property to secure
the same.
1t was one of the biggest mortgages
ever taken out. do not know whether
II has ever been paid off or not
But / do know that since the Siegel-
Cooper concern opened up i'm New York
the other big stores in that big town
have been doing business just the same
and new ones have been established
there.
This shows that there Is room for all
and that the Chicago Arm doesn't mo-
nopolize all the business there is.
You see this new public profit
sharing corporation doesn't make any
statement OF it's business and doesn't
intend to.
In other words. II invites Investors to
go into blino pool.
The reason given for declining to give
a statement IL that the concern does
not wish Ito divulge the details of our
business TO competitors"
! can't for ahe life of me see how the
business would be injured, bettered
or affected In any way by reason of
competitors knowing what the balance
sheet looked like.
And IL Is dollars TO doughnuts, any
way, that competitors already know
considerably more about 1t than the
public does.
However, to offset this money is
placed In trust To guarantee dividends
on the stock offered for sale for FIVE
years to come, which looks fair and rea-
sonable, / must admit
Still, II is a blind pool just the same.
The concern Is Incorporated under a
New Jersey charter and everybody
knows that almost anything is possible
TO meet an emergency under New
Jersey charter. New Jersey makes a
good living selling elastic charters.
Ana as TO guaranteed dividends.
recall big concern that once upon n
time declared dividends for four quar-