Great Falls daily tribune., 1919-12-02
HASKIN LETTER
THE BAD CHECK.
By FREDERIC ]. HASKIN

Washington, Nov. 29.-To make a check
as reliable bit of paper as a United
States gold certificate is the object of a
campaign now being carried on by Wash
ington merchants and bankers, and to
some extent by those of many other
cities
The bad check is n pest everywhere,
but there are few large cities where 1t
fiourlshes as it does in Washington-or
rather, as it has in the past. For the To-
cal business men are now out after the
check artists in earnest.
This reaction follows golden era for
crooks. Shopkeepers have at times been
gullible and obsequious. They have trust
ed to their ability to read character at
first glance. But only too often the
character reading system has gone
wrong, and the guileless looking customer
has turned out to be a bad check per-
The wave of crime which follows the
war brought a considerable increase IN
bad check operations. professional
crooks, say the police, steer compara-
lively clear of straight forgery and check
raising, as the penalties are severe and
there is a small chance of pleading care
lessness. But passing checks when there
is no account, or when the account IS
overdrawn, is a popular pastime both
lists, and the alibi of ignorance Of the ex-
act amount in bank is worked steadily.
Once in while, of course, an honest
person does proffer a check in good faith
when his balance is too low to back II.
but this excuse has been so often used by
crooks that it is difficult TO make 1t con-
vincing.
Time was when naughty expression
or burst of oratory along the line OF
Il am Mrs. Hopewell st. Charles. My
word Of honor has never been doubted IN
this town before was guaranteed TO re-
duce a banker. merchant, or hotel man
ager to state of fluttering apology.
Now, one hotel manager says, w hen we
ask a patron for references, either he
gives them willingly, and we check them
up and serve him, or he gets biustery and
RACES, in which case we stay calm and
keep our money in the safe
Due to this level l-headed philosophy,
hOfelkcepers suffer far less from bad
check passers than do merchants. Most
large hotels keep their own credit rec
ords, very much like those of the mer-
chants credit-rating bureau. If an I'M
identified patron asks that check be
cashed the manager presents q form to
be filled out to show the applicants
name. address, and financial references,
This record is verified and kept in the
hotel for future use. Hotel records are
supplemented by Information contained
III hotel journals warning managers
against persons who are trying to beat
their way and pass bogus checks on ho-
tel clerks.
Once in a while. however, hotels get
taken in. temporarily, at least. \ short
time ago young woman blew into Wash
ington from a farm in q nearby state.
Her longing for good clothes and luxnries
had never been gratified, and Washing
ton looked easy. She obtained some
blank checks. established herself in a big
hotel. and proceeded to hand out worth
less checks to clothiers. milliners, flor
lists and ut the hotel. 1t was not long
before she was apprehended. but mean
time she had tricked a number of sup
posedly foolprOof business men with her
line of talk and some clever acting.
Even more than the hotels, banks in
sist On satisfactory credentials before
honorng checks Not so long ago"
says a Washington bank cashier, "a for
ger could walk into a bank with a check