The Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1903-1909, 1908-02-20

farms of the country. The response
was instantaneous and enormous. Al
though the scheme was in operation
only few months it took in over
$2,000,000. In the mails of the day
on which Post Office Inspector Stuart
of Chicago, enforced the fraud order
against this swindle more than $i5,
900 in post Office money orders alone
was received at the Fund w" ONCE
The check books of the concern
ceived in other forms of remittance
was to be used to pay 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 profts
therefrom-and these dividends
were put out where they would do the
most good in stimulating those who
received them to increase their in
vestments" and to spread the news Oh
this quick and easy road to wealth
among neighbors and friends. Some
of these so-caled monthly dividends
amounted to more than IL per cent.
Here was actual fulfllment, moi
promise! When the victims casheo
those dividend checks and found
that they were honored, any misgiv
ings they had harbored disappeared
and they felt that their financial III
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
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 reallzed
from a broad territory. Therefore
it mattered little il the first or orig
inal crop of victims received total
of dividends" amounting to their
original investment with good proht
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 swfndle,
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 were SO strong and carried ev-
idence of actual profits SO plausible
that the postoffice 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-
finement which makes their likeness
to the original difficult to distinguish.
But the possible investor will do well
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 tC
the bottom before any money is put
into 1t.
This nation has enjoyed long pc
riod of unexampled prosperity. AS a
result, thousands of men who a few
years ago were either poor or only
moderately well-to-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 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 proposition which
is essentially sound has only to make
proof of this fact in order to com
mand all the money needed whether
the enterprise requires millions or
only thousands. He has no need to
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 and
bottom he can get the money from a
few capitalists with less trouble than