The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1919-04-11

No answer was made to the letter,
but the next week the following fur
ther warning to the people of Leav-
enworth was printed in the Echo of
Nov. 8, 1917, and copy mailed to Mr..
Keene.
Selling Stock in Department Store"
Under the above heading the Echo
last week called the attention of its
readers to man who has been here
for two or three weeks, and who en-
gagged in selling stock in a department
store proposed to be started at Seattle.
Because we were told by man who
had been asked to take stock, had in
vestigated the scheme and concluded
it was impractical and would end like
hundreds of other big schemes, in
bankruptcy and loss to the stockhold-
ers, we decided it was a duty we owed
to the readers of this paper to urge
them not to invest. We recalled the
fate of the farmers who a few years
ago invested hard earned money in
the Northwestern Trading Co. This
was a scheme to furnish the farmers
with goods, wares and merchandise at
cost. Thousands of hard earned dol
lars of the farmers went into the
scheme. The stock was peddled from
the Sound to the Idaho border, and
from Okanogan county to Walla
Walla. The scheme utterly failed and
resulted in a total loss to the stock
holders, and right now three of the
managers of the Northwestern are be-
hind the bars at Walla Walla for that
swindling proposition. We know OF
three railroad engineers who each in
vested $500 in stock selling scheme,
being induced to invest their hard
earned money by a smooth tongued
stock selling agent who pictured the
scheme as a big money maker. Work
ingmen who have their mind on their
work, make no study of the thousands
of schemes to get possession of their
funds and very often fall easy victims
to the sauve and plausible arguments
of those who make such things their
sole occupation and study. For their
SO, 400 these three railroad men have
today green bordered stock certifi-
Gates. Nothing else. In the past flt-
teen years the people of this town,
principally working men, have given
to stock selling schemers fully $780,
900, and of the hundreds of schemes
of every imaginable kind, from depart
ment stores to mines, steel plants,
money changers, cash registers, and
many other get-rich-quick concerns,
not one, no, NOT ONE, has ever paid
one cent. Not only not paid cent
on the investment but the stock GER
tificate is not worth as much as
piece of blank paper of the same size.
This record is known of all men. 1t
was with this record in mind that we
wrote the story last week, headed,
"Selling Stock in Department Store"
Because we sincerely believed we were
doing the public deserved service.
We did not know-never heard of or
saw the man who offered department
store stock for sale here. We only
knew he was peddling stock in some
concern that he represented would
earn the stockholders dividends, just
as the peddlers of Northwestern
Trading Co. stock represented to those
they asked to buy stock that it would
save them money on their purchases
and earn dividends for the stockhold-
ers, Just as every peddler of stock
that ever came to Leavenworth repre-
sented, and we believed then, and be-
lieve now, that it will end like every
other stock selling scheme, in disaster
for the stockholders. Those that man
age the concern and draw salaries for
their work, or get paid for peddling
the stock, may make something out OF
lit. The owner of a small block of
stock, nothing. What reason is there
for believing this one will vary from
the hundreds of others that sold stock
here, not one of which paid penny,
but failed utterly.
The following letter from Keene was
received Nov. s, 1917:
| Seattle, Wash,
| November 5, 1917.
Mr.. Deed H. Magyar,
Leavenworth Echo,
Leavenworth, Wash.
Dear Sir:
The statutes of this state define a
criminal libel as
every malicious publication by
writing, printing, picture, effigy, sign,
or otherwise than by mere speech
which shall tend
| "a to expose any living person to
lha+rad copfapnpf ridirII1e or ohliouv