Show ( THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE KUM)AY MORNING By RUTII FINNEY sometimes referred to as a age yet two departments of federal government in spend most of their time aavmg people from the evil effect of too is THIS much faith f A sucker says the dictionary is a person who is easily duped Barnum observed that there is one born every minute The Post Office Department has added to this study the information that a person who is once a sucker is almost certain to be always a sucker The Post Office Department is one of the two that toil to keep people from The other is chasing costly Both work the Federal Trade Commission on the principle that the only way to save the credulous is to keep temptation from them The Post Office Department bars from the mail The it finds to contain fraud Federal Trade Commission has power to order advertisers who make deceptive or misleading statements to stop it There is an amazing amount of this sort of In a period of two years the thing going on Post Office Department issued fraud orders The Fedagainst 000 persons and concerns eral Trade Commission issued even more over-trustf- ul 1 1 donnelly Horace j Office Department S who has studied the problem for years says it is ‘that burning desire to get something for nothing” that leads folks to answer one ridiculous advertisement after anotherOne man satisfies tlus impulse by investing in the stock market another by responding to advertisements that promise much for very little says "They' close their eyes and invest Donnelly “and then they awake and investigate and to their sorrow find it is they who have gotten nothing for their something” And he finds it is a difficult matter to save such people from their own folly "There is an old saying that a burnt child "Seemingly dreads the fire” says Donnelly that does not apply m the case of investors In fact the unscrupulous promoter rather prefers He pays big burnt children to the uninitiated money for their names and addresses "Recently I examined a letter from a sucker list seller in tins country sent to certain fraudulent operators who had escaped to Mexico offering to sell several thousand That names of clients of a defunct company concern had sold its clients millions of dollars of alleged securities of the same fraudulent character the fakers in Mexico were selling "I also ran across a communication from another sucker list broker sent to these same escaped convicts in Mexico offering lists of investors in numerous other defunct concerns which had operated in different sections of the - O country “These sucker lists were made up separately of Americans Italians Germans Poles anj those of other nationalities with the nature of given the investment in the case of each Investigation showed that a great many of these persons have been repeatedly victimized on previous A ) occasions course This fake "Of investment bug gets when brought to time have tried it one convicted promoter upon arriving at the prison took the keeper into partnership with him and resumed operations on a large Kale from within the prison walls So the department now takes the more drastic step of preventing the fraudulent promoter from receiving any mail the government THERE their solicitor for fakers is a diverting variety to the ued to separate the suckers from simoleons woman A Texas bunco artist joined two or three matrimonial clubs and began writing letShe was lonely pretty ters to male members and 1 9 she wrote A post office inspector found her to be about 30 and very homely She promised numerous men who were also lonely to marry them and then she began askthem for money If the victim pressed for marriage she pleaded that she was ill or that her mother was ill To one man who probably had become annoyingly ardent she wrote that she had tuberculosis was about to be operated on for appendicitis and would have to have her tonsils taken out She had built up quite a flourishing business when the Post Office Department heard of her A warning was not observed and finally a fraud order was issued closing the mail to all her letters ing Atlanta Georgia a man and and daughter organized the “Oectrifiable Company” and started a in DOWNwife order business offering to sell for five dolheel plates lars a pair wonderful The heel plates according to the Electrifi-able- s would cure hardening of the arteries high and low blood pressure enlargement of thy heart kidney trouble hardening of the prostate gland diabetes rheumatism and dropsy All these diseases it was explained were caused by uric acid inthe blood stream and body and could be ‘tured by producing a certain electrical ""effect within the body The “plate” caused the blood of the wearer to be bested about two degrees the explanation continued thus dissolving and eliminating the uric acid Post office inspectors found that the “plates” were crudely cut out by an Atlanta tinner with ordinary shears from sheets of copper and zinc They could be bought for a few cents each The price was almost all profit mail five-doll- ar ulation of the earth would have to advance the stupendous sum of $4649045868 But there seems to be no end to the scheme and the Khyners just as there is no end to the lambs waiting to be shorn Dr S J Eagan who apparently never existed in the flesh at all was advertised to ’women as the maker of "magic gloves” which if worn for one night would beautify soften whiten and make smooth the hands removing all freckles and discolorations The Federal Trade Commission just could not believe this and tried the gloves out It found that they did nothing of the kind Neither did "Facial Film” or "Neoplasma” said to be worth $5000 a pound make any and all faces beautiful overnight Another harpy who preyed on the natural desire of every man and woman to be strong and beautiful represented himself as “the world's strongest physical director” and told prospective pupils “You can put on or take off weight wherever desired you will be made over no matter what your present physical condition I guarantee to bring your body to its utmost degree of perfection” The results promised thus glowingly the Trade Commission found “were not probable of accomplishment or were exceptional if true” So another bubble was punctured by th federal agency which goes about pricking bubbles free for men and women who would otherwise see them burst anyway at their own expense government are kept on the job protecting the gullible from entire field "Some I ITM’ Since a person who is easily duped never gets over his weakness two departments of Uncle Sam's lust one of the numerous classes of sutlers There are others too numerous to mention who grab at anything that is sufficiently misrepresented and a lot of them come back foT more “7 hose who fatten the till of the medical faker are found to be constant repeaters Some are pitiable cases where relief from a real disease such as cancer is sought Others involve less serious consequences For instance older men seeking youth and younger men looking for mori youth literally jump from one rejuvenation cure to the other until they cover the readily admitted the fraud but offered as an excuse the fact that some other charlatan in his line would catch the sucker so why not he!” It is futile to try to check charlatans by putting them in jail Donnelly believes for when MAY skin games and fraud artists TORE ambitious still was the enterprise of one Joseph P Serada of Chicago who did business under the name of Health Violet Products Rare and fortunate the man or "woman who does not suffer from at least one of the ailments he proposed to cure The whole world was 1 le said he would rid custo be his clientele tomers of Abscess alcohol and drug addiction asthma ataxia barber’s itch birthmarks bladder disease boils blackheads brain fag Bright's disease bronchitis bruises bunions burns callouses or corns cancers cankers carbuncles cataract catarrh chafe chapped hands chilblains cold extremities colds constipation dandruff deafness earache diabetes diphtheria eczema epilepsy falling dyspepsia hair - felons female troubles fistula freckles frost bite hay fever headache heart disease hives goiter gout gray hair grippe insomnia leuemrrhea lumbago mumps nervousness neuralgia neuritis obesity paralysis piles pimples pleurisy pneumonia poison ivy prostalic diseases pyorrhea red nose rheumatism ringworm scarlet fever Kars skin diseases smallpox sore feet stone bruises sore throat sprains stiff neck tonsillitis ulcer whooping cough and writer’s cramp All these could be cured by his “violet ray machine” Serada claimed and the regular price of $35 would be reduced for a limited - ' time only to $ I 5 7 he machine was to be plugged into ordinary house electric current and applied to the human body whereupon it would quickly cure " pain and disease "Jt Federal Trade Commission and found: That Serada had copied his list of diseases from a circular someone else had used previously That he knew nothing about the curative value of either the machine or its rays That the machine when plugged in made a violet color but no violet rav and that it furnished the same kind of mila stimulation to the body that turpentine or red pepper ointment would furnish but no curative effect whatever 7 lie commission put a stop to Health Violet advertisements 7 he University of Applied Science also incurred tire disdoing business in Chicago pleasure of the government in the course of giving instruction in finger printing and secret BUT-th- e intelligence for amateur Sherlocls But all its representatives found when they visited the University of Applied Science was a large filing cabinet filled with finger prints of Puanonymous persons most of them dead pils when they happened to be in Chicago were allowed to look through this cabinet hey paid $70 for the privilege together The with 54 lessons and a finger print outfit university claimed the regular price was $100 and to the pretended reduction in rates the commission also objected service IV I ‘ 1 “FLORIDA and California are magic words on the pens of promoters out for the bigger fellows in the game when the land 'boom was on in Florida four years ago the mails were full of flowery literature and beautiful faked pictures designed to lure the unwary 7 his is the way it was done by one concern The Florida Lloyds Organization otherwise known as International Lloyds Agencies Ltd It secured an option on 5500 acres of land-awithout surveying put agents to vfou The option was never taken up selling lots though a great number of lotjwere sold When the concern found itself without land it did not attempt to refund purchase money but took up some more land moved over a portable sign bearing the name "Lloydsdale" and lured more purchasers Again the options expired and tin’s time the company bought some 300 acres at $18 an acre reached only by a winding trail 5 miles through the woods Again the sign “Uoyds-dale- ” was moved Only investigation by the Post Office Department put a stop to the per-- T ambulating project I rTTHE Cherry Blossoms Manufacturing Com-pan-y neglected to use any cherries in the" cherry drink it sold a Philadelphia company sold "Havana” cigars that had never seen the island of Cuba a New York company sold "English" soap that had never been across the ’ years ago a silk stocking the ‘‘endless chain" method of doing business through the mail and hundreds of other concern followed its lead Golf balls and lingerie and Italian villas Before the purchaser's were offered by mail eyes were dangled the hope that he would get some $10 worth of merchandise for one dollar He had to hazard four dollars to get coupons and he thought he had a chance of winning a prize by bringing in other people 1 he Post Office Department figured out that before an adventurer even up to thd 5th link in the chain could win the additional investors to the number of prize 1549681956 which is close to the total pop SEVERAL 1 Atlantic nd and another firm babbled of "French" perfumes that were all made in the strict confines of the United States of America "Irish” lace the commission has ruled is not Irish lace when it is made in China and must And neither are silk not be so represented stockings "fashioned” unless they have an actual Kam down the leg and along the sole of when d the foot Nor is an article it has a gold plating of lest than three one thousandths of an inch in thickness These are only a few of the hundreds of misleading statements the commission hat recgold-plate- tified One of the funniest fakes of all in this sort of misrepresentation has just come to light Advertisements showing what purported to be the building in which a large business was carried pn were circulated far and wide by a company whose name has not been revealed because it promised to stop faking On the front of tlie pictured building appeared in large display type the words Model "World's Largest Manufacturers Airplane Sets and Supplies” and over the door of what seemed to be an annex to the building were the words "Shipping Depart- ment” The Trade Commission found the volume of not exceed $ 0000 a year 1 he enterprise carried on in two small rooms in the upper story of a small building and no separate space was utilized for shipping In such manner are distant pastures always green and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow lures forever business did 1 |