Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-02-14
MARkSOUTH
FOR L|bERTY
BOND STEAL.
WARNING
Smooth SwindIers Casting
Greedy Eyes on Millions
Held Here by People.
Fake Stocks Galore

Wiley crooks of the most danger
GUS kind, because they are cultur-
ed, educated and possess business
training, have marked the South
for big killing" this spring.
This is the word of warning
sounded by government ir1vesti-
gators who have just nipped
two of the gangs, one in Flor
ida and one in Wisconsin. But
for each group of smooth swim
dlers so far arrested by Federal
agents, there are a dozen other
groups, just as clever and just
as we'll equipped to steal hun
dreds of thousands of dollars
from Southern patriots who have
invested in Liberty Bonds.
The appeal that will. be made
is this:
eve will exchange your Lib
erty Bonds for stock in these
companies we own. Liberty {
Bonds pay half as much interest.
Give us your Liberty Bonds and
we will give you the stock in our !
enterprises"
1t is a bait that ordinarily
would not attract half-wit, or
child five years old. But be-
cause of the promise of big rev.
enues, unsuspecting Liberty
Bond owners are said to have
already been victimized in
Georgia, Alabama, Florida, the
Carolinas and Louisiana
Many in the, Came
The government, however,
has a line on every one OF
these professional swindlers
and will keep an eye on their
future activities -,
Discussing this class of pro-
fessional thieves who { operates
SO cleverly that it has been
Impossible to convict them in
the past, an expert writing m
worlds Work. a conserva-
tive periodical, declares that In
spite Of all. cautions, the sale
of industrial stocks by the pl-
rates of promotion goes on
steadily. Oil stock flotations we
have with us when there is an
exceptional demand for oil prod
ucts as at present: new mining
stock promotions we have when
ever there is a mining BOOM,
but industrial promotions we
have with us always. When the
cupidity of the public cannot be
appealed to by citing the fortunes
made by Rockefeller and others In
oil, or by painting alluring pic
lures Of immense wealth being
dug from the ground, 1t can al
ways be stimulated by references
to the success of the Bell Tele-
phone Company, the Pullman
Company, the Postum Cereal
Company, or the Ford Motor
Company.
A large number Of industrial
promotions of recent years were
going to put the records Of these
companies far in the shade. Fol
lowing the war the number Will
be legion, and it is we'll for Lib
ertv Bond owners to become ae-
uuainted with some Of the pirates
of promotion who specialize IN
this field, and more especially
with the methods they use = In
parting people from their money.
Fake "Movies"
The motion picture business
has been favorite field for GER
tain pirates of promotion. Here
they can talk about something
that the man Of small means can
visualize. He knows of the pop
ular appeal of the moving pic
ture; why should there not be
big profits in it for him? Yet
the profits that the public has
made in the moving picture bust
ness are as meager as those it ha'~
made on new oil stocks that have
been offered publicly.
Several of the get-rich-quick
promoters have a motion picture
company in their repertoire.
Giles P. Cory, for instance,
promoted the Birth of Race
Photoplay Corporation by the ia
miliar method OF telling or large
profits made on other feature pic
lures; but he had another string
to his bow. He got such men as
Taft, Governor Low
den, Julius Rosenwald, and 9TH Z
ers to approve the idea of the
picture, which was to depict the
of the negro race,
and then he printed their names
in list of "officers and direc1
tors and prominent persons in
terested."
Cory was arrested under the
blue sky law of Illionis but not
until he had sold a good part Of
the compaa-y's $1,000,000 capital
stock on promises of 1000 to
5000 per cent return. He paid
a fine of $1,000 rather than
stand trial.
Another Faker
Yet Cory was modest in his
claims of profits as compared
Continued on Page 81
BEANS GROW 80 INCHES LONG.
Ttn el.II h.. ktnL