The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1922-02-23
WHY BE A

hdlSdS Clly oJdT- WIN toO ScL-l III
quick ~swindling cases in the federal
courts, it seems probable a great many
Americans are sadder, but are they
wiser? The history Of these opera
lions does not show it. Despite the
enormous losses constantly being re-
corded and Of all the publicity and all
the warnings involved in the success
sive exposures of these frauds, the
risk their savings in ventures that
any banker or man Of business would
condemn, If consulted, does not seem
to diminish.
There is no dearth OF sound invest
ments. Banks and bond houses are
full Of approved securities that re-
turn safe, certain and regular inter
est or dividends. These investments
are the foundation of many fortunes,
and provide the sure income Of count
less families who live in comfort and
security. But there is a class Of So
called investors, and 1t Is a large
and apparently a growing class, that
prefers a desperate gamble to GER
tainty. Many of them may innocently
regard themselves as investors, and
honestly believe they have a chance
to win l~egitimately. Many probably
know they are in a questionable game
but hope to make a quick cleanup and
get out. But all lose and are sure
to lose, the simple and the cunning
alike. These so-called investments
are not ever speculations, not even
CANDLES; they are just frauds and
swindles, and nobody can possibly win
who puts a dollar in them. The win
ners are those who take the money
out, not those who put it in, and those
wno take it out do not divide with
the suckers.
Attorney General Daugherty says
the cases now in the federal courts
involve $140, 600, 900 taken from the
pockets Of the credulous. This great
sum was paid largely for fake stocks;
stocks in projects that existed only
on paper or in the imaginations of
the promoters. They were to pay
enormous dividends. Investors were
to become rich over night. Gushing
oil wells, fabulous gold mines, were
to pour sudden fortunes into the hands
Of the lucky purchasers who got in
quick before the stocks should soar
skyward. Anybody tempted by these
representations could easily learn
their true value by consulting any
reputable brokerage house or banker.
But the credulous and greedy lever
think of SO obvious a course. They
prefer to believe strangers who talk
in terms of millions-it's so much
more entertaining. Somebody's al
ways getting rich in lucky specula-
tion-or so the credulOus hear-and
why not them? Why fool with bonds
that pay a piker per cent when by a
lucky stroke they can get 100 per cent
or a thousand perhaps. Such things
have been-look at Rockefeller.
And also these suckers might look
at the STA persons under indictment in
the federal courts for stock and pro-
motions swindling. Take a good look
at them as they form in line for the
p%enitentiary. They are the men who
taken $14O, 0OO, 900 from the get
enthusiasts. They are the
authors of the slogans, why work?
Why keep your Liberty bonds? Why
be satisfied with mere interest?
To thousands Of people who have
listened to these swindlers ruin has
has brought back the only correct
with another poppy question?
Why be a sucker?