Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-08-22
AND GOSSIP
IN MONEY MH.RTS
Americans Are the Most GULL
BILE Investors in the Whole
World.

BY 3. c. FORBES,

NEW YORK, Aug Give are in a air
way to get pure food, on all sides We are
promised pure politics and only recently a
pralseWorthy movement was instituted to
give us pure investments. The American
is the most gullible investor in the whole
world. This chiefly because-at least in
his initial stages-he wants either some
thing for nothing or an absurd lot for his
money He still fOolishly fancies that
fortunes are being dispensed by obscure
promoters.
At least half a million dollars a day
probably full million-is filched from de-
luded investors, by swindlers.
The postoffice has done yeoman serv-
ice in imprisoning many of these fakirs.
But it can not cover the whole field. It
makes no effort at prevention; it neces-
sartly, confines its efforts to curing or,
rather killing, the guilty The postal
people can do nothing until the unscrupu-
lous promoter has got in his nefarious
work.
The investment bankers can go to the
root of the evil They do not have to
wait until the false tree bears fruit. Thev
can so to speak, nip it in the bud. And
it is this they propose to do A very in
q
the Waldorf recently over two hundred
bankers whose chief business is to handle
investments formed the Investment Bank
ers Association of America. They propose
to establish a bureau of investigation ia
which all proposed undertakings will be
submitted.
The new bureau will give its O. X. to
merltorious projects but will stamp it's
dlsaproval upon any scheme not worthy
of public confidence and support
If properly carried out this plan is
capable of saving the people of this coun-
try scores of millions of dollars every
year. Not only would fraudulent enter
prlses be rejected, but members of the as
sociation-hOnest bankers-would be thus
provided with means of thoroughly prob
ing proposals put before them for con-
sideration. Sometimes an honorable firm
is misled into lending it's name and infu-
ence to a project which it believes com
mendable, but which full investigation
would have shown to be questionable
I was much impressed by the earnest
ness of the bankers who assembled the
other day, More than half of them were
obviously under 80 years of age. have
seldom or never seen more inspiring
lot of men-clean-cut wideawake, ener-
getc, intellectual looking, of superior
manners and if the phrase may be used
of mere males, possessing an unusual
amount of charm, the which ]. NJ Barrie
taught us in What Every Woman
Knows is the one thi~g ueedeul. all else
being of minor account The formation of
the Investment Bankers association, if 2
am not greatly mistaken, will mark tlf
opening of new and better era in AmerE
can finance.
Lest there be some doubt on the s,1h-
ject, let it be here explained very en-
phatically that yesterdays gathering was
no Bull Moose convention, no party Of
protest. True, the American Bankers as
ISOLATION did not accept the suggestion
that it form an investment bankers sec
ton, but the parent body, am assured IN
excellent authority, will warmly support
the new body.
The movement is an excellent sign of
the times.