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Show TO WAR AGAINST SWINDLERS National Organization Takes Steps to Swing Full Force to Stamp Out Practice. National and departmental officers of the American Legion have recently brought to !ght s'everal instances in which unscrupulous swindlers have successfully capitalized the grief of the next of kin of Americans who lost their lives in the world war, and the organization's organi-zation's national headquarters lias taken steps to swing the full force of the more than 9,600 Legion posts behind be-hind a movement to stamp out the practice. The mother of a dead soldier whose grave had never been located recently was told by one of these parasites that he would visit Washington, il she paid his expenses, and find out at first-hand what could be done. Later, the impostor impos-tor reported success and advised the bereaved family that the body would be sent home. A brother became suspicious sus-picious and by a personal call at the war department learned that no inquiry in-quiry ever had been made. Another woman, whose son had not been heard from since he was reported" wounded while fighting in the Ar-gonne, Ar-gonne, received a letter signed with her son's name, asking her to send him money. She made a trip to Cleveland, O., only to find that the letter was a hoax. Later, she received a telegram signed with her son's name and notified noti-fied the police in the town from which the message had been sent. The man who had attempted to defraud her wes arrested. At the instigation of the Legion, police po-lice of a California city are on the trail of a man said to have made a ractice of corresponding with the next of kin of deceased soldiers with a view to defrauding them. He wrote a letter let-ter purporting to tive first-hand information infor-mation concerning the death of one of these missing soldiers, whereas investigation inves-tigation showed thut the writer of the letter had never been outside the United Uni-ted States during tht war. Lemuel Bolles, Legion national adjutant, adju-tant, has urged all posts and departments depart-ments to assist in warning relatives of missing heroes against paying any money for information or service of this nature, as both the Legion and the war department are willing to provide all available authentic information at all times without charge. |