The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-12-21
CRUSHING THE BUSINESS.
Postmaster General Determined to
Stop Get-Rich-Quick Concerns
From Using U. S. Mails.

Philadelphia. Nineteen arrests
were made in one day in towns in
PENNSYLVANIA and New Jersey in the
governments crusade against persons
accused of using the mails to defraud.
The arrests were made by postal in
spectors and all the defendants were
given hearings before United States
commissioners and held in bail for
trial, or for further hearings, on
charges of using the mails to defraud.
Among the nor important defen-
dants with the result of their hear
ings are the following:
Chain Shoe Store Syndicate, Louis
T. Rice, president, Philadelphia; An
drew C.. Patterson, first vice presl-
dent, also president of the Excelsior
Trust Company of Philadelphia; Ed
gar Pohlig, second vice president and
treasurer; George H Brooks, third
rice president, Philadelphia. Each
was held in $1,000 for a further hear
ing.
Pine Heights Company, Robert G..
McMorris, Philadelphia; Harry F.
Stanton, Ocean City, N. ]. Waived
hearing and held in $500 bail each
for trial.
According to Postal Inspector Cor
telyou the Chain Shoe Stores syndi-
cate was capitalized at $4,000, 900. 1t
had advertised that it was establish
ing retail stores in large cities; that
it was purchasing shoe factories at
bargain prices and that the company
was able to do business cheaply by
eliminating middlemen. The Pine
Heights Company advertised and used
the mails for giving away and selling
lots in Southern New Jersey, which,
the government alleges, are practical
ly worthless.
Lewis Conrad, Conrad Lott and
William Bingham, officers Of the Cor
respondence Institute Of America at
Scranton, $1,000 each for further
hearing.
This organization has no connec-
ton with the International Correspon-
dence Schools.
Conrad, Lott and Bingham are res
p~ectively the president, secretary and
treasurer and manager of the Corers-
pondence Institute Of American. The
postal inspectors allege that this con-
Germ procured lists of high school stu
dents and wrote to them, stating that
their names had been recommended
as those of persons with artistic tai
ent. On this account the institute
offered SAP course of art instruction
under it's full faculty of fine artists
for 1850. 1t was said there was no
faculty of artists, but there were Co.
900 students enrolled on the books OF
the concern. :. y 3
Observation-Disclosures has been
received by Postmaster General
Hitchcock and Chief Inspector Sharp,
of the arrest of E. C. Drew, president
of the Alabama Electric Service Com
pany at Fort Payne, Alaa., on charges
of using the United States mails for
the conduct of alleged fraudulent en-
teEprises.
Harrisburg, Pa.-Abram G. Staufer,
Oscar A. Stauffer and Abram s. Stauf-
fer, prominent residents Of Palmyra,
Lebanon county, we're arrested there
charged with using the. mails to de-
fraud. Their operations, said to have
been in several States, r reported to
have netted thousands of dollars.
The Stauffers are charged with hav-
ing been selling instruments to locate
hidden wealth, one of the articles be-
ing the Spanish needle" They were
sold at from $40 to SIS each and
about 1900 are alleged to have been
sold in the last year. Charges Of the
sale of obscene literature through III"
mails have also been made.
The men were held in $4,000 bail
for court. The arrests caused a sem
sation in this vicinity, as their repu-
taticns were of the highest business
standing.