PROMOTERS AND PROMOTING 



to be obtained in order to the success of the 

 flotation. Some recent instances of trust 

 financing in the United States seem to me 

 to betray literal malice aforethought toward 

 common stock purchasers the deliberate, 

 cold-blooded purpose to make them stand 

 and deliver.* 



It should be added forthwith that pro- 

 moters hardly ever perpetrate these 

 nefarious designs alone. They are aided by 

 underwriters equally guilty with them- 

 selves, in cases more guilty, occupying posi- 

 tions as bankers which enable them to 

 beguile the unreflecting public as promoters 

 could not. For those losses upon the stock 

 of promoted concerns, of which the Ameri- 

 can public has heard so much during the 

 last years, promoters have been much less 

 responsible than underwriters. No banker 

 has the right to enlist in the underwriting 

 of a scheme, lending to it the sanction of 

 his name, until he has caused it to be thor- 

 oughly investigated, satisfying his honest 



* Meade, 346. 



267 



