I 138 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 16, 1922 
PUBLISHER’S DESK 
Seven hundred and fifty million dollars 
lost in stock promotion frauds since the 
war! The United States Government is 
authority for the above statement. Such 
a record should be sufficient warning to 
those having money to invest not to listen 
lo the oily-tongued salesmen promoting 
worthless stocks. But the harvest goes 
on day after day and year after year. 
The lure of easy money in the way of 
big profits is the bait which makes so 
many easy victims of the get-rich-ipiick 
promoter. We urge every reader of The 
I t. N.-Y. to refuse to invest a penny in 
securities of any kind without first in¬ 
vestigating the proposition thoroughly. 
Your local banker can usually give you 
sound advice, or a letter to Publisher’s 
Desk will always bring the desired in¬ 
formation. 
The Co-operative Society of America, 
Chicago, seems to be sending out barrels 
of literature offering country people a 
certificate or share in ownership of the 
business enterprises owned and con¬ 
trolled by the society without any cash 
payment. The society represents that 
these shares sell for .$7.1, but does not 
state that they are worth $75. All you 
have lo do to get one of these shares is 
to patronize the mail order house of 
Ueounrd-Morton Company, Chicago, and 
the certificate is paid for out of the pro¬ 
fits of this company. The literature 
makes the usual attack on Wall Street, 
apparently for the purpose of gaining the 
confidence of the public. The It. N.-Y. 
has not found the I/Conard-Morton Com¬ 
pany a satisfactory house to deal with in 
the past, and we should fear that those 
accepting the certificate might find it a 
pretty cheap bargain in the end. We re¬ 
gard the society as co-operative in name 
only, and the promoter of it has done 
nothing that we have any information 
about to earn the confidence of country 
people. We hope It. N.-Y. readers will 
not get caught on this co-operative fake. 
Do you kno\v anything about the Uni¬ 
versal Auto Service Association, Buffalo, 
N. Y.? Is it a good place to have your 
car insured, or is it a fraud? I have 
given the agent a chock for $20, the 
balance to he paid within three mouths. 
New' York. II. o. u. 
These so-called associations do not 
issue insurance at all. The contracts of 
this class of concerns that have come to 
Our attention only provide for towing 
cars that break down, and that only if 
the accident happens within n certain 
distance of a station, furnishing detective 
service to locate cars stolen and attorney 
service in case of claims for damages due 
to accidents. We regard such proposed 
service as of very questionable value to a 
farmer, and we doubt if any farmer would 
sign such a contract understanding the 
provisions of it. IWe find many farmers 
think they are getting automobile insur¬ 
ance, w hich misunderstanding js no doubt 
due to the clever tongues of the solicitors 
for such contracts. 
Your two letters regarding the Nil way 
Stores Chain Company received, and 
since you wrote me the last letter they 
have “busted,” as per the enclosed clip¬ 
ping from the Rochester Dupnich and 
Chronicle. They sold a lot of slock in 
this town, hul never started auy store. 
1 also enclose you a clipping about the 
Birmingham Motors of Jamestown and 
Falconer. Thousands of dollars’ worth 
of this worthless stock have been sold in 
Western New York and Washington, 
D. U. 0. D, W. 
New York. 
The newspaper clippings tell the old, 
old story of buying stock in concerns 
that are nothing more than a prospee*. 
The chain store idea is the basis of sev¬ 
eral wildcat promotions. If investors 
would only get disinterested advice from 
some competent source before parting 
with their money millions would be saved 
from the clutches of various get-rieh- 
quick artists. 
Will you see what you can do about 
collecting pay for five gallons of maple 
syrup that I sent William Pryor some 
three weeks ago? i have written to him, 
but he does not answer. C. T. 
New York. 
It will be wise to place William W. 
l’ryor, 810 Broad Street, Newuirk, N. .1., 
on the list of parties to be avoided, We 
have before us the definite order for the 
maple syrup. The order was filled, but 
Mr. Pryor makes no attempt to pay for 
it. lie is receiving mail at the address, 
but all correspondence is ignored, and we 
give the record in order to save others 
from a similar experience. 
1 do not know whether my ease comes 
under your Publisher’s Desk or not. Last 
December 21, upon a telephone agree¬ 
ment with John .T, Foley of Everett, 
Mass., I took a load of Christmas wreaths 
to his florist store in Everett with our 
farm truck. The goods wore accepted by 
Mr. Foley, and just as In- was about to 
settle a telephone called him to the hos¬ 
pital to his sister, who was passing away, 
so he said. I waited three hours for his 
return, hut he did not come, and his 
man, Mr. Nelson, promised me he would 
send the cheek the next day, so 1 came 
back. Since then I have sent Mr. Foley 
a bill, followed by two letters, and I 
have heard nothing from him. a. d. s. 
Massachusetts. 
The excuse for delaying payment is 
unique, and if true, Mr. Foley is devoid 
of any sense of honor. If the subscriber 
hail gone out and asked a policeman to 
go back to the store with him, he would 
no doubt been able to get either the 
money or the. wreaths. We refer to the 
history so that otherr. will he on their 
guard. 
February 5, 1922, I sent an order for 
trees, bulbs and flowers to the amount of 
$6 to the American Horticulture Com¬ 
pany, Des Moines, Iowa; sent money 
with order (registered letter). They 
wrote me and told me they did not get 
the money. As I had registered the 
amount, 1 thought il would come hack. 
1 wanted the goods, and I sent $<! more 
on March 5, 11122, and they acknowledged 
that and said if the first order was re¬ 
ceived they would return if. 1 sent a 
tracer after it and found they received 
both orders, and I have got no goods yet. 
(’an there he anything done to make 
them refund my money? I sent the order 
because they gave Des Moines National 
Bank as to their standing. I wrote the 
hank, and they said they were a reliable 
firm. I have all the letters they wrote 
me, but have not. received any goods, and 
they will not answer me, and did not re¬ 
turn my money. I have the receipts for 
money orders. If you can do anything 
for me I would appreciate it very much. 
New York. K, h. 
In response to our letters regarding 
another complaint of similar Character, 
American Horticulture Company write 
that orders amounting to $8,000 were 
received during the past season which the 
company was unable to fill, and has not 
the money to make refund of remittances. 
The company urge that it he allowed to 
fill the orders next season, but the out¬ 
look is not'very encouraging for the cus¬ 
tomers from any point of view. A con¬ 
cern that is not in position to refund 
money on unfilled orders can give no very 
good assurance of filling the order next 
season, either. 
The following letter only confirms the 
advice given regarding the Sinclair 
scheme a few weeks ago : 
I see one of the writers to The R. 
N.-Y. wants to know about James Sin¬ 
clair, Ocean Park, Cal. 1 sent to Sin¬ 
clair for his price list on moths and but¬ 
terflies, and for his hook on the mouuling 
and collecting of insects, for which I paid 
$1. You can get a booklet from Wash¬ 
ington free that will give you a great 
deal more information than that. hook. 
Mr. Sinclair said (hat if you sent him 
some butterflies of which you did not 
know the names he would charge you one- 
half of the value of them for classifying 
them, I sent him a collection of butter¬ 
flies which, according to his price list, 
were worth about $35, I told him 1 did 
not know the names of the butterflies, 
but. 1 have since found out their names, 
lie wrote hack and said that they were 
not of au.v value. I sent him the return 
postage on them, and when they reached 
me they were either broken or their wings 
were stuck together, as he had tried to 
relaxed them and had put them hack into 
the envelopes before they were dried. You 
said that he was trying to sell hooks, and 
you were right, and he asks twice the 
price the hooks are worth. J.F. B. 
New York. 
At a lecture a well-known authority on 
economics mentioned the fact that in some 
parts of the United States the number of 
men was considerably more than that of 
women, and added humorously; "I can, 
therefore, recommend the ladies to emi¬ 
grate to that part of the country.” A 
young lady seated in one of the center 
rows of the auditorium got up. and, full 
of indignation, left, the room rather 
noisily. Whereupon die lecturer re¬ 
marked: “I did not. mean that it should 
be done in such a hurry.”—Everybody’s. 
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Nearly 80,000 Speed Wagons now in use 
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Product of eighteen years of successful build¬ 
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Canopy Expret* (Illustrated) - $1375 
Cab Express - $1375 
Stock Rack - * 1400 
Carry All - - 1400 
Chassis only 
Double Deck - $1400 
Stake Body - - 1400 
Grain Body - - 1435 
- *1185 
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© 
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o 
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