The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1907-11-14
arms Of the country. The response

on which Post Office Inspector Stuart,
OF Chicago, enforced the fraud order
against this swindle more than $751;
600 in post office money orders alone
was received at the Fund w" office.
The check books of the concern
showed that this money with that re-
ceived in other forms Of remittance
was to be used to pay a dividend"
amounting to $4,000. A further ex-
animation into the affairs of the
swindle established the fact that the
current receipts from victims were
used right along to pay dividends
without any regard whatever to any
deals on the board or any profits
therefrom-and these dividends"
were put out where they would do the
most good in stimulating those who
received them to increase their lin.
vestments" and to spread the news of
this quick and easy road to wealth
among neighbors and friends. Some
of these so-called monthly dividends
amounted to more than IL per cent.
Here was actual fulillment. not
promise! When the victims cashed
those dividend checks" and found
that they were honored, any misgiv-
ings they had harbored disappeared
and they felt that their financial flu
ture was more than assured. They
showed these remittance letters to
the friends they wished to favor and
this process multiplied the victims in
a cumulative ratio besides drawing a
big increase of investments" from
the original victims. OF course the
number of the earlier victims was
very small in comparison with the
crop which this cumulative process
of culture developed when once the
effect of the stimulant was realized
from a broad territory. Therefore
it mattered little if the first or orig
inal crop of victims received a total
of "~dividends'' amounting to their
original investment with a good profit
added. So long as new victims null
tiplied in numbers with each incom-
ing mail and the older ones added to
their speculative contributions the
dividend" game could be played with
impunity.
Investors" by the tens of thou
sands poured an ever-increasing vol
ume of money into the treasury of
this Infamous get-rich-quick swindle,
and when the postoffice department
shut down the iron gate OF the fraud
order, thousands of angry letters of
protest were sent to the head OF
the department at Washington. These
protests demanding the inspectors re.
moval we're so strong and carried ev-
idence of actual profits SO plausible
that the postofice inspector was sum-
moned to Washington to explain the
situation. The only explanation
which he made or needed to make
was to produce the proofs that the
concern had been paying dividends"
from moneys received as investments,
not from profits actually earned. He
was told to go back to his work. Sub
sequently the case was turned over
to the department of justice for Grim
inal prosecution and the men in the
swindle-or at least some of them
were convicted and sent to the peni-
Tertiary. But the work of these swim
dlers has lived after them in thou
sands of other schemes fashioned on
the pattern of the Fund w" in every
essential feature.
OF course variations in almost in
finite number have been devised, and
some of them possess a degree Of re-
fnement which makes their likeness
- 4Io or;p;~o1 difS o,,1f f0 1icti rric1,
But the possible investor will do we'll
to consider that the actual payment
of or the promise to pay an excessive
rate of return is sufficient ground for
the suspicion that the scheme is
questionable and should be sifted to
the bottom before any money is put
into it.
This nation has enjoyed a long pc.
Rod of unexampled prosperity. AS a
result, thousands of men who a few
years ago were either poor or only
moderately wellto-do have become
comparatively wealthy and have
made more money than they need in
the operation of their regular bust
nesses. In fact, there is a great null
titude of these new capitalists who
have retired from their former occupa.
lions to live on their money.
This means that everywhere there
is an accumulation of capital seeking
investment at reasonable rates, and
the man who has a proposition which
is essentially sound has only to make
proof of this fact in order to com
~,o-l Ill %Lo ~@~1r ,o1lol ,,I.4L>.
the enterprise requires millions OF
only thousands. He has no need tc
deluge the mails with circulars and
form letters making appeals to "the
people" to come in with their savings
If his enterprise has real substance anc
bottom he ear get the money from {
few capitalists with less trouble thar