Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-15
FRAUD ORDERS ISSUED
OF POST OFFICE DEPART
MENT MAY BE TESTED.
Efforts to Evade Law-Fifty More Peo-
pie and Firms. Barred From
the Mails.

There is the possibility OF a row on the
hands Of the Post Once Department for the
action of the assistant attorney general in
issuing fraud orders. There were today
orders to the number Of nearly fifty issued
against men In all parts OF the country,
who have been charged with being the
agents of a concern against which an order
was issued last winter and which took the
matter to the courts.
This was the case with the Preferred
Mercantile Company of Boston, which op-
Grated one of those enterprises guaran-
teeing to give diamonds to investors in their
stock. The company refused TO recognize
the right of the assistant attorney general
for the Post Office Department to stop its
business and sought an injunction to re-
strain the Postmaster General from carry
ing out the provisions OF the oroer OF the
assistant attorney general
This matter is still in allegiance, and In
the meantime the Post Once dep artment
the Preferred Mercantile Company were
oper ating all over the country under their
own names. Immediately an investigation
was begun, and the fraud orders against
every one of these men, VINO could IN any
way be connected with the Preferred Mer-
camille Company were issued.
Sought to Evade Order.
It Is explained that this course has been
taken because the company sought to cir
cumyent the order of the Post Office De-
partment by employing agents who con-
Quoted the business under their own names
and seemed not to be in any way identified
with the original company.
The assistant attorney general for the
Post Office Department not being court
of last resort, o. of any resort, for tnat
matter it has been whispered that any OF
a he engaged In other DuS1-
ness independently of the PREFERRED Mer-
camille Company The withholding or mall
from them might work to the disadvantage
of their other probably legitimate buSi-
nesses and they might feel that they had
good case against the government for In
terferng with this business.
These alleged agents are located In all
parts of the country and to none OF them
will mail be delivered during the life of the
order issued against them. Not even per-
sonal mail can be sen. to them. They are
as completely barred from correspondence
as if nothing like a mail service existed.
They are practically living in an age before
the advent of the pony express or the letter
carrier of the oden days, and in this fash
Ion will they continue g live as far as their
use of the mails Of the United States is con-
cerned. ss.s
Guarantee to Give Diamonds.
The plan of the original company was to
guarantee to give a diamond in exchange
for matured contracts upon which certain
sums of money, much less than the value
of the diamond, had been paid for varying
periods. These companies have sprung up
all over the United States and snumberstheir
investors by thousands. The Post Office De-
partment says that as long as newcomers
entered the lists the company would be
able to pay up its promises, but that
when investors began to fall of failure was
certain, and the greater the number Of in
vestors the wider the range of loss and the
greater the number of victims. Diamonds
were said to have been offered in order to
circumvent the state laws On banking and
insurance. Postmasters ell over the coun-
try Will be notified of tue action Of the de-
partment and from that moment will not
deliver any mail for any IF the men named
on the wholesale fraud order.