The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-06-24
FIFTY MILLION
WIRELESS
BUBBLE
Head of Great Scheme For
merly Reporter on Coun-
try Paper.
WAS IN MANY FAKES
Authorities Learn About
Inner Workings of
Such Concerns.
WAS IN MANY FAKES

| New YORK, June Z3.-The secret
plans of the Aladdin and the lamp"
scheme to form a $5O,OO0,O0O' wire
less trust, in which Elmer E. Burlin-
game was to be king, were learned
| today. Facts were also obtained
concerning the geyser-like career of
Mr.. Burlingame, from the time he
was reporter on an upstate news
paper to the stage that he was hand
| ling the stock of a chain of COM
panies with a total of $75,OOO,OOO
apitalization.
| The wireless trust was to be
known as the Universal Wireless
company. 1t was to take over the
following corporations:
The United Wireless Telegraph
company, capitalization $20,O00,00O.
The North American Wireless
Telegraph company, capitalization
100000.
The Continental Wireless Tele-
graph and Telephone company, CAPT.
talization $5,O0O,OOO.
The American Marconi company,
capitalization $6,65O.OOO.
Arrest Spells Plans.
The great bubble was burst by the
arrest of Christopher c. Wilson,
president, and Samuel Bogart, vice
nrncidnnf IF Init
and William Tompkins, former presi-
dent of the defunct New York SELL
ing agency of United Wireless stock.
Since the exposure of Mr.. Burlin-
games $1O.0OO.000 group Of wire
less telephone companies and his S.
100000 Sun Electric Generator COM
pany, which boosted of an invention
to transform solar heat into unlimit-
| ed light and power, a number of
men have come forward with infor-
nation concerning the promotion
methods Of this man.
To understand how E. E. Burlin-
game believed himself able to float a
$50, 100000 wireless trust it is neces-
sary to follow his career since 1877,
when he left the Elmira Telegram,
where, besides reporting, he had
charge of chess column and juven-
lie page. After quitting newspaper
work he was next heard from in
1890 in the Granite State Provident
association, building and loan COM
pany of New Hampshire.
Drew Heavy Salaries.
He had the position of secretary
with a salary of $4,000 a year. He
also received considerable sum in
bonuses of stock sales. After a bril-
liant start, the company landed in
the hands of a receiver. The col
lapse of the company temporarily
checked Burlingame's rise. c. Per-
cival Stewart, the organizer of the
Granite State Provident association,
was arrested
Later Stewart started a string of
get-rich-quick concerns, among
which the best known was the
American Investors Trust" which
had as it's Pennsylvania representa-
tive H. H. Mckee. He later became
vice president of the Atlantic & Pa
cific Railway Tunnel, of which Mark
n. Pomeroy of Boston was the chief
promoter.
The scheme was to tunnel the
Rocky mountains and excavate
enough gold and silver from the dig
gings to pay the cost of the railroad.
Many Other Plans Fail.
Then came the Polaris company,
based on claims almost as preten-
tious. Stock was sold on the prom
Use that refrigeration would be fur
nished at so small a cost that the
profits of the corporation would
be over 100 per cent.
Two other Arabian Nights" en-
terprises, in which Burlingame be-
came most active before he left Bos-
ton, were the Heel Cushion COM
pany'' and the Right Remedy COM
pany." After much sensational ad- |
vertising these corporations &ere |
taken care of by the sheriff. Bur-
lingame went into insolvency in Oc- (
tober, 1897.
During the last FIVE years he has |
been building financial cloudcastles |
in New York with so little show of |
his own hand that he has almost en-
tirely escaped attention.
He has worked through other men. |