New-York tribune., 1922-09-25

| naturally fad the notice OF 'these bonas
| Answer Wilson & Co. 7Ms are call
able at yearly decreasing premium
the ORIGINAL cali price Of August !,
! 1922. Notice Of redemption would APP
pear in the press, but we do not know
any paper that would be most likely
to carry the notice We coneider these
bonds good Investment for holder
who does not object to the callablc
feature. Victory bonds, Series II, have
not been called for redemption.
A Switch From Safety to Hazards
Question: have never Invested any
money before but have $1,000 in saw
ings bnnN. friend Of mine wants mo
70 inyest this s. roo in stock o. the Mar Mar,
James W Ialiott Busines9 Builders at
the Knickerbocker Building Forty second
he says wll draw per cent interest per
anaum, which is twice as much aa I am
getting IN the savings bank. Being con
Htant reader Of The Tribune viii you be
/ so Kind as to give your advice in
this matter telling me what You know
suiiders Build the Manha,tan Piggy .Wigg!y
Corporation and whether not J ought
to invest nay 81 900 with them Is II
good proposition ?--G L. II
Answer For the novice there are
few media for investment comparable
with savings banks. You have made n
good start and We advise you to keen
| 81 900 in savings bank. Do not take
it out 10 purchase Manhattan PiggIy-
| Wiggly Corporation securities or any
! promotion stocks or certificates. As
! you get additional funds for invest
ment you might consider the purchase
Of high grade bonds and preferred
stocks. We suggest that you begin
with Liberty bonds and that as your
! investmcn fund swels you consider
some of the higher yielding invest
ments which we regularly recommend
in this column.
You would be taking a long leap in
going from a savings bank into the
! Manhattan Piggy Wiggly Corporation,
which is stiil in its formative stage,
with a franchise from the Piggly Wig
| gle Corporation with headquarters at
Memphis. James w. Elliott, inspira-
| tional writer and stock salesman eX-
trGordinary, is now in the process If
opening self-service grocery stores in
the East and of selling units" of Sc
/ curities in the new company to would
be investors. The objective of the
promoter is tn open 1000 stores and an
official of the company informed us
last Friday that thirty eight stores
I were already in operation. six were
l-ready to open at the end of the week
and that, besides. fourteen leases had
been signed, in ten of which store fix
lures have been installed, making it
possible to open ten new units on the
last Saturday OF this month. Ten
others, according to Manhattan Piggly-
Wiggly officials, will be opened shortly
| thereafter. AS yet those responsible
for the policy OF the Manhattan Pig
gly- Wiggly Corporation are unready 10
make public facts regarding the results
of operation of the first stores. They
have likewise declined to reveal how
large block Of securities has been
| sold up to the present time. Nothing
III the way Of balance sheet or in
come account has yet been offered to
prospective security buyers who are
asked to invest their money primarily
on the basis of promises and prospects.
It is true that III some districts of the
South and West Piggly-W Wiggly stores,
under different management, have
operated prohtably. Whether under
the leadership of Mr., Elliott whose
previous experience has been in other
! things than grocery vending, and OF
A. {. Bentley, the new general man
ager, who until recently was treasurer
OF the James ". Elliott's Business
builders, Inc, and whose previous
tralning, so far as We can learn, was
ch!ehy along accounting and financial
INES rather than merchandising
groceries, the Manhattan Piggly- Vic,
gly Corporation will thrive and fulfill |
the roseate promises made by the
statesmen of the Business Builders we
cannot undertake to predict. Up to the
present none of the other companies
OF which James w. Elliott's Business
bullders sold securities has, so far as
we know, ever paid dividend with
the single exception of the Daniels
Motor Company, which is no longer
associated with James W. ElIiott's
BUSINESS Builders. In fact we periodi-
cally receive from miscellaneous read
ers' who bought such securities with
OUT seeking our advice, letters express
ing regret that they had not placed
their funds in better tested secnrities
we cannot discuss James w. Elliott's
Business Builders, Inc, in detail for
the management recently informed us
that since it is no longer Offering
snares In Its own company to the pub.
nc Tor investment it does not care 70
publish balance sheet or income nc.
count. We hold that intelligent invest
ment involves steadily keeping in touch
with the affairs of any corporation
whose STOCKS and bonds you NAV pur-
chase, and where veil of secrecy re-
garding basic financial matters EXISTS
1t is impossible for the investor
properly to keep tabs on his holdings.
AS long as there is a vast array of
desirable securities of sound corpora-
tlons which regularly issue financial
statements certified as to accuracy by
public accountants, there is no need Of
your buying "cats in bags"
incidentally, Manhattan Piggly- Wig
gly interest bearing certificates, which
must be converted into preferred stock
IN from three to FIVE years, and the
common stock lack marketability; that
is to say, after you have purchased
them you might find difficulty in selling
the securities if the necessity arose
Perhaps James w. Elliott's Business
builders would undertake to buy them
PACK from you, but some of our readers
who bought other securities from tbe
concern found difficulty in marketing
them at anything like the price oriei.
nally paid.
The Manhattan Piggly- Wiggly "units.
were originally offered at sos. The
price was subsequently, raised to s110
and an last week they were offered at SIP
Inc increment, in our opinion. is arbi-
trary and artificial, representing pri-
marliy the judgment of the stock ven
ders alone. The OPENING of addit;on,t