Evening star., 1923-10-12
LAST HOPES WANE
FOR STOCK VICTIMS
Discharge as Bankrupts OF
John Burke's Firm Blow
to Investors.
BY ROBERT T. SMALL.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, october IA rude
awakening today came to many
thousands of poor, deluded investors
in the bucket shops" of Wall street.
These "investors"-the men behind
the bucketing game call them
''suckers"-have been laboring for
months under the delusion that they
were going to recover at least a part
of their losings. They have employed
expensive counsel. have formed them
selves into creditors associations"
and in various other ways, sad to re-
late, have been sending good money
after the bad.
In one of the most notorious of the
"bucketing" failures. the referee in
bankruptcy announced today that he
would hold no further hearings and
there is every indication that the two
members of the failed brokerage"
concern will receive their discharge
as bankruptS and be cleared of all
monetary responsibilities.
John Burke's Firm.
The firm was that of Kardos &
Burke. which failed in 1922 for more
than two million dollars. with virtu-
ally no assets. John Burke, the jun
ior member of the firm. formerly
was treasurer of the United States.
In the various proceedings that have
followed the failure. Mr.. Burke has
testified that he had nothing to do
with the firms activities; in fact. he
knew nothing of the business what
ever. But he had lent his name to
the firm and when 1t failed the cred
ftors had an idea that they would be
able to collect some of their lost
cash personally from Mr.. Burke, If
not from Mr.. Kardos, who was the
genius of the organization and con-
ducted the operations.
The grand jury investigation of
bucketshop failures resulted in the
return of five or six indictments
against kardos, but Mr.. Burke was
not mentioned In the proceedings. The
proposal now to discharge the mem.
bers of the firm as bankrupts leaves
the deluded creditors with not a leg
TO stand on. The ssame process has
been gone through with in other cases
ana one by one the poor fish"&.whC
were unfortunate enough to get theil
names on the highly prosed Sucker
lists" that circulate at so much pei
list through the more shadowy lane:
of the metropolitan financial district
saw their fondest hopes disappear
1t Is true they employed expensive
employed counsel equally as expensive
and through them have been able t.
show that their failure was abject
that they saved nothing from the
wreck and had nothing salted away
Many of the bankrupts, however, have
returned to the bucketing game un.
der new firm names. with more limo.
cents holding the bag"
$I0O.OO0.OOO Involved in Deals.
In recording brokerage failures OF
more than 100, 900 million in the last two
years and half. the experts figured
that the combined assets amounted
to about 500, 100000. On this showing
II would appear tha some of the cred
ltors at least would get back one
tenth of what they paid in. But the
assets in nearly every instance have
been gobbled up by the court fees
attending the proceedings growing
out of the failures.
The patrons of the failed firm of E
high hopes of getting some O
their money back. They base theil
hopes on the ability of their counsel
to prove that Charles A. Stoneham
Giants, now battling for their thirt
worlds series championship against
the New York Yankees, was financial.
ly interested in the failed concern
and therefore is financially response
BILE to the losers in the crash. Stone
connected with the failure. This fact
has added to the hopes of the credi-
tors, who figure that criminal pro-
ceedings may form the groundwork
for future civil action.
Therefore the Fuller suckers" are
records at the worlds series mount
daily to new records. They are hoping
Charley Stoneham will get lots OF
money.