Show for meditation 0 0 by LEONARD A BARRETT BARRET Tr fraudulent INVEST MENTS AT T A recent conference of a life insurance company held at atlantic city the treasurer ot of the company reported that eight billion dollars had been lost by people of the united states since the world war in n fraudulent investments the dally dahy loss to unsuspecting investors amounted to almost one million and a half dollars seeking for an explanation for this appalling condition we nye pass by the high pressure salesman whose business Is to present fraudulent investments to an over credulous public this condition so alarming and unnecessary Is attributable to one of three causes ignorance carelessness or gullibility gul ignorance Is pardonable when due caution has been exercised tor for every person at one time or another makes a mistake in judgment carelessness on the other hand band Is unbar donable and justly deserves its ashment ish ment A person has no moral right to engage to in a game to which he ta Is not willing to devote time and judg juda ment but la Is asinine it T trust everybody may be a praise worthy trait provided everybody could be trusted but the sad fact Is that they annot be the larger part of the eight dollar loss was due to an over trusting public and why over trusting was it not because the public was quite willing to believe true what it wished were true truc that Is the desire was parent to the trust in which case the public was fooling only itself it la Is always easy to sell a person when he wants to buy ex governor lowden of illinois Is quoted as saying more men have gone one bankrupt because they had not the courage to look their balance sheets in the face than for any other reason when an over trusting gull able public Is willing to took balance sheets in the face aud and thus exercise judgment investigation and a little common sense an billion dollar loss will be a thing of the past cz 1928 western newspaper union |