The sun., 1919-05-23
SHARE FAKERS
SET A RECORD
Oil Swindles Exceed Average
Yearly Loss in All Ques-
tionable Enterprises.
PUBLIC AN EASY VICTIM
Between 1000 and 5000 Pro-
motion Companies Formed
This Year Alone.
PUBLIC AN EASY VICTIM

Hundreds Of thousands OF foolish
persons will remember the year 1919
as the year in which thay- were "stung
in OIL" At the present rate the esti-
mate Of investment bankers that
credulous American investors lose
$500. .000.0 900 annually in questionable
promotion enterprises threatens to be
surpassed IN oil alone.
When n rocket goes up and scat
ters its beautiful fiery stars there is
left at least charred stick for chill
'dren to play with. So a great pro-
portion OF the men and women now
buying oil stock on the word OF
strangers who ought to be in Jail will
he able in the future to fondle splen-
didly engraved sheets OF parchment
paper which will be listed as "cats
and dogs" when they die.
And when the Wild speculative oil
boom now raging blows up into frag-
ments too small to put into a sack.
the honest oil companies and honest
oil brokers will continue serenely on
their legitimate way Of enterprise and
heartily Will be glad that the parasites
who capitalized the honest effort of
others and made swindlers' money out
Of human cupidity have jumped to the
latest craze. whatever II may be, and
left the old business to follow its
natural course
All In the OIL Game Now.
The bubble blowers Of other days. tha
moonshine promoters. ny by night brok-
ers. bucket shoppers. professional samb-
lers, I'VE boys" green goods and gold
brick and shell game men. ex-pri1e fight-
ers, ex-pickpockets, the land under water
statesmen, the financial swashbuckler and
financial panhandler. the cheap boosters
Of wildcat gold and copper mines. the
exploiters OF phony ''motors' and air
from race tracks the same old IRE
sponsible gang that is always found
playing for suckers with the livest bait
of the moment-where are they now
In oil. 1t Is to line the pockets OF such
worthless as these that the public, in
famed by the vision of fortunes really
made by a comparative handful Of men
out of the oil industry. is forking over
a large part OF the cash that is being
exchanged for oil securities.
Mail trains groan under the weight OF
their Literature" Newspapers that
ought to know better are printing their
or
statesmen are going from door to door in
city and farming community enticing
Liberty bonds from hiding and giving
In return Autographed certificates bear
ing marvellous artists dreams Of derrick
after derrick. gusher after gusher,
spreading as far as the eye can reach.
Telephone Used for speed.
The mails are too slow, the house to
house salesman Is too slow. A new
method, the telephone follow up is de-
strides and of the stock that was So
yesterday and Is 81 to-day and will be
| Sc tomorrow, and hurry, hurry, hurry ;
get in before it's too late
The widows mite Is none too small
to be angled for though II is TO be sus-
pected that the poor and the unsophlsti-
Gated are by no means the only victims.
for as a man who has been watching
the game said to THE SUN: You can't
point to any particular class as being
carried away by the oil excitement. The
people who are buying these stocks are
the poor, the moderately we'll to do and
the rich. AS the last named can afford
It, | don't know that any sympathy need
! be wasted on them, but the way the poor
are getting trimmed Is simply a fright"
The fact may be instanced that the
Greek newspaper AtldHtts recently in
vited its readers TO report to II their
experiences with oil stocks. and in the
circle of its comparatively small circu-
lation got 500 replies from those who
| said they had been fiimfammed
Wells that exist and never will exist
dry wells, wildcat wells, wells in good
| territory and bad territory. expectations
and no expectations, leases near
famous gushers in the sense that both
are in the same State, leaseholds tina.
have as much chance Of producing oil
as Sitka has of growing bananas-all
are being indiscriminately capitalized
at millions OF dollars and stock OF fic-
titious prices is being fed to the public
! by promoters and statesmen who get
| bonanza commissions and have no in
| terest whatever in seeing that the prof.
erty, II 1t exists. is developed.
swindIes by the Thousand.
Nobody knows how many oil COM
panies have sprung up In the United
States In the past year. The guess lie
between 1000 and 5000. Not more
than 10 per cent. OF them, at the out
side, have any purpose except to sell
stock, or have the backing TO invite the
attention of the judicious investor. They
are out to gull that part OF the public
which has lost its head over the sue
cesses that some few men have made in
the highly speculative business OF find-
ing treasure concealed beneath the
earth's surface and getting 1t out after
they have found IT,
The blue sky" laws OF States which
have them are evaded or ignored. In
New York, which has no such law and
0ssSAsAsd on Sirth Pd0s.