The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-10
SWIlNDLERS BY MAILS
THoUsANDs or ADRorT sw1NDLERs MAKE THEIR TOT TUNES BY THE USE OF SUCKER" LISTS-SOME
 OF THE SCHEMES

New York letter fin The Washington
 Herald.
 Every boom in wali street, when stocks 70 skyrocketing and fortunes are made overnight by the lucky fel- lows on the right side of the market brings to the surface from the un- derworid of finance a horde of get rich-quick gentry. keen to take ad- vantage of the speculative fever by separating the creduious from their money. The wildcat company pro- moters. the discretionary pool" art fists. the sure-thing market tipsters. the "business opportunity" swindlers. the fake bond underwriters. the buck et-shop touts open offices or hire desk room In downtown office buildings not tenants and set their nets for the suckers" In some booms they have drawn in many millions.
 The laws of this country relating to swindling and near-swindling are so loose that only an occasional fool hardy or stupid financial parasite is sent to jail And 1t Is only in very big swindies that the evidence is strong enough to convict. The trouble usually Is that the victims. when they find they have been fieeced. keep their own counsel and refuse to peach for fear of the ridicuie of their farmer who buys the gold brick. He throws the brick away when nobody is looking and goes home as though nothing had happened. unless per- chance his loss has been so big that he is forced to ask the law to go after the thieves.
 No More Gold Bricks.
 The gold brick game is out of date The farmers have had their eyes open ed. But the gold brick game was mere chfld's play compared with the modern games of selling wowhless stock to sucker" The wildcat com pany promoters and all the other den- izens of the financial underworld, who have substituted. the stock certificate for the gold brick. ply their trade so much in the manner of real financers that 1t is difficult to say when they are swindlers and when they are not. few years ago they had almost com plete freedom to gather in their pe- riodical harvest of "suckers' with small chance of going to jail.
 Their two chief tools were the United States mails and the advertise relentless campaign conducted against the bubble financial artists in the past i've years, has resulted in tie closing of the advertising pages of many lead ing newspapers against their famboy- ant prospectuses. The malls, are still left. and most of the fishing for suckers" Is now done with the help of Uncle Sams army of postmen. But the government in recent years has kept a careful watch of the parasites of finance who use the malls to fleece the public, ani 1t is becoming more and more difiicult to lure the money of the credulous through the malls.
 Barred From The Mails.
 The government under the law. has the right arbitrarily to debar "schemes to defraud" from the mails. and whenever the Postoflce Depart ment has been convinced that swim dler or a gang of swindlers was using the malls to defraud, fraud order has been issued and the mail of that swindIers seized. The fraud order" In the famous Franklin Syndicate swindle of 1899 resulted in the seizure of pouches of mail matter containing scores of thousands of dollars" The business of ferreting out swindilng schemes Is in the hands of the post office inspectors.