The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1919-04-04
KEEP YOUR EYE
PEELED ON THE
STOCK FAKERS
GET OFF THE SUCKER LIST!

If you are it is probably because
you are NOT a sucker but a patri-
otic citizen who has known the
Liberty Bond to be a good thing.
Get-rich-quick swindles have been
the great American sport for years.
The sharpers who sell fake stocks
saw their game endangered when
Uncle Sam started his great Lib
erty Loan campaigns.
But they are smart-these gentle
men who live by their wits.
Instead of complaining they
jumped in and put themselves and
all their employees to work selling
Liberty Bonds.
And they kept lists Of the names
of the people to whom the Liberty
Bonds were sold
Now those lists, combined, make
what the sharks regard as the big
gest and best sucker list the gem
try ever had. They are even deal
ing in them-buying and selling
them among themselves.
If yau have a Liberty Bond or
book of War Savings Stamps you
are a prospect" for the fake stock.
Your name is on the sucker list of
the oily tongued sharper.
You are not to blame for being on
the sucker list but it is up to you to
get off-away off--that list at
your first opportunity.
The American people are paying
out some half billion dollars
year to the support of worthless
stock schemes. They reap there
from $500, 100000 worth of-thin
air.
That is not a guess. 1t is the fig
ure given by the Capital Issues
Committee of the u. S. Treasury.
And, the Committee assures us that
it is conservative.
Moreover, the half billion repre-
sents just the cold cash that is
turned in EVERY YEAR by 9TH
erwise level-headed Americans seek
ing a milk and-honey path to quick
wealth by the green stock certifi-
cate route. 1t does not take into
account the vast economic loss Incl
dent to broken furtunes, impaired
effort of discouraged investors and
to the diversion from legitimate bus
mess enterprise of new produc-
tive capital.
The Capital Issues Committee,
charged with keeping the nations
investment dollars on a work-or-
fight basis during the war, has
made a searching inquiry into the
devious by-ways of fraudulent stock
promotion. Its conclusion is that
never perhaps in the history of the
country has wildcat investment
practice been so flagrant-from
coast to coast-aS today,
AS a result of the government
great War Loan campaigns, there
are now hundreds of thousands of
Americans converted to the idea of
saving and investing. With very
great proportion, their investment
experience is limited to the good,
rock bottom government war bond.
The faker is after them. Thous-
ands of statesmen" carefully drilled
in the gentle art of selling on the
first CALI and getting out of town,
are abroad.
They will tell you you were a
patriot, a real citizen, to have
bought Liberty Bonds. However,
you've made your sacrifice, the
wars over now and really 4 1-2
per cent is no return at all in
peace times-let us exchange your
bonds for this exceptional offering
positively guaranteed to bring in
anywhere from 10 to 500 per cent.
in dividends before the years out
as soon as the oil well is sunk,
or the mine shaft completed, or the
property developed, or the like.
THAT is the brand of the stock
swindler today; that he is willing"
as an accommodation to you, you
understandable accept your
good Liberty Bond in exchange
for his worthless stuff.
Happily there is a government
agency today on the trail of the
stock sharp. 1t is the Federal Trade
Commission, empowered by Con-
gress to prevent unfair methods
of competition in interstate COM
merce. The Commission may well
be expected to look upon Fleeing
of Americans of their Liberty
Bonds as decided" unfair
If Won own "A Liberty Bond you'l