Evening star., 1923-08-01
BY X. n. TREVOR.

in the preceding article as having
so skillfully unloaded stocks on the
relatives and friends of boob sales
men" were anxious to find some way
of utilizing the boob saIesmen' SO
that the, latter could distribute stock
beyond, the limited circles of rela-
tives and friends. One promotion
house finally devised system to
meet this heed. 1t was what was
known as the ''one-call system" and
proved so successful. that within
few years the house had hundreds
of imitators throughout the country.
Under the "one-call system the
new salesman was instructed to call
ON q man only once. Inasmuch az
the stocks of these promotion houses
were being sold on a partial payment
plan. it was sufficient for the sales
man to get an initial payment. The
promoters did not inform the new
salesman that the idea of only one
cali was really to prevent giving
the prospect time for fair examina-
ton of the proposition-for care was
still taken to keep the boob sales
man Under the impression that he
was selling something of enormous
potential value.
Under High Pressure.
He was made to think that if he
couldn't sell on one call he would
more calls knowing. then. that he
had only tire one call in (which TO
accomplish results he would put
every ounce of energy into that call
making canvass which as,,S3 vas so
impression.
He was instructed to inform the
prospect that the asking price on
the securities Gas in the case OF
the stocks previously sponsored by
price) was to be advanced very
shortly, and that If the prospect
did not bug immediately he might
never be able to get such a bargain
price again.
The system worked best. naturally,
man might be assigned to cover a
certain street of Office buildings or
a street of apartment houses, making
door door canvas. He was TOLD
constantly that, although he might
have to leave many people every
day without effecting sale, he was
certain by continuing to call on new
people to win out through the work
ing OF the law of averages
Classes of Statesmen.
To keep up the pep" of the sales
men salesman class would be
about as follows: The Go-getters, the
Humdingers, the Candy Kids. and the
Sure -hitters. On a blackboard there
would be chalked UP alongside each
salesmans name the number OF
shares he had sold on the preceding
day, and there would be chalked up
the total brought in by each team.
Then. in various ways, the teams
would be encouraged to try to outdo
each other.
,.itt taC
were entered into similar competition
against each other. y house organ,
| published semi monthly or weekly.
would give boost notices TO play on
the vanities of the statesmen, pictures
of the sales managers, and stories OF
! the competitions written in manner
designed to stir the statesmen to go
after more and more business The
house organ would be known as pep,
Pep Pep" the Hustler" or some
thing of the sort.
Telephone Game.
Another stock selling scheme in the
big cities was the telephone system.
Attention has already been drawn
in recounting operations of the
! bucket shops to the fact that the
| latter institutions used the telephone
system of solicitation. The bucket
! shops, however, got the idea from
the promoters.
promotion house would call up on the
telephone people whose names he got
simply from the telephone book. and
would solicit them to buy the stock
which his house was promoting.
In the biggest of these houses there
might be as many as fifty or seventy
five statesmen at work. each at tele-
phone all day long. The salesman.
with the receivers clapped on his
ears. would gesticulate wildly, pound
l. t. l,n 1nrl nd ~ 10 c q
cavort, just as though he were ex-
horting an audience that stood right
before him. 1t was probably the bed
lam of noise in the salesrooms, with
these groups of perspiring telephone
operators all at work at once. that
boiler rooms"
The mental reaction of the pros
pect to this wildly delivered message
from a total stranger might well form
q subject for study by the student of
psychology. Strange as it may seem,
this method would, in a fairly large
proportion of canvasses. prove sue
cessful. The gesticulations of the
statesmen, of which of course the pros
pect was not aware, served to carry
a mysterious air of conviction into
the talk such as the prospect had
probably never been stirred by be-
fore in a telephone conversation.
To CIinch the sale the salesman
pect was told that he must make an
initial installment payment at once
to get all the benefits the salesman
talked about, and that messenger
from the sales office would immedi-
ately go to him for a check.
Too Good to Believe.
Many old-time promoters who had
been in all sorts of stock-selling
schemes simply couldn't believe that
suckers could be caught in this
weird fashion. They shook their heads
like the proverbial farmer who looks
no such animali" These promoters
left the telephone game severely
alone.
However. stock statesmen between
the ages of eighteen and twenty-five
fiocked into the new form of swindle
in droves.
Generally they were a tough lot.
The prospects who heard some of
them talk so glibly of securities
values might have been surprised to
liciting-those faces, bearing, as they
did. the stamp of the prize ring, the
dock yards or the cheap dance halls.
Breaking Into Society.
Here's a story about one OF these
"gyp' statesmen who had big repu-
tation among his fellows for land
| ing the fish,
Picking out names at random from
a Philadelphia telephone book, he
happened on the name of society
woman of that city who is very
we'll known, but of whom he had
never heard. He called her up. When
she heard the first part of his can
vass he was treated in a somewhat
naughty tone to this rejoinder: Il
really have no desire to buy your
stock. nor do any business through
Nnu ALI my stock business and all