Republican farmer., 1920-07-30
Washington Puzzled.

Washington, July 28-PostaI au- thorities are investiga ting closely the manipladonS whereby Charles PonZi, of Boston. says he has made millions out of dealings in international reply coupons" The post office officials said yesterday they were going into every angle of the affair.
 From all that can be gathered 1t appears that the Ponzi story has the authorities here puzzled. One thing is said to be certain, and that is, if the promoter Is not engaged in an en- terprise entirely within the law, he will be barred from the mails. and perhaps prosecuted.
 Officials here say that no great in- crease in the sale of international re- ply coupons has been shown, as would be the case if Ponzi's agents abroad had purchased them wholesale. Doubt Is expressed here that there has been any extensive purchase of these cou- pons abroad.
 Law officers of the Post Office De- partment said yesterday that on July the department issued an order pro- hfbiting the redemption of more than ten international reply coupons from any one individual. This very order, they said. would automatically "slow ] up" any attempt. to make money 1 quickly out of the orders. The second part is the purchasing or the deprectated currency in inter- national reply coupons.
 The third part is the reduction ot | these international reply coupons in countries in which the currency is not appreciated, and the conversion of course. into postage stamps. The fourth part of the disposal ot the postage stamps, and the fifth is either the conversion of the money | that I derive from the sale of the stamps into American money, or the credit of such money into some for eign money to have at my disposal tc lrepeat the operation
 I Continuing, MT. Gallagher's state. ment said:
 MT PonI said he had in the United States upwards of S, GOO, GOO, and be-
 tween ss,0OO,O0O and 5000, 900 in de positories abroad. He was asked wh,
 it was that, having eight or nine mil
 lions of dollars in American money he should maintain an office here tt
 solicit and receive more money, o, why he should pay agents a commis
 sion for soliciting people to invest
 He said he did not use the money
 but that he would eventually need tn, people.
 I purpose n would need the people he said he dit
 not know, that it was possible that h. might want to run for office, and in Iquired if there was any objection t his doing so. On being asked if h.
 was citizen of the United States h.
 replied. Almost On being asked i it was a fact that his interna tional re ply coupon enterprise was a prelim
 mary to something bigger he an
 swered, Very much so.
 W uld Revoiutionize Banking.
 ''He said he was going to start
 different banking system, that instea,
 of giving the net profit entirely t
 stockholders the net profits would b
 divided equally between the stock
 holders and the depositors becaus the stockholders are taking the de } positors' money and paying the de
 positors only per cent. He dec1are he would make Boston the largest i'm porting and exporting centre in tn ) United States and that his presen
 enterprise was only preliminary t that end. He said that he needle ,popularity and if he made s10O Oo0, OC ! he would keep s1, GOO. 900 and spend tn } other $99, 900 600 in charitable work O something that would do good for tn l, people.
 l He said that in the past he had ap . preached people, looking for their fl , nancial backing, to the extent of few thousand dollars, but had been re , fused. He mentioned one forme State official whom he had aproache
 on such a matter, and the official eS 7 pressed great admiration for the pror l osition, but would not invest.
 Today said MT. Ponzi, that O, = ficial would be tickled to death if h 3 had put in s5,000, and he is not tn l only one.'
 ITO all intents the business ha l been based upon the wide variation i
 the rates of foreign exchange. Pong f according to his explanations, took at = vantage of the discrepancies in tt r money rates through the medium = the international postage reply col = ipon, these coupons have consta1 n ivalue throughout the countries in u Q international postal agreement.