The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1919-04-25
ARE YOU ON THE SUCKER LIST
OF GET-RICH-QUICK GENTRY?

For good many years the get
rich-quick swindles have been among
the greatest of American indoor and
outdoor sports. The war was pretty
hard on them at the beginning of the
Liberty Loan drives. These swim
ding gentry saw the money they had
been collecting on this and that swim
die going into the safest and soundest
of all investments, Liberty Bonds,
Government securities.
But they are shrewd gentry, these
men who live by their wits. They
studied the thing out and started an
entirely new sort of game. They kept
their complaints to themselves and
started out on a new line. If they
couldn't get the money that was going
to buy Liberty Bonds, they could take
the bonds away from the people who
had bought and paid for them. And
that is and has been the game now for
some months. They are working now,
in the great Victory Loan, and they
will continue to work after it has
passed. They will work in fact as
long as they can find Sucker" to
bite.
Any man or woman who owns
Liberty Bond or book of War Saw
ings Stamps is a prospect for these
statesmen of fake stocks and bonds.
If they know that you own a govern
ment security of any kind they will
they will keep you there if they find
that you are weak-minded enough to
let yourself be talked into giving
away your Liberty Bonds in exchange
for a bundle of red-sealed green
printed stocks in some "bluesky"
stock fake.
And if you bite one time they are
pretty sure you will another time,
so they will call around again after
the Fifth Loan has been subscribed
and see If they can't take another
bond or so away from you and leave
you another little bundle of phony
stocks.
Set Dogs On Them
The best thing for you to do is to
set the dog on the first salesman who
offers to sell you stocks and take
Liberty Bonds in payment. If you are
on the Sucker list" get off it as soon
as you can. The way to get off is to
make short work of the first oily
tongued slicker that comes around
you with that sort of an offer. You
are not to be blamed if you are on
the Sucker list, but you will be to
blame if you don't get your name off
it by being almighty discouraging to
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one of these offers.
The American people have been
badly bilked every year for a long
time on this same old game. 1t is
claimed that we have been paying out
at least $500,O00,0O0 a year on such
schemes. Worthless stocks have
been taking a full half billion year
from US. Furthermore this is no wild
guess. 1t is estimated by the Capital
Issues Committee of the United
States Treasury.
And what have we been getting out
of it. Nothing, other than a bundle
of more or less beautifully engraved
paper. And this estimate does not
broken hopes and the sorrow that
such foolish investments create in
many homes. How much better it
would be for the nation and the indi-
vidual if this wasted money might
have been invested in Government Sc
curities of the United States the Lib
erty Loans and the War Savings
Stamps.
We know more about the "wldcat-
ter" and "stock bandit" now than we
did before the war. Since the war be-
gan it has been necessary to make ev-
cry dollar in America work or fight
and the Capital Issues Committee at
Washington has been making some
searching Investigations into the field
of "bluesky stocks" and frenzied
finance of the "boomer" type. This
committee has lately come to the con-
clusion that never in history has there
been so many f1agrantly active fake
stock schemes as there are now.
The nearness of the end of the Lib
erty Loan series has driven them out
again in a mad scramble to take as
many of these gilt-edged Government
bonds away from the holders, as they
can before the nation becomes fully
awake to the scramble.
There are something like 20,000,000
Americans who are holders of Liberty
Bonds. There are, may be, 100000
others who are owners of War Saw
ings Stamps. The faker is after ev-
cry buyer that he thinks he can
reach. There are now millions of
Americans who have been converted
to the thrift idea, who are anxious to
save money and to make money.
Most of these people are converted to
the Government Bond idea, to the
sound and safe bond that is good.
The Faker Is Abroad
And now the faker is abroad in the
land. This swarm of 17-year locusts,
who appear every season is now
abroad, carefully trained to "sell at
sight" the unwary victim. The av-
erage man or woman who stops long
enough to listen to them hasn't
chance. The average person is not
skilled in withstanding their argu,