Evening star., 1925-10-19
LOST DOLLARS ABlLuoN YEAR
I-IntrOduction.
BY VI. B. LETICK.

Editor. Nofe: rhi;; is re frst Of sir
articles bv, ". Leriek. sho.eing annual
| tendnce cost Of the United states Nary.
The American public has been
called the most gullible in the world.
| Before it buys diamond. it at least
tries to scratch the window pane: If
! il buys an automobile, it wants to
see if the car will run as far as the
corner. But when it buys securities.
in one time out of terl-an estimate
made by experts In the problem-it
hands over its money merely because
| it is asked to.
! Ir hands over somewhere between
$500. 900. 900 and $1,000. 600 900 a year
to bright young salesmen who work
the one call method, to high pressure
go-getters known among themselves
! as "dynamiters." even to unknown
voices on the neutrality-suspicious. one
/ Of eight such voices working in the
boiler room of a fake financial
house. telephonine to the names as
i they happen to appear in the phone
book. There are always enough
names to make it worth while, even
| at long distance rates.
The gypper Is twice as efficient as
| the sound financier-or his public is
proportionately twice as big. He is
more aggressive. The bulk of secur-
tiles sold in America, by volume, are
sound. but the bad sort are put across
| by a picked body of crooked special
| lists who form a Extraordinarily
small part of the total number of pro :
| fessional sellers.
There is no form of legitimate in =
| vestment which is not copied by the
! crooks. There is no form of fraudu :
| lent Endorsement which has not been
used at some time or other, from
mere disingenuousness to outright
| forgery. The public hites-and the
public in the end is the individual
| investor.
Not So Simple.
Don't call the buyer sucker The
! term makes the problem too simple
, The city business man when he gets
| on unfamiliar ground Is apt to fall
| just as hard as the farmer. The proof
| of that lies In statistics. The estates
of men who have made fortunes In
Wall Street have shown worthless
securities. sometimes bunk securities
On the other hand, there was the farm.
ers wife miles outside Seneca
! Falls, \. Y. Two urbane young men
/ from New York stopped at the farm
| with a little proposition-a switch
game or one of the staple schemes of
| the free lances who work small towns
and rural roads. WELL" she said
iii think it over; you come back
| When they came back they were ar
! rested The farmers wife had taken
| the trouble to find out just what their
| proposition amounted to.
Loser Is Silent.
,,.., .L. l,,,,or lan,. a. 49,.
! before. Hence the billion dollars a
year. OF course, the total loot of pro,
| fessional securities swindlers is not
| known exactly. There are no records
of such things and usually the loser
shuts up out of shame. But the an.
| nual loss. according to estimates ac.
cepted by officials Of the New York
| Stock Exchange, is from half billion
to billion. Those are the figures &C
| cepted by Government officials. city
and State prosecutors in New York
and by men like Henry L. Doherty
the utility operator and investment
banker.
One billion a year and the 5000
| legitimate securities listed on the
New York Stock Exchange-an accu
| mutation Of many years-are valued
roughly at only S6o.Oo0, ,ooO, 900.
This securities loss Is one Of the
\ biggest items of all in the financial
crime toll. William B. Joyce of the
| National Surety Co., a member of
the organizing committee of the ma
tional crime commission has esti-
mated it as forming half the total
loss from all sorts of fraud. A bill
| lion Is four times Americas s loss from
burglary, larceny and petty theft. 1t
| is ten times the forgery total. 1t ID
! four times the loss caused by trade