The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1910-12-20
| n CAUGHT
IN POSTAL RAID
All Are Charged With Trying to
Get Rich Quick.
USED MAILS TO DEFRAuD
Some OF Them Sold Stocks, Some
Real Estate, Some Remedies
and Some Instruction
in Art.

Philadelphia. Twenty-Five arrests
were made in Pennsylvania and New
Jersey in the governments crusade
against persons accused Of using the
mails to defraud. The arrests were
made by postal inspectors, and all
the defendants were arraigned before
United States commissioners and held
for trial or for examination.
Seven arraigned in this city in
cluded for officials of the Chain Shoe
Store syndicate, with Offices here;
two constituted the Pine Heights COM
pany, New Jersey land improve
ment concern, with local Offices, and
the seventh is a local physician.
Louis L. Rice, president; A. @.
Patterson, first vice president; Edgar
Pohlig, second vice president and
treasurer, and George w. Brooks,
third vice president of the Chain Shoe
Stores syndicate. were held in $1,000
bail each for examination Jan. g..
Robert G.. McMorris of this city and
Harry f.. Stanton of Ocean City, N. T.,
officers Of the Pine Heights company,
land concern, waived examination
and were held in $500 bail.
Postal Inspector Co7te1you said the
Chain Shoe Stores syndicate was cap
italized at $2,000,0O0. 1t had adj
vertised that it was establishing re-
tail stores in large cities, purchasing
shoe factories, and that it was able
to do business cheaply by eliminating
middiemen.
The Pine Heights company adver-
tised and used the mails in connec-
ton with the giving away and selling
of lots inNsouthern New Jersey, which
the government alleges are practical
ly worthless.
DR.. Hornstein of Philadelphia is
accused of sending through the mails
circulars advertising a remedy, and
is charged with making fraudulent
statements in his literature. The
other prisoners are:
Charles B. Mckee, Huntingdon,
Pa; ]. S. Lepsch, Ridgway, Pa; John
A. Weitzel, Lancaster, Pa; Abram
g., Abram S., and Oscar A. Stauffer,
Palmyra, Pa. William S. Lean, Leb-
anon, Pa; Ira G. Webster, Newark,
N. j.; Oscar Gustavson, Jersey City;
S. Joseph Silverman, Pittsburg, and
Lewis Conrad, Conrad Lott, and VIM.
Bingham, Scranton
Conrad, Lott and Bingham are re-
spectively president, secretary and
treasurer, and manager of the CORE
spondence institute of America. The
inspectors allege that this concern
procured lists of high school students
and wrote to them stating that their
names had been recommended az
those of persons with artistic talent.
On this account the institute offered
a course of art instruction for $3.50.
It was said there was no faculty of
artists, but there were 69,00e per-
sons enrolled in the books of the CON
Germ.
Mckee, who was arrested in Hunt
ingdon, traded as the Charles B Nc
Kee Commission company and the
Huntingdon Fruit and Produce com.
pany. 1t is alleged that he bought
produce of farmers through the mails
and failed to make payments.
Lepsch, who is a jeweler, IS al
legged to have defrauded the Adams
Express company with a claim fol
damages fer alleged loss of $4,000
worth Of jewelry which he said he
had sent to a Philadelphia jewelry
firm. 1t is charged that Lepsch sent
an empty box.
Gustavson is said to have sent i'm
proper literature through the mails,
while Silverman Is alleged to have
collected money for a supposed char
ity, using the names OF prominent
Pittsburg persons without their con-
sent.
The arrests, it is said, were ordered
by the postmaster general, who had
postal inspectors at work for six
weeks.
---~------'-----------~~--s