Evening star., 1923-07-30
Promotions of Crooked Stock
Seldom Pushed in Wall Street
S,UindIers, as Rule, Beaten, at O,Vn Game
When They Ventured Among
Wizards of Finance.

the stocks offered put out probably
at par value on buoyant capitalfza-
ton. couldn't have lasted around such
figures more than month in very
big trading market.
The promoter sought to reach the
rural populace. He was a sort OF
struggling rear guard OF the gold
brick fraternity who had fourished
. some years before. His favorite
stock offerings represent bogus In
vcntions and the like-stocks of COM
panies that promised to extract power
from the suns rays, to build mono
rail transportation systems all the
way from New York to Chicago. etc.
The crusade of the Post Office au
thorities proved one of the most ef-
fective pieces Of wholesale prosecution
to which stock swindlers had ever been
subjected. Sellers of stocks repre-
senting all sorts OF bogus inventions
and bogus industries vent to federal
jails for long term for using the
mails to defraud.
Scare in Ranks.
The campaign by the authorities
threw such a scare into the ranks of
the swindling fraternity and at the
cational value in enlightening the in
vestor that the bogus invention. or
near bogus" invention. promotions OF
the wild variety of those days were
whole system that they represented
was smashed. The swindling fra
ternity was given the most whole
some lessonS which 1t had ever had
with regard to respecting the United
States mails.
What was more important however
Was the fact that those of the news
papers which had consistently refused
to take the advertising of the swim
dlers were now in position to rally
hundreds of other newspapers
port in efforts to keep all sorts of
stock swindlers out of the advertis-
ing columns of the newspapers. The
| movement thus started was to result
several years later in the brilliant
, crusades by newspaper advertising
associations which were to prove one
of the most effective forces in strik-
ing at stock selling swindlers of the
later days.
Wholesome Fear.
The financial underworld's fear of
government prosecution was of a
! deeper sort than had probably ever
to that which the United States
| secret service had finally, after long
| constant pounding at counterfeiters
and their agents, been able to instill
| into the counterfeiting fraternity. To
the average person who reads of
counterfeiting simply in the form in
| which it exists today. and considers
| how seldom one gets counterfeit
bill or counterfeit coin in the ordi-
nary course of handling money, 1t is
hard to imagine that back in the 70's
counterfeiters and their agents were
| well nigh as numerous -propor-
| tionately as have been mail stock
swindlers in recent years.
| In that connection 1t may be stated
| that study of the painstaking work
| and the constant plodding Of the
| United States Post Office inspectors
year in and year out over the course
that the United States government is
! handling the subject of stock frauds
4, through the mails I'm much the same
| remarkably efficient manner as did the
United States secret service in the
lataers Grt,ea hand handifns . OF counterfeiting
reduction of the latter line Of GRIM
| inality from one Of the most common
forms of thieving to one of the least
| common.
Making Mails Clean.
Just as Uncle Sam was determined
that every one could feel certain "a
dollar is a dollar" so too has there
| been shown a determination to make
the United States mails so clean that
! no one need have the least doubt of
| their being clean. There appears to
/ be the realization by the Post Office
! pcPdi thiCHt diu NY tuc OHlleQ StdteS
| Department Of Justice, standing right
! behind 1t. that 1t may take years more
to overcome all handicaps and to
! finish the big job, but that finished
| 1t must be.
Uncle Sam has long right arm.
The Post once Department has
been hammered. however. by the fact
Small sopared GitE aTfe the % sas,5
tasks which confront 1t. It has also
been hampered by the lack of proper
laws to cope with the keen criminal
1 element of the financial underworld
that knows full we'll how to take
advantage of technicalities.
For instance, there has been much
question as to how effective could be
laws on mail frauds in the prosecution
of bucket shop cases. That was one
of the reasons that the United States
Post Office Department hesitated
Iabout proceeding against bucketeers
in recent years as II has proceed ed
against promoters of bogus stocks
In that connection it Is worthy tc
note that when the United States De-
partment of Justice conducted it's bis
crusade against bucket shops in 1918
lit directed its operations at lines OF
violations such as the 'later-day
bucket shop gentry have. studiousl,
avoided.
| Trailing the BucketeeFs.
The bankruptcies Of some of the bis
bucket shops has at last given Uncle
Sans Department Of Justice and Pos
once sleuths proper opportunity fol
forcing their wedge of prosecution init