462 
<T,e  RURAL.  NEW-YORKER 
March  17,  1923 
PUBLISHER’S  DESK 
All  letters  to  Publisher’s  Desk  depart¬ 
ment  must  be  signed  with  writer's  full 
name  and  address  given.  Many  inquiries 
are  answered  by  mail  instead  of  printing 
inquiry  and  answer,  hence  unsigned  let¬ 
ters  receive  no  consideration. 
Since  the  retirement  of  L.  R.  Steel 
from  the  organizations  which  bear  his 
name  they  are  fast  proving  to  be  built 
on  sand,  as  “P.  D.”  has  always  expressed 
its  belief.  Last  week  we  reported  the 
closing  of  the  Baltimore  office  as  a  re¬ 
sult  of  the  activities  of  the  Blue  Sky 
■Committee  and  the  Attorney-General  of 
Maryland.  It  now  appears  that  a  re¬ 
ceiver  has  been  appointed  for  the  Balti¬ 
more  Company,  which  is  a  subsidiary  of 
tiie  Buffalo  Corporation.  It  also  appears 
that  the  Attorney-General  of  New  York 
State  has  enjoined  the  company  from 
further  sale  of  stock.  It  thus  appears 
that  Mr.  Steel’s  withdrawal  was  none 
too  soon  to  prevent  his  house  of  cards 
from  falling  about  his  own  ears.  Mil¬ 
lions  of  dollars  of  stock  of  the  Steel  en¬ 
terprises  have  been  sold  to  country  peo¬ 
ple  by  persuasive  salesmen.  Men  en¬ 
gaged  in  this  line  as  a  rule  have  no  con¬ 
science  to  trouble  them  when  the  collapse 
comes  and  those  who  have  trusted  them 
have  lost  their  savings — sometimes  their 
all. 
Last  week  we  received  a  card  from 
the  Bullet  Proof  and  Non-shatterable 
Glass  Corporation.  Saturday  we  sent 
them  the  card,  asking  for  information, 
and  yesterday  received  the  enclosed  cir¬ 
cular.  About  two  hours  after  we  re¬ 
ceived  the  circular  by  mail  two  of  the 
company’s  representatives  called  and 
t  ried  very  hard  to  sell  us  some  of  the 
shares.  They  also  offered  to  send  our 
name  in  for  an  agency  for  the  glass  if 
we  became  shareholders.  It  all  sounds 
very  good,  but  I  refused  to  buy  any 
shares  until  I  have  your  valuable  ad¬ 
vice.  F.  S. 
Connecticut. 
The  Bullet  Proof  and  Non-shatterable 
Glass  proposition  has  previously  been 
commented  upon  in  these  columns.  It 
has  all  the  earmarks  of  an  easy  money 
promotion  scheme.  Subscribers  will  never 
part  with  their  money  in  exchange  for 
stock  of  this  kind  if  they  will  ask  The 
R.  N.-Y.’s  advice  “before”  instead  of 
after.  This  postal  card  plan  of  asking 
for  information  deserves  special  atten¬ 
tion.  We  have  never  known  it  to  be 
employed  in  the  sale  of  a  security  of 
merit,  but  it  is  the  favored  scheme  to 
locate  prospects  for  stocks  that  have  no 
established  value  and  stocks  that  are 
positively  worthless.  The  information  is 
rarely  sent  by  mail,  but  the  request  for 
information  is  answered  by  a  call  from 
a  long-winded,  high-pressure  stock  sales¬ 
man.  In  this  case  the  salesmen  followed 
close  on  the  heels  of  the  prespectus  sent 
by  mail.  Promoters  sending  out  return 
postal  cards  in  this  way  simply  brand 
themselves  and  their  promotions  as  un¬ 
desirables. 
Involuntary  petitions  in  bankruptcy 
against  the  Cleveland  Discount  Company 
were  filed  in  Federal  Court  today  by 
three  former  salesmen  of  the  company, 
as  creditors.  The  company  is  allowed  20 
days  in  which  to  file  answer  to  the  pro¬ 
ceedings,  which  followed  closely  upon  ap¬ 
pointment  of  receivers  by  voluntary  peti¬ 
tion  in  Common  Pleas  Court. — Daily 
Paper. 
This  company  sold  its  own  stock  to 
the  public  through  salesmen,  and  more 
recently  has  been  marketing  real  estate 
"bonds  of  Cleveland  Discount  Building 
Company.  It  remains  to  be  seen  how 
the  real  estate  bonds  may  be  affected  by 
the  financial  difficulties  of  the  Cleveland 
Discount  Company.  While  real  estate 
bonds  are,  if  properly  safeguarded,  a 
very  substantial  form  of  securities,  there 
are  now  so  many  concerns  selling  them 
that  a  word  of  caution  is  necessary.  At 
the  high  cost  of  building  during  recent 
years,  even  though  the  equity  above  the 
mortgage  would  seem  adequate,  a  radical 
decline  in  rental  and  property  values, 
such  as  has  occurred  in  many  other  lines, 
might  easily  put  the  security  in  the  dan¬ 
ger  class.  Moody’s  Investors’  Service 
makes  the  following  suggestions  on  the 
selection  of  sound  real  estate  bonds: 
Where  the.  offering  circular  franltjy 
shows  the  valuation  of  land  and  build¬ 
What  lead  does  in  a  motor  car 
ings,  naming  the  appraisers;  discloses 
that  some  well-known  bank  or  trust  com¬ 
pany  is  trustee ;  shows  that  the  bond¬ 
holders’  funds  are  covered  by  the  mort¬ 
gage  during  the  construction  period  ;  and 
indicates  by  the  ratio  of  property  value 
to  bond  issue  that  the  margin  of  security 
is  ample — then  it  is  safe  to  assume  from 
the  circular  alone  that  the  bond  is  high- 
grade.  Even  if  the  circular  does  not 
disclose  all  these  points,  a  letter  of  in¬ 
quiry  to  the  bond  house  upon  these  points 
will  in  the  case  of  almost  any  high- 
grade  bond  bring  a  frank  and  full  state¬ 
ment  of  facts. 
Philips  Dairy  Company,  289  Green¬ 
wich  Street,  New  York,  sent  out  re¬ 
quests  for  eggs.  I  made  them  one  ship¬ 
ment  ;  they  paid  me  15  cents'  per  dozen 
below  what  they  quoted  me  for  large 
white  eggs,  and  to  my  surprise  when  I 
got  remittance  it  was  signed  Philip  Pol- 
sky,  proprietor,  an  individual  posing  as 
a  company.  I  simply  want  others  to 
profit  by  my  experience.  E.  H.  A. 
New  York. 
Philips  Dairy  Company  is  only  typical 
of  a  class  of  dealers  in  New  York  City 
without  financial  rating  sending  out  let¬ 
ters  to  poultrymen  soliciting  shipments 
of  eggs  or  other  produce.  Highest  mar¬ 
ket  prices  are  always  promised  and  “no 
commission”  charged.  That’s  the  bait. 
Such  concerns  charge  no  commission  be¬ 
cause  if  they  did  the  transaction  would 
come  under  the  supervision  of  the  De¬ 
partment  of  Farms  and  Markets,  and  as 
a  commission  merchant  the  house  would 
be  required  to  put  up  a  bond  for  the  pro¬ 
tection  of  shippers.  We  have  many 
times  explained  as  above  our  reasons 
for  advising  shippers  to  avoid  the  houses 
doing  business  as  “receivers,”  “wholesale 
dealers,”  etc. 
I  am  -writing  you  for  information  in 
regard  to  the  Auto  Knitter  Hosiery  Com¬ 
pany,  Buffalo,  N.  Y.  I  have  a  friend 
here  who  bought  a  machine  a  few  weeks 
back,  and  has  tried  to  knit  with  it.  but 
it  failed  to  do  perfect  work.  She  wrote 
the  company  in  regard  to  how  it  was 
working  and  got  no  satisfaction,  only 
that  they  guaranteed  it  to  knit.  There 
is  another  person  who  has  one  in  town 
that  works  just  the  same ;  they  have  had 
theirs  two  years,  and  you  can  go  to 
nearby  cities  and  purchase  socks  knitted 
by  these  machines  marked  “imperfect 
stock.”  Is  there  any  chance  to  get  any 
adjustment  or  satisfaction  from  the  com¬ 
pany?  A.  W.  J. 
Rhode  Island. 
We  have  a  good  many  reports  of  this 
kind,  but  we  are  unable  to  get  any  sat¬ 
isfaction  in  behalf  of  subscribers  in  such 
cases.  We,  however,  have  some  reports 
from  women  who  are  able  to  operate  the 
Auto  Knitter  satisfactorily.  There  are 
now  at  least  five  makes  of  knitting  ma¬ 
chines  advertised,  and  it  is  a  significant 
fact  that  none  is  advertised  with  a  guar¬ 
antee  of  satisfaction  or  money  back. 
When  some  responsible  house  will  make 
such  a  guarantee  on  the  machines  The 
R.  N.-Y.  will  then  be  willing  to  consider 
the  advertising  of  them. 
I  am  enclosing  circular  sent  out  by 
Unit  Motor  Company,  Kansas  City,  Mo. 
What  is  your  opinion  of  this  as  a  safe  in¬ 
vestment?  K.  s.  c. 
New  Y'ork. 
This  company  was  organized  under  a 
declaration  of  trust  in  1918  as  the  Multi- 
Motor  Company,  with  a  capital  of  1.000.- 
000  shares,  par  value  $1.  On  April  12, 
1921,  the  capital  stock  was  increased  to 
2,000.000,  changing  the  name  to  Unit 
Motor  Company,  and  in  June  of  the  same 
year  the  stock  was  increased  to  5.000,000. 
There  is  nothing  in  our  report  of  manu¬ 
facturing  operations  to  warrant  the  in¬ 
crease  of  capital  stock.  The  company  is 
only  in  the  development  stage,  and  the 
repeated  increase  of  capital  stock  indi¬ 
cates  the  possibility  that  the  stock- job¬ 
bing  interests  are  paramount.  The 
Rural  New-Yorker  has  refused  the  ad¬ 
vertising.  and  the  announcement  in  the 
firm’s  literature  that  the  engines  would 
be  advertised  in  this  publication  was  pre¬ 
mature. 
I  wish  to  advise  that  J.  ,T.  Looker,  of 
D.  B.  Cornell  Company,  called  on  me  to¬ 
day  to  sell  my  farm.  When  I  refused  to 
advance  him  the  small  fee  of  $15  for  pic¬ 
tures  and  other  preparations  to  close  a 
big  deal,  he  departed  in  a  huff.  T.  c.  T. 
New  Jersey. 
Publisher’s  Desk  saved  this  man  from 
being  swindled  out  of  $15,  and  untold  an¬ 
noyance  in  years  to  come.  We  under¬ 
stood  Looker  and  Cornell  had  parked 
company,  but  this  report  indicates  that 
the  partnership  to  bunco  farm  owners 
has  been  renewed. 
SUPPOSE  you  took  the  lead 
out  of  your  motor  car.  It 
might  run — a  few  blocks — but 
with  difficulty  and  inconven¬ 
ience.  In  the  first  place,  with¬ 
out  the  lead  storage  battery 
you  would  have  to  start  it  with 
a  crank,  and  for  lights  you 
would  have  to  return  to  gas  or 
oil.  You  would  have  to  carry 
your  gasoline  in  a  bottle;  for. 
with  the  lead-tin  solder  out  of 
the  gas  tank,  the  seams  would 
leak,  and  for  ignition  you  would 
have  to  return  to  dry  cells. 
Lead  in  the  radiator 
After  you  had  run  a  short 
distance,  the  motor  would  be  so 
hot  without  your  lead-tin  sold¬ 
ered  radiator  that  you  would 
come  to  a  stop.  A  good  thing, 
too,  for  without  the  lead  storage 
battery  you  could  not  blow  the 
horn. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  without 
lead  you  wouldn’t  have  any 
gasoline  to  carry  in  a  bottle; 
for  litharge,  an  oxide  of  lead,  is 
used  in  refining  the  gasoline 
that  makes  the  automobile  go. 
Lead  toughens  the  tires 
You  can  not  see  the  lead  that 
is  in  the  tires.  But  it  is  there. 
Lead  oxides,  added  to  the  rub¬ 
ber  at  the  time  it  is  made,  in¬ 
sure  a  uniform  cure  and  give 
toughness  to  the  rubber. 
Lead  is  also  in  the  soft  rubber 
insulation  around  electrical 
wiring  and  in  the  hard  rubber 
electrical  devices  and  switch 
buttons.  It  is  in  the  rubber  top 
covering  that  gives  protection 
from  rain.  The  rubber  mat  on 
the  car  step  contains  lead.  The 
electric  light  bulbs  are  made  of 
superior  lead  glass  because  of 
its  great  heat  resistance  and 
brilliancy.  Windings  of  wire  in 
the  generator  which  charges 
the  lead  storage  battery  are 
held  in  place  with  lead-tin 
solder. 
The  protection  paint  gives 
But  none  of  these  uses  of  lead 
are  so  widespread  as  that  of 
white-lead  in  the  manufacture 
of  good  paint.  Not  only  the 
paint  that  protects  the  motor 
car  but  all  good  paint  wherever 
used  contains  white-lead. 
Buildings  unpainted  crumble 
from  decay.  Buildings  pro¬ 
tected  with  good  paint  with¬ 
stand  time  and  weather.  “  Save 
the  surface  and  you  save  all” 
is  a  maxim  wise  men  are  heed¬ 
ing.  And  the  more  white-lead 
any  paint  contains,  the  greater 
is  its  protective  power  and 
durability. 
Look  for  the  Dutch  Boy 
National  Lead  Company  makes 
white-lead  and 
sells  it,  mixed  with 
pure  linseed  oil, 
under  the  name 
and  trademark  of 
Dutch  BoyWhite- 
Lead.  The  figure 
of  the  Dutch  Boy 
you  see  here  is  re¬ 
produced  on  every 
keg  of  white-lead 
and  is  a  guarantee 
of  exceptional  purity. 
Dutch  Boy  products  also  include 
red-lead,  linseed  oil,  flatting  oil, 
babbitt  metals,  and  solder. 
Among  other  products  manu¬ 
factured  by  National  Lead  Com¬ 
pany  are  lead  tubing,  sheet  lead, 
soldering  flux,  lead  pipe,  bar  lead, 
litharge,  and  lead  plumbing  mate¬ 
rials. 
More  about  lead 
If  you  use  lead,  or  think  you 
might  use  it  in  any  form,  write  to  us 
for  specific  information. 
NATIONAL  LEAD  COMPANY 
New  York  Boston  Cincinnati  San  Francisco 
Cleveland  Buffalo  Chicago  St.  Louis 
JOHN  T.  LEWIS  &  BROS.  CO..  Philadelphia 
NATIONAL  LEAD  &  OIL  CO.,  Pittsburgh 
