The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-03-18
JOHN HILLS BOOK "GOLD BRICKS
OF SPECULATION" SAID 1T
WOULD COME.
Several PAGES of This Standard Work
Were Devoted to Scathing Denun-
citation of Hammond.

Perhaps the best authority upon
matters relative to swindles and
schemes of fraud in commerce and
finance is the book entitled Gold
Bricks Of Speculation which ap-
peared last year, says the Minneapo-
lis Journal. This book embraces prac-
tically everything that had gone be-
fore with relation to the general sub
ject and includes the more recent
events Of note. It is from the pen of
John Hill, jr., Of Chicago, who is
known to every man in the legitimate
grain trade, the country over.
Mr.. Hill, member of the Chicago
board of trade, was for many years a
member of the quotation committee
of that body, and later became chair
tee. His experience over a period of
years took him to all markets and
brought him in contact with fraud
schemes of every kind, many Of which
he was successful in uprooting.
The New York Commercial ap-
preached Mr.. Hill with an offer to
write a series of articles covering the
subject. These appeared in twelve
installments in the Commercial, and
were thought to be so comprehen-
sive and so thoroughly explanatory
that they were afterward collected
and put into book form. The fol-
lowing extracts from Mr.. Hills chap
ter on bucketships, referring to the
Coe Commission company and George
J. Hammond, it's manager, will be of
interest, now that the collapse of that
concern, predicted by Mr.. Hill, has
come about. 1t is perhaps only fair
to say that The Journal has con-
sistent1y refused to accept the Coe
Commission company's advertising,
on the ground that it's business was
illegitimate. The extracts follow:
minneapolis has a bucketshop, the
Coe Commission company George J.
Hammond, president and manager.
The officers of the concern have stip-
ulated in court that the Coe Commits
sion company is a bucketshop. They
do not deny the fact nor try to dis
guise it. But they have 100000
capital and surplus" according to
their advertisements. Further, they
refer to sixty national and state banks
and print the names and locations OF
these institutions. According to the
map which they publish, their wires"
extend from New York and Boston
to Spokane, Wash, and Portland,
Ore. They insert full-page adver-
tisements in Minneapolis and st. Paul
papers. **
This concern has grown so that
the wires cross half a dozen states,
and the number of it's offices exceeds
100. It is a successful bucket-shop,
for the reason that it has a bank
roll made up of it's own or it's pa
irons money.
THE hankroll speaks through
the columns of newspapers. 1t defies
the legitimate brokers, milIers and
exchanges. It's holiness excites the
admiration of the thoughtless, who
rush to the seventy-five branches
to hand in their money, which is i'm
mediately telegraphed to headquar-
tiers to swell the bank roll-to give
power and immunity to George J.
Hammond, which he can enjoy only
so long as the bankroll buys it for
him. And the Coe Commission COM
pany is simply another name for Geo
J. Hammond; for when the Coe Com
mission company was established two
or three years ago, Hammond was
timid; he did not like to use his own
name; he had not tested as yet the
magic effect of the bankroll on the
people of the northwest; he did not
know its efficacy.
Then again, the name of George
j. Hammond was nothing to be proud
of. as the Chicago papers had in