Evening star., 1923-07-24
Bucket Shops Themselves Lose
/ At Hands of CIeuer SlvindIers
Stocks "Planted," Then Pushed to Skies,
and Brokers Forced to Disgorge
or Face Publicity.

who had learned the gentle art OF
planting" were reported as taking
away from the bucket shops q large
amount of the profits which the latter
had gathered through the markets I'm
other issues. The stock OF the Je-
rome Prescott Mining Company. which
advanced from so cents share to
about $40 per share. was reported as
one OF the many stocks successfully
planted"
Many Skilled Men.
In the grand form in which the
veloped. the planting organizations
not only numbered scores of slick
individuals skilled In the art of maxi
Ing themselves look sufficiently like
suckers that the bucket shops
readily took their orders. but also
It was reported as embracing a little
army of shyster lawyers and several
particularly skillful market manipu-
lators.
1t was found that out-of-town
more easily ."planted" than the main
offices in New York city. Partly. this
condition was due to the fact that
managers of out town branches
were often working Oh a profit -shar
ing basis and were greedy for busi-
ness. Some of the super-crook
planters" made so bold. however. as
to hribe managers or other workers
of the out-of-town branches to accept
buying orders (Which of course, were
bucketed) on a scale sufficiently large
as to mean enormous losses later to
the main organization. AS an in
stance of this, the street heard that
trusted employe in the Providence
branch of one chain of houses CO.
operated with the gang of planters"
in the Jerome Prescott deal. and that
the planting" of the Providence office
meant one of the largest losses which
that particular chain of bucket shops
had suffered In years.
Role OF Lawyers.
The role of the shyster lawyer was
to force the bucket shop to come
through" Certain bucket shops. when
their fraternity was over. SHE'D at
making payments. Some of the shys-
ter lawyers were in New York, some
q fthem In out-of-town centers. Their
threats of laying the cases of bucket
ing before local authorities generally
scared the bucket shops into buying
stock and delivering it.
Finally. the bucket shops began
what was apparently a well-organized
campaign to protect themselves
against the planters" Some of the
bucket shops refused to accept margin
orders on curb securities that had not
had a market for sufficiently long a
time to indicate that the stock was
too much distributed to be success
fully planted" The planters" equal
ly painstaking. then. began to seek
out stocks which had long trading
history. but which had quietly passed
back into the hands of insiders to
such extent as to leaye the issues in
position favorable for the sort Of easy
manipulation necessary to the execu-
tion of successful plant"
Whenever one bucket shop had tn"
least inkling that plant" was being
attempted. II quietly warned other
bucket shops. and this system of mu-
tual cooperation frustrated several
planting" attempts. In the litera-
ture which the bucket shops sent out.
extolling the merits of various stocks.
care was generally taken to play up"
only those stocks which the bucket
shop men felt reasonably certain were
very widely distributed.
A Real Menace.
However. the fact remained that
any time when the planters" (whose
numbers were growing because Of the
profits which lay in their special line
of operations) were successful in ef-
fecting plant" there was real
menace of prosecution for the bucket
shops on charges of bucketing.
1t seems reasonable to presume that
interests so much stepped in thievery
as are bucket-shop men would not
stoop at efforts to reach" the offices
of the public prosecutors. Could they
succeed in doing that in some of the
principal cities in which they had
main Offices or branches, 1t was sug-
gested, they might have been able to
guard themselves from within"
against charges which the planters"
would enter against them. 1t would
take particular daring. Of course. to
attempt direct overtures to people in
the prosecuting offices. However, the
bucket shop men apparently We're not
unmindful of the extent to which men
In those offices might be obligated in
one form or another. especially
through the workings of the system
political interests with whom the
bucketshop fraternity could easily
find 1t possible to establish friendly
relations.
Public Getting Wise.
Meanwhile, the public through the
country was beginning to hear that a
huge bucket-shop system was once
again In operation. The bucketeers
saw the first threatening signs Of a
storm of public Indignation ahead.
All the more reason for them to deem
1t the part of wisdom to seek out
powerful political affiliations.
How the bucketeers sought political
storm of public Indignation against
them at last began to break in 1919
will be told in the next article of this
series. At the same time there will
be related the story of how the
bucketeers were able to turn that
storm of Indignation away from
themselves so that its force was spent
on other members of the securities
fold. and how they then prepared to
enter the period of the greatest loot
ing in their entire lengthy history of
depredations.