iyii. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
16© 
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. 
Uncle Sam Wants to Know Where 
it Has Gone. 
So many complaints have poured into 
the Department of Justice and Post 
Office Department against E. G. Lewis 
and his numerous schemes that these 
departments have united in an investi¬ 
gation of the schemes. The complaints 
show that Lewis has been collecting 
money from country people from all 
parts of the country for nearly 10 years. 
During that time he has got money on 
more than a dozen different proposi¬ 
tions. It is not known how much money 
Lewis got on these schemes, but from 
his own representations it runs into six 
or seven million dollars all told, and 
some people estimate that he got in all 
nearly double that amount. But when 
the old bank was closed up some of 
the depositors and stockholders de¬ 
manded their money and got 87 per 
cent of their investment through the re¬ 
ceiver. This represented about one- 
third of the stock. The trick turned by 
Lewis to get possession of the other 
two-thirds of the funds of the bank was 
probably the slickest piece of jugglery 
ever performed with bank accounts and 
cash. When the receiver took charge 
in August, 1905, the officers of the bank 
and the Lewis enterprises owed the 
bank nearly a million dollars, which was 
one of the reasons for closing the bank 
and for the issuing of fraud orders 
against it. The receiver advertised the 
assets of the bank, but got no bids for 
the Lewis securities. In the meantime 
Lewis wrote hysterical letters to the 
stockholders, alleging that a conspiracy 
had been formed by express companies, 
bankers and Government officials to de¬ 
stroy the people’s bank, and that the 
bank had been assassinated. He appealed 
to them to stand by him in this dark 
hour of trial and assign their stock to 
him, that he might be in a position to 
light the enemies of the bank—their 
enemies—and pledged his private for¬ 
tune, his income and his sacred honor 
to pay them in full, dollar for dollar. 
In exchange for the stock he would send 
them a trustee note or preferred stock 
in the publishing company. About two- 
thirds of the stockholders fell to this 
plea and sent Lewis assignments of their 
stock. It amounted to about $1,500,000. 
Lewis printed up $2,300,000 worth of 
stock in the Lewis Publishing Co., and 
gave the dear people their choice of this 
or the trustee notes of his income in 
exchange for the assignments. Lewis 
was then able to turn over the assigned 
stock to the receiver and take his securi¬ 
ties and about $300,000 in cash besides. 
Word went out then that the assets of 
the bank were paid in full, and that the 
stockholders got 87 per cent of their 
investment. All of which was offered 
as evidence that the bank was assassi¬ 
nated. What really happened of course 
was that Lewis borrowed from the 
stockholders their proceeds of the bank, 
without security, and saved himself from 
prosecution by making good the money 
he got out of the bank. The stock was 
of course all vapor. It was not even 
pure water. 
Those who accepted notes instead of 
stock fared no better. These are the 
notes now three years overdue that we 
have been trying to collect without suc¬ 
cess. Besides these notes and stock, 
Lewis sold mortgages, bonds and notes 
in great variety and in unlimited num¬ 
bers. These he called in and promised 
to pay for them in cash, or exchange 
them for stock in the People’s Savings 
and Trust Company, which he later or¬ 
ganized. Those who sent in their cer¬ 
tificates and asked cash got in return 
an interim receipt. The cash does not 
come, and the Banking Department of 
the State of Missouri will not allow 
Lewis to issue bank stock in exchange 
for worthless stocks and notes, so that 
he cannot keep his promise to issue the 
stock, even if he were disposed to do so. 
Of course he could turn the cash into 
the bank and keep the securities as he 
promised to do, but no one suspects 
Lewis capable of straight cash transac¬ 
tions of that kind. 
The “Readers’ Pool” is a proposition 
that seems involved in mystery. Lewis 
gathered a fund three years ago to buy 
48 acres of land at University City for 
this fund. He announced that he had 
enough to buy the land, and then asked 
for more money to improve it and for a 
loan fund to lend home builders. Finally 
he said no more certificates would be 
issued, but no one knew whether the 
land was bought or not, but certainly 
the profits that were to be divided semi¬ 
annually have not materialized. Lewis 
refused to explain. Perhaps Uncle Sam 
will find out. Lewis is now very will¬ 
ing—anxious in fact—to exchange all 
these certificates, bonds, notes, etc., for 
10-year debentures, but his victims are 
getting tired of the exchange process, 
and would now like a little cash. 
Lewis is evidently drunk with con¬ 
ceit. That is the most charitable view 
to take of his conduct. Lie has grown 
impudent in his defiance of the postal 
regulations. He not only daily violates 
the regulations, but actually publishes 
the evidence of his transgressions. His 
conduct amounts to a defiance of the 
LJnited States Government. Not only 
this. He has done something more seri¬ 
ous. He has involved over one hun¬ 
dred other publishers in similar vio¬ 
lations. According to the postal regula¬ 
tions a paper is not entitled to second 
class privileges when premium induce¬ 
ments are offered in excess of 50 per 
cent of the subscription price, or when 
the paper is regularly mailed gratui¬ 
tously to people who did not subscribe 
for it. Lewis offers premiums which he 
says are worth hundreds of dollars with 
a dollar subscription, and further ad¬ 
mits that 70 per cent of the subscrip¬ 
tions sent him are given away free. 
These conditions apply not only to his 
own paper, but also to all the papers 
for which he is allowed to take subscrip¬ 
tions. But he has not even stopped 
here. Lie now boasts that a number of 
publishers have now allowed him to 
send them subscriptions on credit to 
the amount of $500,000. If you did not 
read the boast carefully you would think 
they had made him a cash loan. It is 
probably a gratuity granted in the vain 
hope of putting off an inevitable calam¬ 
ity. Surely no self-respecting govern¬ 
ment could ignore such bold defiance of 
the law in which it is itself concerned. 
In his reckless and conceited bravado 
Lewis has not only invited but forced 
an inquiry of affairs; and the publishers 
whom he has involved may and prob¬ 
ably will find their records with him a 
matter of inquiry also. To be fair with 
the publishers involved, we do not be¬ 
lieve they went into the scheme with 
any intention of violating the postal 
laws, and if they show a proper con¬ 
trition now, we hope the Government 
will be charitable with their error of 
the past. 
When Lewis was tried on an indict¬ 
ment of fraud in connection with the 
defunct United States Bank, he escaped 
because it was not clear that he intended 
to create a scheme to defraud. It was 
not denied that his victims had lost 
money. He has developed many schemes 
since, and the people have dropped 
money in all of them. Perhaps he is 
smart enough to continue the perform¬ 
ance indefinitely, but we doubt it 
It is a matter of common knowledge 
that the Post Office Department was 
never more successful than during the 
past year in running down promoters 
of fraudulent schemes. 
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phia Press. 
Champion Manufacturing Co c 
Pontiac, Michigan 
Department C 
