Evening star., 1925-10-20
LOST DOLLARS AB1LuoN YEAR
H-Who Loses Them?
BY NJ. B. LETICk.

them We're clersymen. There were 81
mechanics and laborers, IA students
and IA farmers
Who's the "Sucker?"
Disregard the clerks and bookkeep-
ers. consider only the more active
business men. and among the 13J left
there are merchants, real estate men.
contractors, hotel men statesmen
managers and superintendents Cper-
haps some of these last should be in
the mechanical column, manufar.
turers, brokers, traders. advertisius,
men-apparently all sorts.
The little old woman in rusty black
no longer seems typical.
This survey. continued until the re-
turns began repeating themselves over
and over. showed a good deal. II
brought out, for instance, that the
average stock swindle loss is nos :
trif1e but, in these AIS cases was
41S lost every cent. the average sal
wage from each s1,19O was $50. The
| chief incentive is hope Of great gain.
the return most commonly promised
being per cent or better. In a third
of the ca seS the investor took the word
of a friend as tip-there are lots NJ
people who find friendship profitable.
One victim in four admitted that he
was carried away by the salesman :
CAB. A considerable number fell be
cause the salesman told them they
had been singled out as prominent
citizens to be given a ground-fiour
| chance. But the great majority fell
because they made no investigation.
| They put up their money on faith.
without even knowing what informa :
ton they should have secured.
Forge County Seal.
Even knowing what to ask is not
| always enough. A few months ago a
Chicago bond house found it had been
stung with S150.000 worth of forged
school district bonds. The bonds were
bought from three supposed directors
of the district. A year later il was dis
covered. through the first coupons.
that the names and the county seal
had been forged.
Once sucker list was essential To
a crook and he would pay higher for
the name of a sucker who had been
stunS at least once. 1t showed hope
springinS eternal. Now names are
taken at random from income TAX
lists as well as from sucker lists.
That is in part because the public
has learned il can invest.
In the legitimate field, three great
corporations have between them tods y
100000 stockholders. The public utiI-
tiles have widened popular invest
ment. The number of American in
vestors rose from 5000. 900 to 10000
900 when people who knew nothing
of securities learned during the war
that they could buy bonds. But the
crooks were only half a jump. II that,
behind the legitimate development.
Indeed, some were at work even dur
ing the wartime bond campaigns.
The United States Treasury Depart
ment estimated that in 1888 Liberty
bonds worth s4O0,O00,0 900 were taken
from investors through swindline
operations. That was one of the big
gest switches" ever put over. War
bonds got the people in an investing
frame of mind, but didn't teach them
how to be cautious.
Everybody has heard the old joke
about the cat and rat ranch; they in
teract and the furs pile up faster tina n
the eggs in the fairy tale. A bank
put that in it's window as humorous
warning. A few days later it was
gone. What became of it?" some one
asked. oh" said the banker. we
had to take 1t down: too many people
came in and wanted to know where
they could buy stock in that cat
ranch
Copyright. 1e253
Tomorrw: How They Lose Them