Evening star., 1924-01-05
CREDITORS HOPE LIES
= IN "SUCKER LIST"
Bucketshop Failure Finds Little in
Way of Assets Besides
Names"
By ROBERT r. SMALL

Special Dispatch to The Star
NEW YORK. January 5.-Is a suck.
er list" which cost a brokerage con.
Germ cool 100000 a legitimate as.
set after the firm has been thrown
into bankruptcy?
This question of bucket shop ethics
is up for consideration before tbf
special federal commissioner In bank
ruptcy in this city. There is no doub,
that lot of questionable concerns
would pay well for the list. This
would help out the poor suckers
who trusted their money to the fail
ed concern. But would 1t be fair to
hand over the suckers" on the $780,
900 list to some new breed of wolves
claiming connection with Wall street
Ever since the cotton brokerage
was closed, the sucker list
mas been impounded among the other
assets Possibly it has been she
most valuable asSet--the only one Of
tangible value. For when this con-
Germ failed it failed all over" 1t had
reaped a harvest throughout the
south, but the harvest has disappear
cd. Only liabilities remain.
Regular .Blue Book"
Today the sucker list has been taken
from the other assets and placed in a
special account. Il has not been
thrown away. Its disposition remains
"A problem which the future must
solve. The list naturally has no great
value to any legitimate business. But
1t contains the names of between $4,000
and 10000 of the choicest suckers in
the entire countryside. This particular
. sucker list was made up from many
other sucker directories. II might be
called the blue book of suckers. All
the unproductive suckers were dropped
IN its compilation. Only those who
mad bitten once and were legitimate
fishes" for the future were included
The cost of compiling this particular
set was In excess of 81 a name and tt
was naturally guarded by Scott, Nor
ris & Co. with the utmost care Only
the most trusted employees were per
lnitted to take it out of it's bed of
lavender and old lace in the company's
vaults
When a receiver took charge of the
tlrms affairs it was found that the
furniture Of the offices and the sucke
list constituted a major portion of the
assets. This has placed the receiver
IN an ethical dilemma His duty to
the creditors Is to get all he can for
list might easily net $4,000. But II
probably won't be sold. 1t ought tt
he destroyed so as to make the worl
of future bucketeers more difficult
Evils Still Exists.
The bucketshop evil is far from
solved in this city. Apparently ther,
is no way of reaching these wildca
concerns until some poor, unsuspect
ing investor is hit and hit hard Th,
shops run along for a long time OF
the money that new suckers pour il
from day to day. Some of the limo
cents are. even permitted to max
small profits during the early pc
riods. The various stock exchange
assert there is no plan by which the.
can be made responsible for tn
bucketeers.
The various telegraph and ticke
services, which have been hit in th
failures from time to time, hav
adopted a new policy of dealing will
the brokerage concerns that sprint
up from time to time. They mak'
them deposit $4,000 in cash to NEE
telegraphic bills and other wire ex
penses. When this advance sum be
comes seriously impaired the service
stops.