Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-06-19
BUCKET SHOPS PUT
OUT OF BUSINESS
THE POsTOFFICE DEPARTMENT
TAKES A HAND IN FIGHT
AGAINST ssCURBS.'

pOSIOMCe u0pdTGm0uC,4 WHICH IN SSb
took hand in the efforts Of local
and state authorities to put the
bucket shops out, Of business, has
now accumulated a batch Of infor-
nation that indicates that the fight
is nearly won. These concerns are
being put out Of business in one
way or another this year very rapid
".
Right under the nose of the de-
partment one audacious individual,
Percy Wade, continued business I'M
til this spring, when his doors were
shut by the district authorities and
he went to jail for 80 days.
n In a message to congress by Presi-
dent Roosevelt, he referred to the
Importance Of the bucket shop evil.
The great bulk Of business he
said, transacted on the exchanges
is not only legitimate, but is neces-
tsary to the working Of our modern
Industrial system, and extreme care
would have to be taken not to Inter
fere with this business in doing
away with the bucket shop type of
operation" Because Of the discred-
it to legitimate business from the
counterfeit concerns those which deal
only in differences and fluctuations
in quotations which they steal from
the exchanges have been jealous in
the fight against them, the Chicago
board of trade having expended hum
dreds of thousands Of dollars In as
sisting the postal and other author
tiles in fighting the bucket shops in
the courts. The great asset of the
fraudulent concerns is in their SEM
blance of real brokerage business
lin telegraphic apparatus, kept
clicking busily, in blackboards, hand
some furniture and rugs. BY sham
ming the transactions that are vital
to the farmers and business men of
any community they have interest
ed them and lured them into ven
lures that have no more do do with
real grain and real stocks than
mirage has to do with real oasis
in the desert. Most of the defaulters
and others have been found to have
lost their money in bucket shops,
they have used the phrase
s'lost on the board of trade, 2 being
unwilling to be classed as bucket
shop patrons.
he cashier of national bank at
Aurora, Ill.,. short SEQ 900, lost his
money in bucket shop in Ham
mond, Ind, which had been driven
out of Chicago, but asserted the
money went ION the board Of trade. ~
Such cases as this give point to-
President Roosevelt's words quoted
above. Point is given to his words
also by the fact that an anti-bucket
shop law recently passed in Oklaho-
ma has driven out of the state the
legitimate brokers as we'll as the
bucket shops, for lack Of discrimi-s
mating provisions in the law, such as:
President Roosevelt called attention
to as being necessary in wise legis-
lation on the subject.
In Cincinnati recently, 81 indict-;
ments against bucket shops were re-
turned at one time One of these
was against a firm that controlled
ITO branches, located in various
states, and reported to have an an.
nual income Of $2,000,000 Anoth-s
er firm was doing a business estimat-
ed at $1,000, 900 annually, with its
wires from Florida to Salt Lake City
and boasted that before the next
snow 1t would have wires to the
Pacific coast. Hoarhead & Co.,
firm with its ramification Of wires
from the Pacific to the Atlantic.
coasts, and Brown & Co., with offices
In Chicago and elsewhere, and an
extended wire service, have been
forced to quit. These great leaders
Of the fraternity practically controls
ed the entire business Of the Unit
ed States. &,
The fight is now fairly on, and
every state in the union is opening
its batteries against these bogus
concerns. One of the heaviest blows
yet dealt them was that OF Governor
Folk OF Missouri, when he demand
ed the enforcement of the state law
that fixes the penalty Of five years
in the penitentiary. Recently dur
ing a single twelve months, seven
states, Montana, Nebraska, MINES
otas Connecticut, Missouri and Ala
bama passed stringent prohibitory
laws against them.
These court decisions, far-reach-
ing as they are and valuable as they
have proven, have in nowise closed
the contest; they have only cleared
away the rubbish, and exposed the
ghouls in the light of their true
character Such decisions cannot
drive them from the commercial field