New York, Aug. 26—Despite enactment in many states of blue sky laws for its protection, the American public will pay $1 billion in 1925 to operators of fraudulent stock schemes, promoters of sandy oil wells and financial wizards of the Ponzi type.
The cost of credulity in 1924 was well over the billion-dollar mark and a report published today by the “Better Business Bureau” of New York indicates the still flourishing cult of goldbrick artists may well claim another “normal” year.
Progress has been made, the bureau notes, toward safeguarding the inexperienced investor, but the most optimistic observer does not foresee legislation which will entirely block the game of the sharper.
The bureau expects always there will be a considerable number of people ready to purchase shares in Brooklyn Bridge or to “invest” their savings in that hardy old standby, “the money-making machine.”
The habitat of the gullible is not confined to the rural sections, but is as wide as is this land of ours.
Meantime, however, the campaign against fraudulent stock operations and other Wallingford machinations will be carried forward. The Martin Act, now on the statute books of New York, is cited as an excellent deterrent to the use of stock certificates to separate the unwary from their assets. The law permits the speedy issuance of injunctions to restrain bucket shops and similar operations.
From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Aug. 26, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1925-08-26/ed-1/seq-1/
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