Evening journal., 1913-04-30
WEDNESDAY. APR. 80, 1918.
DELAWAREANs AND sNINDLERs.

n bLAWAREANs should rejoice that five Of the
- swindling officers of the International Lumber
and Development Company have been sent to prison
by the Federal Court in Philadelphia The fact that
William H. Armstrong. Jr, is one Of those sentenced
should be especially pleasing to them in view of the
fact that he the leader in this and other enter
prises to separate innocent gulbo persons from
their money
The International swiHdlefs got away with tens of
thousands of dollars belonging to Deawareans One
man gave S125OO Of his hardearned money for sheaf
OF the worthless stock the gang was peddling Della
ware womtn dropped S25OO into their pockets and
thought she was getting bargain when she received
the certificates which have turned out to be worthless
Those are only two instances in little town There
are scores OF others in our State aud hundreds of
others in otter States
Nor is the International Lumber and Development
Company the only swindling concern that has oper-
ated IN our State to the derimen of its people and
the enrichment of conscionless promoters Julian
Hawthorne and his gang and other promotion syn
dlcates have found victims here Hundreds of Della
~areans have worthless securities as painful remind
ers of how easily they parted with good money for
worthless paper The public has been warned times
without number. to fight shy Of such promotion
schemes but II continues TO be caught by the alurng
rftores told by glibtongued agents and glittering
prospectuses AS rule those who drop their money in
such schemes are persons who cannot afford to lose
t. There are instances in which the savings of life
time have been wiped out and men and women left
destitute in their old age
Apart from the principals in those swindling schemes
there is another class Of who should receive the
attention of the officers of the law We have here in
Delaware agents Of the swndlers who spend practi-
cay all their time selling to their friends and neigh
bors securities which they know are worthless That
Is particularly true Of the country towns There must
be some law by which such agents of the swindlcrs
may be reached and punished their nearous traf
VIC broken up It will be difficult for the public
authorities to ascertain the of such agents and
to obtain adequate proof Of their activities
There such local peddlers Of the stock of this
International Lumber and Development Company
and canvass OF the victims would reveal quickly The
Identity OF the local agents for the swindng pro
motors who have been sentenced to prison Nor are
III activities of those local agents confined to In
ternationaI Lumber There is scarcely fake develop
ment or worthless hole IN the ground that is called
mine that has not its local agents Delaware peddns
stock and ropng in their friends and neighbors TO
suffer great losses that the go-betwoens may reap the
benefit OF commissions thus miseraby begottcn.
If there be law that will reach these worthless
stock pedders in our Delaware Il should be in
soked and they should be punished to the limit n
there be no such law then one should be enacted
and IL should be enforced against them to the limit
No mercy should be shown to any man Who posing
as friend and neighbor deliberately robs another
man or woman by selling such worthless paper as
that Of the International Lumber Company and other
swindng concerns