The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1916-03-02
THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 1916
New England an Easy Mark


There are three ways in which men
take
Ones money from his purse,
And very hard it is to tell
Which of the three is worse,
But all of them are bad enough
To make a body curse.
The above is the comment OF Oliver
Wendell Holmes, who seems to have
thought that nickels and dimes given
to a hand organ man were particul-
arly ill-spent. The poor old doctor
poet. Is it possible that no promot-
er-pirate ever came out of the west
to take money from his purse in ex-
change for worthless mining shares.
rubber plantation stocks and similar
garbage? Had he lived in our day
his delightful satire, THE Music
Grinders" would probably have been
known as THE Share Vendors =
Holmes ought to come back long
enough to write u poem which would
pillory these modern pirates who take
us in, time after time, with their 50
called ground floor propositions. Their
shares are usually of the sort that
could not be given away to people In
the vicinity of the enterprises they
represent With, us, however dis
lance lends enchantment to the view
and we but pay real money for stock
certificates in properties we have
never seen, carried on by officers of
whom we never heard.
New England has always been an
easy mark in this respect. Small
savings and large fortunes, dug out
of the Eastern soil and created from
our natural resources, have been toll
ed off to the ends of the earth in
never ending stream. II the billions
of wealth produced in New England
could have remained here, our sec
ton of America would blossom like
the rose and would show ciyiliza-
ton that would be the marvel of the
world.
1t is but a few years since hard
headed, conservative citizen of Som
erset paid $4,000 to an entire strang-
er for shares In a western mine that
never had an existence, taking as
temporary security two gold bricks
that proved to have less than 10
cents worth of gold about them. The
fellow that did the trick spent just "a
hours In the county. He arrived with
nothing but good looks and a re-
sourceful mind and retired with what
most of us would consider a fortune.
His method was a little crude because
he could not come back and work the
same game Immediately on someone
else. The case was startling enough
to put the rest of us on our guard,
but the same hind of fraud, a little
more refined, is being perpetrated
among us most of the time.
1t may be taken for granted that no
worthy investment, stocks, shares,
bonds, notes or otherwise, is ever Of
fered to the public through travelling
agents or statesmen. Neither need we
ever expect to see anything but doubt
one of purely local character, adver-
tised through the mail. Such meth
DDS are made use of to float non-eX-
istent or hazardous propositions and
you will always note that they are
located so far away that nothing can
really be known about them. If you
have money to invest and do not want
to buy something you can really see.
like house or piece of land, or do
security, the best course is to consult
your banker. Our national banks,
trust companies and savings institu-
tons are constantly dealing In Sc
curities on their own account. You
know their officials and they know
you. They have every motive for us
ing you honorably and what they
know about investments is yours for
the asking. without fee or commits
sion OF any kind.
We must learn that offers coming
to us with an air OF mystery. promis-
Ing seven per cent and above. are on
the face of them preposterous frauds.
not TO be listened to. Instances
where our citizens have been awfully
soaked have recently come TO our at
tention. some OF them where the
losers have dealt staggering blows to
people OF limited means, We are
moved To issue this warning to save
others from like disaster.