Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1922-03-11

cause he knows how to take adj
vantage of the ordinary peoples
credulity. To make big money in
this world you have to study human
nature and take advantage of what
Won learn. We are writing to you
lust as plainly as though we We're
talking to you face to face.
1--WE buy up large jobs of goods
from bankrupt concerns, from
estates which are peing settled,
from the biggest jobbers in the
country. What we buy we buy at
such ridiculously low prices that
YOU would not believe It. We have
bought goods under the hammer
in some of the big auction houses
of New York at such low prices
that the owner of the goods was
forced to sell because he needed
the cash, and who happened to be
standing by watching the sale of
his goods, actually had tears N
his ewes. But this is business. If
we didn't buy, someone else would.
This merchandise we ship to our
clients who advertise them in their
daily papers just as we advise
them. We coach them. We train
them. We practically lead them
by the hand. We show them for
the first time in their lives how to
make big money in a smart way,
and, what is more, they do not
have to give up their employment,
because they can either have peo-
pie come to them in the evening,
or else there Is always someone at
home during the day to take care
of them"
Fraud Laws Evaded.
This is only n part of the letter
but it is enough to show that the
men who wrote it are wholly
aware that they are urging the
perpetration of a fraud. By their
very impotence in thus aclSnowl-
edging it, they place themselves
beyond the reach of the law. At
the United States district attor-
ney's office, to which a copy of
the letter was recently submitted,
it was asserted that the concern
could not be reached through the
postal regulations, because 1t was
merely suggesting fraud to others
and was perfectly candid concern
ing its own methods. Anyone who
entered into negotiations with it
could not possibly be deceived as
to the unscrupulousness of its
character.
In the case of those who accept
ed the contract and who actually
did misrepresent their merchandise
to the public, it was said, there
might be ground for criminal ac-
ton. They could probably be pros
ecuted both for fraudulent adver-
Using and for using the mails to
defraud.
But how is this to be brought
about? The newspapers cannot
investigate the character and real
intentions of every person who
Places n small, thirty-cent ad in
their columns. In some cases,
where the same kind of ads arc
printed by the same person for
considerable length of time, it is
true. their suspicious become
aroused, and in some New York
dailies such ads have been care
fully marked with the title Deal
ers," yet the chances Of discovery
are obviously slight.
AS for the public, it has seldom
any reason to complain, because it
does not know it has been deceived.
The people who are taken in by
schemes of this kind rarely discov-
err their own gullibility. They are
the same people who buy factory
made antiques; who purchase
neckties from street peddlers at
prices double those prevailing in
the stores, and who buy oil wells
in the Cobb desert. New York is
full of them.