The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1911-08-25
MORE Light ON
The Lewis SCHEME
SOME MORE INTERESTING MAT
TER ON LEWIS AND HIS
VARIOUS SCHEMES.

government Charges MlSrepreSenta-
ton and Intent to Defraud-St.
Louis Promoter Has an Endless
Chain Which He Worked to a Fin
ish ON the Women.
The Tribune assumes that anything
pertaining to Mr.. E. G. Lewis, the
st. Louis promoter, publisher and
philanthropist, will be of great in
terest to great many Caldwell PEG.
pie. The chapter house idea secured
firm foothold in this city. The
good women of Caldwell were i'm
posed upon by Lewis, and persuaded
to heavily subscribe to some of his
enterprises. In the financial depart
ment of Munsey's Magazine is an ar.
ticle on the Lewis Failure. 1t fol
lows:
Through the recent arrest and in
dictment of E. G. Lewis of St. Louis,
on the charge of fraudulent use of
the mails, two additional periodicals,
The Woman's Magazine and The
Woman's National Daily, have been
added to the everIncreasing list of
publishing enterprises which have
become insolvent, after securing large
sums of money from the public by
stock sales.
The disastrous failure of Human
Life and the Circle Magazine, which
employed this method of procuring
capital, preceded that of the Lewis
Publishing company by a few months,
and in financial and publishing cir
cles it is feared that others are to
follow. What amounts virtually to
an admission of insolvency has been
acknowledged in one case, but the
ultimate collapse may be deferred
for a time, if creditors are lenient
and the stockholders buy additional
shares.
Several publications which are en-
gagged in selling stock at the present
time, according to current report
are continued merely in the interest.
of creditors, paper dealers and job
printing establishments. Having be
come heavily involved for materia
and labor, they are nursed along by
the creditors, and in the meantime the
publishers proceed with their stock
selling campaign.
No one should buy stock in a pub
fishing enterprise unless assured tina
the company is buttressed by tangibl,
assets. This can be determined only
by a full and complete balance sheet
an inventory, and an income account
Independently compiled and properl!
audited by certified accountants
Without such information, the pur
chaser of stock has taken leap int
the dark; he has embarked in a spec
ulative and hazardous undertaking.
To revert to the failure of tn
Lewis enterprises and the indict
ment of Lewis, the losses are ap
palling. Lewis himself says that the,
will exceed 100000. The govern
ment, in its indictment, mentions tn
amount of obligations outstanding a
100000. These, for the most par
are in the form of short-term deben
lures, which Lewis endeavored to re
cover from the original holders in eS
change for long-term securities of hi
various undertakings. In addition
his publishing business, the pre-
moter had wide variety of scheme
and projects, and he has been il
dicted upon II different counts, COY
ering four separate proposals whic
he placed before the public throug
the mails.
The government charges that Lev
is, through Misrepresentation an
with intent to defraud, sold insecure
notes on the buildings of the Woman
Magazine and The Woman's Nations
Daily, in University City; that |
sold similar notes of the Universal
Heights Realty and Developmel
company; that he operated a I'd
benture scheme" and misrepresent'
the condition of the Lewis Publishir
company in selling stock of that co
J Germ.
1t is estimated that the loss W
fall on more than $4,000 persons,
r large majority of whom are wome
These unlucky people, for the mo
S part, were subscribers to the Lew
S publications. They saw a magazi
n and a newspaper stuffed full of a
t vertisements and apparently prospe
Gus. No doubt they read the alluril
reports of tremendous fortunes viii
t promoters say are made in the pu
c fishing business, and which ha
trapped so many innocent perso