Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1908-02-27

But l can pay more than half that
down" answers the manufacturer.
Well responds the president of
the guarantee company, 1--WE are COM
PEELED to have our fee in advance in
every case; our business is conducted
very much on the lines of a bank.
However, Mr.. Capitalist. who is to
place your bonds, has a material in
terest in seeing this transaction go
through, and no doubt he will be will
ing to advance half the fee and take it
from the proceeds of the bonds when
he sells them. Shall call him up on
the phone and ask him?"
This is done and after little dick
ering the agreement is made The
manufacturer goes back to the office
of the capitalist, gets a check for a
thousand dollars, puts his own thou
sand dollars with it and turns both
over to the president of the guarantee
company. Then the contract for the
sale of the bonds is completed and
signed. 1t contains provision that an
examiner shall be sent to examine the
plant, books and assets of the manu-
featuring concern and make a report
The capitalist explains that this is a
routine formality and merely by way
of official confirmation Of the state
ments made by the manufacturer, Of
the accuracy of which the capitalist
has not the least doubt.
The examiner duly visits the manu-
facturer and makes himself very
agreeable. After a time, when the
manufacturer gets no money from the
sale of his bonds and no satisfaction
from his letters to the capitalist he
makes another personal call The mo-
ment he enters the office he is made
to feel decided change in the tenn
perature of the place. The bearing of
the capitalist is one Of outraged inno-
cence. He presses button and in
structs the secretary" responding to
the summons to bring the report of
the special examiner who handled the
manufacturers case. This report is
read to the manufacturer, who is as
founded to hear that it states that his
original representations, made to the
capitalists were grossly exaggerated
and without substantial foundation,
and recommends that the manufactur-
er be prosecuted for attempting to de-
ceive and swindle the capitalist, who
terminates the interview by making
the manufacturer feel like a felon about
to be sentenced. II the manufacturer
does not himself plead for mercy the
capitalist finally indicates that he Is
inclined to be lenient and has deter
mined not to prosecute; but if the
manufacturer is obstreperous he will
be punished to the limit of the law"
Meantime the worthless check for
81 200 sent by the capitalist to the
president of the guarantee company
has been torn up and these confed-
crates have divided the manufactur-
er's $1,000 between them. This scheme
has been worked with many variations
upon hundreds of business men look
ing for capital. They have taken in
hundreds of thousands of dollars in
the country at large and have been
particularly successful in Chicago.
However, very considerable number
of them have been prosecuted by fed
eral and state authorities and have
been sentenced to heavy terms.
Another scheme which brought gen
erous fortunes to its operators, and
which also contains the element of DO
tential blackmail, is the wildcat in
surance fraud. The small business
man was a frequent victim of this
swindle. The names of the wildcat
insurance companies were invariably
built upon the titles of the standard
insurance companies in order to lead
the public into confusing their identi-
ty. Agents for these wildcat concerns
had no difficulty in placing immense
amounts of this insurance at cut rates.
The householder, the farmer, the mer-
chant or the manufacturer figured
that he had picked up bargain in in
surance and had made a material say.
ing.
Often, at the outset, company of
this stripe would pay a few small
losses in scattered communities in
order to bait other residents of the To-
cality to take out more policies. But
the first material loss brought matters
to crisis and the "adjustor' sent to
report upon the loss seldom, il ever
failed to turn in a finding more or
less boldly duplicating the holder of
the policy in the charge of arson. or
course it was intimated that if he pre-
ferred to drop the matter this ugly
charge would not be made public, but
if he insisted upon pressing the claim
of loss his good name would have to
suffer and the whole thing would be
aired in court. Many of these wildcat
insurance swindlers have been con-
victed in Chicago as result of the
energy and vigilance of the federal.
state and municipal authorities, but
the success of these operations dem
onstrated that the business man is not
exempt from the wiles of the swim
dler