The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1907-10-03
Difficult to Wipe Out
Mining SWindles.......

turn the matter over to the Govern
ment inspectors. While the stock.
perhaps, has been sold here and the
Offices Of the promoters are here, the
mine or the oil well may be in Mex
leo. E
AS a general thing district attor-
neys and police officials haven't any
up tcial funds to draw from with
which to pay an Investigator for such
a journey as that. 1t can be done a
little more readily, they say, by the
postoffice officials, because they cover
the entire country, and by means of
postmasters and the local inspectors
in places they can reach out much
further.
It's just that which makes the
game SO good and so much better
than the old green goods game" ex-
planned the old detective. Com
pared to the fake mining game the
green goods game was comparatively
easy to run down. 1t rarely meant a
trip of more than a hundred miles
and the average detective, once he
got come on was generally bright
enough to run the swindlers down
and get the goods on them. 1t was
the same with the wiretappers.
What's been the result? Now who's
going to tell whether the mine is a
fake or whether it isn't? The only
one to tell that. unless you get an
insider to squeal on his pals, is the
man who has actually made a visit
to the place where the mine is sup
posed to be.
But that isn't all. There are so
many technical things about mining
that man has got to study it pref
ty thoroughly before he's able to
tell just what's up when he gets TO
the place that is mentioned in the
prospectus. If he isn't right be can
be fooled as easily there as he can
be right here in New York. The
thing may be just as much of a swim
die as 1t got out prospectus and
sold stock in a company that was 60
ing to make salt into gold, but if it's
thousand miles from nowhere it's
going to be good deal harder to
prove swindle than the other, isn't
it?
OF course, the crooks are on to
this. Some of the old wiretappers in
consequence are behind security COM
panies whose offices would make your
eyes SWIM. It's more of a gentle
mans game, you see, than the old
one, and about the only persons these
fellows are afraid of are the post
ofice inspectors. But suppose they've
got claim of some kind out in the
mountains in Nevada and suppose
they haven't. You can bet they've
got somebody out where they say the
mine is located keeping watch for
anyone nosing around. They will have
plenty of time to close up shop, count
all the cash and made a good split
up. Is it any wonder that they pre-
fer mining to the other thing?"
AS general thing the man whocis
neeced in the mining game doesn't
get as much sympathy as the man
who gets tapped by the wiretappers.
He will find that the authorities will
first want to know why he didn't in
vestigate the scheme and it's back
ers more. One of the chief reasons
why the mining swindler enjoys such
immunity from arrest lies in the fact
that the average investment is not
more than 500. The majority of the
victims live in small places some dis
lance from the man who is selling the
stock and have not enough at stake to
make them feel like spending much
more money to get it back. All this
the mining swindler takes into ac-
count.
1t is likely that an increase in the
number of postofice inspectors will
be asked for at the next session of
Congress to meet this emergency
New York Sun.