Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-03-11
THE BOOB

| IF YOU happen to feel extremely wise and
| i worldly, and are. in fact, hopeessly in
genuous and tractable. you are a boob. and
more sophisticated people will drive and
befuddlc and Illustrate and use you to the
| end Of your days
Among contemporary hoobs Walter 4.
| Unger, who looted the funds of the Evans
Institute, fed and returned TO be railroaded
to Jail. Is shining type. He took the money
| and he took the risks. and he will have to
take the punishment that is due him.
Others took the money in turn. But they
took no risks and they will take no punish
mene
The bucket shoppers and the crooks in
the brokerage business and their innumer-
able touts will read in the newspapers Of
unger's lugubrious tears and of his trial
and his journey to n cell. and they will feel
merely that we'll paying mine has petered
out. few Of them will drive out to din
ner In motorcars bought with some Of the
Evans Institutes money. They will bask
comfortably in the shade Of legal technicali-
ties. They will take vacations in obscurity
and wait for the stock gambling scandals to
blow over. Then they will return to bus-
ness on the old grounds and 60 about work.
ing havoc to the wits of foolish people who
have money of their own or money belonging
to other people to risk in game that Is more
hopeless for boob than California poker
used to be for a tenderfoot.
Thieving is thieving. and you cannot dig
nifty or Justify ii or give it another name
by the ready eXpedients of elaborate office
furniture and a suate and pretentious ex-
terror Crooks in the securities business
have built up an elaborate system of incite-
ment for the unsophistcatcd. They have n
highly organized system Of deliberate temp
tation. They operate with the assistance
OF small army of brisk young men of the
sort who loathe any prospect of decent work,
and to these juniors of the tribe Of Walling.
ford they give share of the spoils
1t is easy for the police and the District
Attorney to railroad Inger. Inger appears
to deserve all that is coming to him. But
what is to be done about the people who
really got the money or with the men who
actually co-operated with this particular
boob in the lootng of the Evans Institutes
safe deposit boxes?
There is something so fantastic about the
method of cheap stock exploitation that you
wonder why any one in his senses is ever
victimized by it. 1t ought TO be obvious to
every one that dependable securities will
never have to be peddled from door to door
and sold through promises of certain. imme-
diate and sky high dividends But the ANA
teurs never seem able to withstand the
drives made upon them by professional he
vamps of the stock market And they
always lose.
Nine out of ten of the inexperienced in
vestors who went Unto the market" in the
days when the war was giving wings to all
quotations are poorer now than they were
when they started. They made some money,
but they lost it and lost more besides. The
speculative fever Is part of the aftermath of
war. Only the sharks of the market have
profited. And they are the only ones who
profit by the thefts of men like Ungrr.
So, behind Unger and behind every one
else who plays fast and loose with other
peoples money in bucket shops and the es.
Establishments of snidc brokers there is n
whole flock of silent partners: What is to
be done about them after Inger is rail.
roaded? What is to be done about the
whole detcstable flock of well dressed touts
whose business in life is veilcd theft and
legalized robbery: Arc only the boobs to
60 to Jail!
Indications Of deliberate fraud are thick
in the records Of some recent failures of
brokerage houses. But no make believe
broker has seen the inside of cell. Indict-
ments were found against some Of those who
were presumed to be directly responsible for
the Chandler failure. That was months ago.
But there has been no talk of rairoading the
accused persons. Is the District Attor.
ney's Office content with Tnger? Does the
District Attorneys Office only want some-
thing easy?