But, to return to the word "guarantee," which has attained first rank in the terminology of the investment trickster, there is scarcely a circular, folder or advertisement, or any other piece of literature put out by the pot hunters of small savings which does not display the word "guarantee" in big type, and with reiterated emphasis. If this institution chances to be of a financial character itself, rather than a mining, oil or industrial concern, the word "guarantee," or its twin, "security," will be found incorporated in the name chosen for the company.
Get a list of 100 wildcat investment schemes which are dead beyond hope of resurrection, and it is a safe prediction that one-half the names will contain the word "guarantee" or "security." These two words are as common to the eye in the graveyard of fake investment schemes as is that of Smith, Jones or Brown in any country cemetery; they adorn practically every other tombstone in the last resting place of defunct financial frauds.
The question of the value of either of these words in the title of a corporation or concern is disposed of by the statement that there is no legal restriction in the choice of names of companies; the organizers are as free to name their flimsy creation "The Rock of Gibraltar Guarantee Security Company" as the parent is to saddle a weak, under-sized male child with the name of Samson. And, as a rule, there is as much license or propriety in giving the name of the mighty enemy of the Philistines to a stunted boy as there is for applying the name "guarantee" or "security" to a company which is brought into being for the purpose of going out after the savings of the "small investor."
Why? Because the companies which are really warranted in making either of these words a part of their corporate name do not have to go into the highways and hedges and beat the bushes for their business; it comes to them by force of their "financial strength." They have no need to drum it up.
However, scores of oil, mining and investment companies which do not use either of these clever catchwords in their corporate titles cannot be charged with undervaluing the "pulling power" of such phrases; in their literature this kind of bait is employed with the greatest skill and plausibility.
One of the most common ways in which this idea is dressed is this: "We guarantee you, under all conditions and at all times, to get you, without cost to yourself, the highest market price for your holdings." This sounds very assuring; it carries with it a protective and almost paternal atmosphere and seldom fails to inspire in the trusting investor the feeling that there is a strong hand always ready to take the investment off his shoulders the moment it threatens to become a burden.
This particular phrase is especially fortunate and typical, by way of illustration, for the reason that it couples with the word "guarantee" another term which is a warm favorite with the word artists of the get-rich-quick studies. I allude to the phrase, "highest market value."
Wherever either of these clever signals to credulity is displayed the possible investor should invariably remember these points:
First—A guarantee is never stronger than the guarantor.
Second—A security only has a "market value" in the fair and true sense of the term where a large demand for it meets a large supply; there, and there only, exists an active market and a genuine "market value."
Let these two propositions (which any reputable banker or broker will tell you are axiomatic) be considered separately. There is no virtue in the word "guarantee." If this simple fact could have been firmly fixed in the minds of the small investors of this country they would have been saved the loss of millions of dollars since our present period of wonderful prosperity began. In these days of highly perfected business organization the process of finding out the responsibility of any financial or business concern has been reduced to an exact science and made available to all. Is it reasonable to suppose, under these conditions, that any company or corporation which cannot stand on its own feet can get any responsible concern to guarantee its bonds or other so-called securities? Never! Such a supposition is absurd on the face of it, and an instance where it has been done is not, so far as is known, to be found in actual practice.
Dig down under the "guarantee" of the company which asks you to invest your savings and what do you find? That if you do invest you and your fellow victims are really your own guarantors; that the financial strength of the concern is really the money which you and your associates pour into it; that its only financial life blood comes from the purses of the small investors, and that when the stream of vitality from this source begins to dry up, the services of the financial undertaker are in near and inevitable demand.
Reduced to its last analysis, the blacktype declaration of a "guarantee" in the literature of the "get-rich-quick" concern simply means that it has something to sell you. Generally, it is also an invitation to you to pay in advance for the flowers to adorn your own financial funeral.
As to the other pet phrase, "highest market value," or market value of any kind, for that matter, a very few words will suggest the situation:
Excepting where a very large demand meets an insufficient supply in a free, open and comparatively unmanipulated market, where sales are regularly made of record and those records command the respect and confidence of the legitimate financial public, there is no "market value" save that which is arbitrarily made by the broker. He is the market; he makes the price by the simple process of "thumbs up" or "thumbs down."
The man who is on the "sucker" list of a wildcat concern receives an announcement that "all indications point to the conclusion that next week the stock of the Honor Bright Company will sell at not less than five points advance of the present price."
The next week he gets notice that the prediction of an advance had proved true. If he is unsophisticated enough he receives the announcement with solemn credulity and credits the author of the promotion literature with great acumen and shrewd prophetic powers. He figures up the profits he would have made on the advance and condemns himself for not heeding the "confidential" advice to "buy quick."
What he does not consider is the fact that he is dealing with a fictitious market, where the seller simply makes up his mind how much he will advance the stock in question and then, when the time comes, marks it up and makes the announcement of the "sharp advance." This trick is turned not only for the purpose of getting a larger price per share, but mainly to tickle the cupidity of hesitating investors and making sales which otherwise could not have been made.
In order to understand how these companies operate, the actual experience of one victim will serve to explain the whole system.
A country manufacturer, rated at $50,000, read an advertisement in a financial journal about as follows:
"Capital Supplied—We have the means of furnishing any amount of capital for any meritorious industrial proposition. Address Lock Box XX, Chicago."
The manufacturer wrote he wanted to raise $100,000 to increase his business, and offered to put in all his effects, stock and good will. He received a letter asking him to come to Chicago and visit the firm, which, for convenience, shall be described as "Cold Cash & Co." He did so. Cash received him in an elegant office with open arms. The manufacturer there re-stated his necessities. The affable broker informed him his proposition was a fine one, and said he could have the desired $100,000 within thirty days.
"What would be the broker's fee?" he inquired. Only 5 per cent when $100,000 was in the hands of the manufacturer. Certainly an alluring prospect. But how was the money to be raised? The manufacturer was to incorporate his business for $200,000, and the broker would sell half of its capital stock at par.
As the delighted "sucker" was about to leave the broker's office the latter, in the most off-hand manner, said: "Oh, by the way, Mr. Manufacturer, what arrangements have you made to guarantee your capital stock?" "Guarantee it? I don't understand you," replied the victim.
"Bless you!" said the broker, "modern methods demand that all stock be guaranteed—quite the new order of things. We couldn't sell a share of stock nowadays unless it was guaranteed."
"Explain!"
"I will. You go to some guarantee company and have them agree to guarantee the payment of the principal of each share of stock sold at thirty years. Don't you see that makes your stock as solid as a government bond?
"The guarantee company takes a certain portion of the proceeds of the stock, invests it for thirty years. With interest and compound interest, in 1935 the stock has accumulated its par sum. It is a beautiful system."
"Very plausible, but where are these guarantee companies?"
"Why, there are The National, The States, and The Industrial. We hear The States is doing a booming business. Go and see them. They are at such a number."
The victim went to the richly furnished suite of offices occupied by the guarantee company and met its dignified "president," to whom he explained the purpose of his visit.
"Very good," said that official. "We will accept your risk. We will issue you an option agreeing within one year to issue you bonds against your stock as sold, you to pay us an advance fee of $1,000."
The "sucker" demurred. He had only $500 spare cash. The president suggested that as the broker would make a liberal commission out of the deal he might put up the other $500. The manufacturer 'phoned the broker, who promptly agreed to pay one-half of the fee. The broker gave the victim a worthless check for $500, which he gave, together with $500 of his own good money, into the hands of the "guarantee" company. The company thereupon issued a certificate, or option, for bonds that were never called for because the broker never sold any of the stock.
The victim went home loaded down with promises. The broker "strung" him along for a month or two, but sold no stock. Finally the manufacturer realized he was buncoed. The broker and the "guarantee" company divided the $500, and proceeded to find other suckers.
March 17, 1906, E. C. Talmage, who conducted the National Underwriting & Bond Co., of San Francisco, Cal.; the Pacific Underwriting & Trust Co., of San Francisco, Cal.; the Imperial Bond & Trust Co., of New Jersey City, New Jersey; the International Trust Co., of Philadelphia; the Chicago National Bonding Co., of Chicago, at 52 Dearborn street; E. C. Talmage; E. S. Barnum, 103 Randolph street; and M. J. Carpenter, of the First National bank, were arrested.
George D. Talmage, another member of the firm located at Kansas City, Mo., was afterwards arrested and brought to Chicago, charged with obtaining money under the confidence game. The warrants on which they were arrested were taken out by E. J. Denison and Rev. Peter A. Baart, a Methodist minister of Marshall, Mich., who were officers of the La Vaca mines and mills, of Joplin, Mo.
Rev. Mr. Baart first went to E. C. Talmage.
Talmage sent him to E. S. Barnum to have the stock guaranteed. Barnum charged him a fee of $500 and agreed to sell the bonds, which he failed to do. They just simply divided this fee between them and made no effort to float the bonds.
Among the persons alleged to have suffered losses are the following:
E. C. Talmage, S. D. Talmage and E. S. Barnum were indicted by the Cook county grand jury.
George D. Talmage fled to Kansas City, Mo., where he conducted a branch office in the same business. He was arrested at Kansas City, Mo., on request of the chief of police of Chicago, for operating the confidence game. Extradition papers were secured and Detective Wooldridge brought him back. When his father's office was raided, at 52 Dearborn street, a number of letters was seized, among them were several written from George D. Talmage, at Kansas City, Mo.
The following extracts are taken from George D. Talmage's letter to his father:
"Saw old Blank today. He was easy. Inclosed find his check for $1,000"; and, "When I mentioned bonds to old Tightwad he fell over backwards and swallowed a set of false teeth."
One from a town in Kansas is said to have read: "Nothing doing in this joint. The people here wouldn't buy gold dollars for 90 cents."
One letter which reflected particularly upon the cupidity of our K. C., U. S. A. citizens, runs: "I am giving it to these little Kansas City suckers strong. I expect to be able to send you $1,000 the last of the week."
E. C. Talmage, George D. Talmage and E. S. Barnum were placed on trial before Judge Brentano for swindling the Rev. Peter A. Baart, Marshall, Mo., out of $500.
E. S. Barnum was discharged and the Talmages found guilty.
A new trial was secured for George D. Talmage. His father, E. C. Talmage, on May 10, 1907, was sentenced to an indefinite term in the Joliet penitentiary.
The treatment of the social evil is one of the most difficult problems with which society has ever been confronted. Until society is thoroughly regenerated and the consequent purity, both of manhood and womanhood, has become a permanent fact, illicit relationship between man and woman will exist.
The attraction of the sexes is as mighty as it is mysterious. No legislation will weaken its inherent force.
The man who can come forward with a cure for this great curse is, I fear, yet to be born.
In common with other vices the so-called "social evil" is as old as mankind, and it will probably remain as long as vice and sin are found in the human heart. Its complete eradication will, perhaps, never be accomplished solely through the process of law, yet it seems to me that the law and its administrators should not lessen their efforts to destroy this evil.
In Norway, and in Switzerland, are the conditions most favorable to virtue and independence, the absence of extreme wealth and poverty. Both countries are comparatively isolated from the rest of the world. In Switzerland, as well as Norway, there is an absence of large masses pent up together in cities, the population being distributed in small numbers about the country. Sir John Bowring, sent from England to investigate Swiss society, found that "a drunkard is seldom seen, and illegitimate children are rare." As a people these Swiss are a testimonial to the doctrine of equal distribution of wealth and temperate habits as preventive of immorality.
The history of the United States is the history of all countries as regards prostitution. The population is made up of all nations, civilized and semi-civilized. In the majority of cases poverty is the greatest incentive to prostitution. Permanent prostitution has a numerical relation to the means of occupation.
At the present time in all parts of the United States the lower strata of men and women are deprived of the results of their labor except in quantities barely sufficient to retain life in their bodies. They are huddled together indiscriminately as to sex, in close, crowded quarters, so that the ordinary delicacies of life cannot be practiced even if there should be a desire.
The chiefest and often the only form of pleasure within their reach is that given by nature for the purest and best use in life, but which comes to be the veriest debauchery. Children and youth growing up among adults, depraved because no ray of light was shed to show the way for moral and physical uplifting, must naturally imbibe the miasma of social impurity. From the very cradle through life their influence is to further degrade themselves.
On the other hand are the extreme rich, who, not being compelled to labor for sustenance, spend their time and money in selfish enjoyment. In contrast with the extreme poor, they have every possibility to cultivate the good in themselves, but will not, and it grows pale and sickly among the rank weeds of their selfishness.
Chiefly, among self-gratifications, are social evil habits, especially on part of the men of wealth. Their manner of life, the food they eat, creates a fictitious force which must expend itself. They may have a chivalrous regard for the women of their class, but consider all women below them to be legitimate prey.
Relying on their wealth to insinuate themselves into the good graces of young women by supplying them with such things as will gratify vanity, the offspring of rich parentage find fascination in pursuit of their object. When she is at last won, and her virtuous scruples overcome, she is thrown aside like the wilted flower which has yielded all its perfume. The brothel is open to receive all such, particularly if she be handsome of face or form.
New York, Chicago, St. Louis, any great city will furnish examples by the thousands. Where one girl enters this life from choice (through sensuality inherited from the lust of her father, no doubt), ninety-nine are sucked into its whirlpool by force of circumstances. The young woman who is a clerk is paid an amount which will barely cover the cost of living. She is expected to dress well, and if she protests that she can not, is told to rely on some "gentleman friend" for other expenses. Likewise in factories and shops. Only she who is protected by home associations, and whose labor is done to add to the general home comfort, can hope to escape, and then not always.
The grim, irrefutable facts in connection with the thrusting of the working girl into prostitution by the wealthy owners of department stores, was never better expressed than in a recent story by O. Henry, in McClure's Magazine.
Henry dreamed that he had been dead a long while, and that he had finally arrived at the Judgment Day. An Angel policeman was haling him before the Great Court of Last Resort. As he was forced into the waiting room the Angel policeman asked him kindly if he belonged with a certain crowd which he saw near him. The members of this coterie were dressed in frock coats, gray trousers, spats, patent leather shoes, and all of them boasted of high silk hats.
"Who are they?" asked the trembling Henry. "Oh, they are the men who ran big department stores and paid their poor girls five dollars a week in order that they themselves might belong to clubs, go to Europe and own fine residences and automobiles," replied the angel.
"Not on your life," replied Henry. "I'm only the feller that murdered a blind man for his pennies and burned down the orphan asylum. I don't belong with that bunch."
With the present system of government, each year tends to annihilate the middle class, in which lies a nation's strength.
While extreme poverty exists on the one hand, and extreme wealth on the other, it would be as plausible to dam up Niagara Falls as to stop prostitution by legislating against it. The current, checked in one course, is bound to break out in another, and with all its pent-up force. Human life, like the river, is bound to flow in the channel of the least resistance.
Nature planned the association of the sexes as surely and as inevitably as any other of her laws. Whenever her laws are trespassed upon in any way there is suffering. The wretched conditions of the poor and the perverted natures of the wealthy turn sex association into social evil.
Giving to all young men and women honest means of livelihood with extra times and resources for the cultivation of their talents and their better selves, honorable marriage would be preferred to prostitution in nearly every case.
There is no hope for moral purification among the wealthy until such time as they will use their time and talents in useful work. An enormous field for missionary work would be for some one of ability to convert the wealthy world to the religion of useful work. As a self-evident truth, no able-bodied person has the right to live off the labor of another person. Instead of the many working to the last notch of human endurance that the few may live in luxury and idleness, there should be labor for all, and enough for all. Money, however, is without love, or patriotism, or kindness—is all-powerful, and is fawned upon, and catered to by those possessing it in limited quantities.
The remedy for prostitution, as well as other evils, lies in the hands of the American people themselves, if they only knew it. Just a few years of intelligent voting and legislating for better conditions for the many, instead of for the few extremely wealthy, would tend to overcome all injustice and inequality. The social evil would be weeded out because people would then have time to obey the injunction, "Know Thyself."
According to statistics the average life of a prostitute is four years after entering the maelstrom of such a career. The life is never such as to be recommended even by its followers. It is moral as well as physical death when followed, and is well-nigh impossible to escape once having bowed to its seeming fascination.
As to the libertine, he "sells himself for what he buys." He may enjoy pleasure, but not happiness. Happiness comes from within, in the consciousness of doing right. Pleasures come from without, in the gratification of self. In addition to the hollowness of the enjoyment in the lives of prostitute and libertine, is always the danger of loathsome disease which tortures body and brain, lowering them in their own minds. It is about the only ill in the category that does not command sympathy, but it should.
The evils of drunkenness, theft, or prostitution are on the same basis as far as the "necessity" for their existence. All are more or less the result of a badly adjusted economic condition of whatever nation. They can be reduced to a minimum, if not eradicated, by removing the cause.
The first and most convincing argument against the segregation of vice is found in the fact that the law expressly condemns crime of all kinds and requires its relentless prosecution in order to effect its destruction. Besides, vice districts would shortly become breeding spots for the propagation of crime of every kind. Here would be attracted the criminal classes from all parts of the country, because here they would be protected by the very law which they violate.
Not only would the inhabitants of such districts regard themselves within the law, but others, who now fear to enter these resorts because of the probability of arrest and public exposure, would patronize the district, armed with the knowledge that non-arrest was a certainty and exposure highly improbable. The locality and extent of such districts would soon become a matter of common information, and young men would thus find easy access to disreputable resorts which otherwise they might never find.
Many advance the argument that the evil is a necessary one and must be tolerated, else the safety of virtuous women upon our streets would be seriously threatened and imperiled. The fallacy and absurdity of this contention is proved by the conditions which exist in many of the large cities of Great Britain and Canada, where houses of ill-fame are practically unknown, and where women are as safe as in cities where the segregation of vice prevails. This result has been obtained by persistent effort on the part of officials whose duty it is to suppress and punish crime. Such a condition can never be secured here if districts are established where this particular form of vice may flourish with the tacit approval of our public officers. Surely we in Chicago are not willing to admit that which has been done elsewhere cannot be done here.
Chicago could not legally license or regulate this evil, for our state law forbids license. The moral sentiment of our people is also against it. Several years or so ago, when a resolution was introduced into the city council looking toward segregation, medical examination and license, a vigorous protest was made by the Chicago Woman's Club, the Evanston Woman's Club, and other such organizations. The good women of Chicago will not tamely submit to such additional degradation of their wronged sisters.
Chicago women are working hard to protect innocent women from lives of infamy and to help the repentant to a nobler womanhood. If there were men working among their own sex with equal devotions there would be a lessening of the social evil. If physicians would teach men the safety of chastity and the horrors of licentiousness, if preachers would train their guns against impurity, if popular clubs would expel licentious men, if the mayor would order the arrest of every person, man or woman, found in these houses, apparently so well known to the police, and have such arrests continued night after night, these methods would cause a marked lessening of the social evil.
The police of Chicago have done much in recent years to make it a better city. To them is due the credit more than to anyone else for better conditions in our moral life. If they are encouraged and allowed to work out these problems in their own practical way they will do more for our city's good than all the theoretical reformers combined.
Many conditions ought not to exist, but they must and will remain for the present. Your reformer, so-called, writes and pleads for the ideal. The police force deals with what is and knows best what can be done.
The "lid" should be put upon deadly weapons—pistols, revolvers, dirk knives, brass knuckles—not merely to hide them, but to prevent their manufacture and sale.
While serving as police officer I could not fail to observe that substantially all of the crimes committed with the pistol or revolver resulted from the practice of carrying the weapon upon the person. There would be a controversy in a bar-room, on the street or elsewhere, followed by a fight and ending with a shooting by someone present who had the weapon conveniently concealed upon his person. But for the presence of the weapon on the scene there would have been no shooting.
I recall but one case where the defendant left the scene of the controversy to procure a weapon. Murder committed by lying in wait or with premeditation for any length of time is extremely rare. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the crime is committed on the spur of the moment.
Statistics furnished by the police department show startling facts. Citizens do not realize the number of persons who are either wounded or killed every year by shooting with the revolver. One can hardly pick up a metropolitan paper without finding an account of a shooting, either by accident or design. We have laws forbidding the carrying of concealed weapons, which are to a certain extent effective, but to a very small extent, because it is practically impossible to search every man on the street—and keep him searched. The law, no matter how rigidly enforced, can do but little substantial good.
We must also consider other deadly weapons, such as dirk knives and brass knuckles. So far as these are concerned, they are manufactured solely to be used as instruments of crime. The brass knuckle is never used as a weapon of defense, but always as one of offense. The dirk knife has no use other than as a weapon to be used against human beings. It is not used either in war or for any domestic purpose.
So far as the revolver is concerned, it has no proper use anywhere in the world. It is carried either as a weapon of offense or defense; but as a weapon of defense it is only possibly effective when there is a revolver in the hands of the antagonist. If he has none, none is needed for defense.
An attack made upon a man at close quarters by the use of a sandbag or any other weapon in the hands cannot be met practically with a revolver. There is no time or opportunity for its use.
The proposition is therefore sound that, if no one carried a pistol for offense, none would be needed for defense.
Shotguns and rifles are used in hunting, but not the revolver. The ordinary revolver of commerce, the one which a man can carry concealed, has no use in modern warfare. There is no legitimate use anywhere for such a weapon.
September, 1907, officials of the New York police department, acting under Commissioner Bingham's orders, took 5,000 revolvers out to sea beyond Sandy Hook and threw them overboard. The literary secretary of the commissioner said it reminded him of the Doges who used to wed the sea with rings. If the New York ceremony was not so richly symbolical it certainly was vastly more sensible.
These revolvers were the results of eighteen months of police seizures. Some of them were automatic weapons in the $28 class, and others were of the common variety used by small boy initiates in crime. Together they were worth at least $15,000. Not so very long ago New York City held an auction sale every year just before the Fourth of July at which all confiscated weapons were sold. Thereby Fourth of July killings were made easy and cheap, and crime at all other times of the year was encouraged, for most of the weapons went to pawnbrokers and second-hand dealers, who put them back in the hands that would use them worst. The police have one instance of a revolver that to their knowledge came back into their possession four times in this way.
It is wise to destroy these weapons, but consider how little good is accomplished compared with what might be accomplished by original control of the sale of weapons. The city sacrifices the $15,000 or something less which it might have got for these weapons, but if it would take $15,000 and spend it vigorously in regulating the sale of weapons, in licensing and perhaps heavily taxing all dealers, in requiring the keeping of complete records of sales and in prosecuting all persons carrying concealed weapons, it would accomplish very much more to the same end.
Chicago is a city in which unlimited laxity is allowed dealers in pistols. The way is made easy for the criminal who wants to arm himself. Despite the successful experience of other cities in regulating the sales of weapons, the council is reluctant to give the city a stronger ordinance.
Suicide with the revolver is a favorite method of self-destruction with men. Press the muzzle against the head or heart, a slight pressure of the forefinger—instant oblivion follows.
The bandit who holds up the railroad train and robs the passengers almost invariably uses a revolver. With this small weapon he terrorizes and robs an entire trainload of travelers.
The vicious carry pistols with criminal intent, but there is also a very large class, which might be designated as a "weak" class, which carries the pistol without any criminal intent, but under the influence of a fascination for the handling of deadly weapons. Among certain classes of negroes it is the habit to carry pistols or other deadly weapons to balls, parties or other places where they congregate, and they carry them, apparently, to a certain extent, as a matter of ornament, something on the principle of our gentlemanly forefathers of a few hundred years ago, who considered no full-dress equipment complete without the rapier. The very fact that these weapons are present leads to brawls and quarrels, which result only too frequently in killing, or an attempt to kill.
It is dangerous to put into the hands of a weak person a weapon which may carry death and destruction by the small pressure of the finger. The very handling of such weapons seems to breed the desire to use them. The situation is something similar to that of a man who gazes over the brink of a precipice and to whom there comes an almost irresistible desire to throw himself over.
There would be some force in the argument that the law-abiding citizen has the right to carry a revolver to protect himself from thugs if his pistol were any real protection; but it is not. The attack from the thug on the highway comes so suddenly and unexpectedly that there is rarely an opportunity to use a weapon in defense; and, even if it should occasionally happen that a man would be at a disadvantage because he had no pistol, this loss to the community is outweighed a thousand to one by the evils which follow its use.
Why should we permit men to manufacture and sell instruments of crime—weapons which are designed for no other purpose? We do have laws which prevent the free sale of poisons, based upon the fact that poisons may be used as a means of self-destruction or in the destruction of others. But we have no safeguards against the purchase and use of these other deadly agencies.
A brilliant display of deadly weapons may be found in any first-class hardware store, one which is peculiarly tempting to the young, the weak and the vicious. Pawnshops are heavily stocked with weapons of this character.
There are a hundred places on the streets of Chicago, particularly on Clark and State streets, where may be found in cases standing in front of stores a display of brass knuckles, dirks and revolvers, which can be purchased at a very small price—and without restrictions of any kind. Yet they are purchased, almost exclusively, to be used as instruments of crime.
Experience has demonstrated that the laws which forbid the carrying of concealed weapons are not effective; and it is not possible that, in the very nature of things, they can be entirely so. There is only one sure and effective way of preventing the criminal use of these deadly weapons—that is, to make it impossible for men to get hold of them. This can be done only by forbidding their manufacture and sale. The State, in the exercise of its police power, has authority to pass laws of this character.
I submit that it is the duty of the community to demand the passage of such laws. There seems to be no answer to this proposition when you consider that these articles are not manufactured to sell for any legitimate purpose, and that to deprive men of the privilege of manufacturing and selling deadly weapons does not, in any degree, deprive the community of anything which may be of any real use or benefit.
It is the duty of the State to prevent as well as to punish crime and to protect its weak and vicious citizens, so far as it can, from the temptation to do wrong. We would not tempt men to steal by affording them easy opportunities for theft, especially if we knew that they were either weak or wicked. And yet, we make absolutely no effort to keep deadly weapons out of dangerous hands. We do attempt to forbid their concealment. Practically this attempt is a failure and, in effect, we permit men to carry deadly weapons which may be successfully concealed until the very moment they are brought into use.
A great deal of the lurid literature has grown up around the pistol. The cowboy with his gun play has always been an attractive character in fiction. No doubt there is a time in the pioneer life of a community when there seems to be some excuse for the use of the revolver. But a dispassionate view of this subject, having in mind the welfare of a settled, organized State, every part of which is pervaded by law and within its restraining influence, points to the conclusion that the time has come to legislate revolvers, dirks and brass knuckles out of existence.
The elaborate display of revolvers, dirks and brass knuckles in shop windows creates a most unfavorable impression on visitors. Many travelers like to walk to their hotels for the exercise after the long journey from the east.
They get their first impression of Chicago from a walk up Clark or State street.
On all sides they see revolvers, bludgeons, sandbags and slung-shots. "Ah! This is the West at last," say many. "Now look out for Indians and grizzy bears."
Upon Chicagoans who witness these exhibitions of criminal tools daily the effect is most depressing. It makes them think that civilization is still far off. In New York there is an ordinance forbidding pawnshops to display such weapons in the window.
The accidental shootings, alone, caused by the careless handling of pistols, would justify a law preventing their manufacture and sale. What possible benefit can be suggested to offset the evils which we have spoken of? Certainly the idea of individual liberty cannot be carried to the extent of making it the duty of a State to afford a man the facilities for the commission of crime. There is no right involved in the matter which is worthy of respect. Let me give you a few illustrations:
A negro carried his revolver with him to a ball. This was customary. During a lull in the dance, while talking with his companions—men and women—he pulls out this revolver and shows it around for the admiration of his friends. He is under the impression that it is not loaded. He places it playfully at the head of his sweetheart, pulls the trigger, and she drops dead.
That chamber happened to be loaded. It was determined to be a case of wanton carelessness on his part and he was sentenced to two years in the penitentiary. Why should a man like that be allowed to carry a pistol at all? Under what possible circumstances could he use it in any legitimate way?
A few months ago the cashier in a bank, a valuable citizen, in a neighboring town, sat down at his desk in a despondent moment. He opened the drawer, saw the revolver lying there, and, overcome by an irresistible impulse, he placed the muzzle to his head, pulled the trigger and—he is a dead man! There is not one chance in a thousand that this man would either have taken poison, with its lingering agonies, cut his throat, hung himself or jumped off the bridge.
The other day, in the country near by, a man with his hands in his pockets stepped up to a wagon standing in front of his door and said to the driver: "You made an insulting remark about me to my wife a few weeks ago. Will you apologize?" The driver replied: "I do not know that I made such a remark." "Well," the man replied, "your time has come." He pulled out his pistol, which he had held concealed all the time in his hand, and fired the shot; the driver of the wagon fell over the dashboard—dead. Here, without warning, without the slightest ground to expect such an act, the man, who might, under any other circumstances, have had some possible chance for defense, was hurled into eternity, apparently, to gratify the mere desire to kill.
A few nights ago a lone robber boarded a railroad train and with a revolver compelled the conductor and porter to walk through the car in front of him and demanded of the passengers that they surrender their money and jewels—which the passengers promptly proceeded to do. The entire train was held up by a single pistol, a thing which would be absolutely impossible with any other weapon. A revolver enables the highwayman to use one of his hands free, which he could not if he had either a shotgun or a rifle.
And so it goes. Instance after instance is within the recollection of everyone where crime is made possible by the easy possession of this deadly weapon—the revolver. The point I wish to emphasize is, that there is no legitimate use for the revolver anywhere in the world; no reason for its existence; no legitimate use for the dirk knife or the brass knuckles.
All these things are manufactured and sold as instruments of crime. And, although their deadly use is familiar to everybody, yet we seem to take it for granted that the right to manufacture and sell them and the right to own them are rights which the law is bound to protect. We seek only to impose a restriction that is vain and ineffective.
Pistol carrying is an American habit; one which is comparatively infrequent abroad, and there is in Europe—particularly in England—compared with us, a proportionately small fraction of shooting affairs. Even policemen in London do not carry revolvers.
It is time for us to take this evil seriously in hand and effect a cure, which, to be effective, must be radical.
I favor a law restricting the display and sale of firearms. Carrying a loaded revolver concealed ought to be made a felony. For carrying a concealed weapon—firearm, dirk, brass knucks, razor, knife, etc.—the penalty cannot be too severe. I would cut out the fine and make the penalty for carrying a concealed weapon three to twelve months in the Workhouse and from two to five years in the penitentiary.
A severe penalty would help the police to break up this criminal habit. It would help to tame the ex-convict who returns to a life of crime. It would aid in overcoming the influence of the cheap novel among light-minded youth. Sale of weapons which can be concealed on the person ought to be restricted to officers of the law. If permits are issued at all, they ought to be given by a responsible officer of the law.
Concealed weapons are the cause of a large per cent of the crimes committed in which weapons are used. There were many arrests for carrying concealed weapons in the last official year. Thousands of people carry them. Every man with a concealed weapon, unless he has a right to carry it to serve the public peace, is a danger to the citizens of Chicago. Men who carry concealed weapons imagine they would protect themselves with them; often they would, but more often the weapons serve no good purpose. Make the law against promiscuous sale and carrying of concealed weapons so severe that it will be necessary for the officers of the law only to carry them.
Stock Transfers From Worthless Stock to Worthless Stock a Game That Fools the Uninitiated.
How the Rhodus Boys Worked the Old "Come-On."
One of the most open frauds, one which should not for a minute have deceived any investor in "securities" and things, was unearthed by Detective Clifton R. Wooldridge, and the results of his work were shown in Chicago when Thomas Rhodus and Birch F. Rhodus were indicted by the federal grand jury.
The Central Life Securities Company in Chicago was apparently a sound concern. The managers were always careful to keep money in the bank and any insinuation that this was not a sound company was immediately refuted by bankers who were handling the Rhodus money.
But Detective Wooldridge had seen so much of "guaranty" and "security" that he was suspicious of all companies which made this name a rallying point in their literature.
Also the Rhodus brothers seemed to be using the same old catch-words which had beguiled men into the fake underwriting schemes. So the detective was not impressed by "security" or "guarantee." He proceeded to investigate the record of the Rhodus brothers.
And ere the great scandal began to open out and assert itself, Wooldridge found that the Rhodus brothers had been in the lottery business in Denver in 1889 and 1890. Now it does not conduce to belief in the soundness of a firm to find that its managers have been common, cheap lottery workers. So Wooldridge went into the record.
In the course of his examinations he discovered that the Chicago Independent in January, 1899, contained the following notice:
In 1889 and 1890, Thos. Rhodus and Birch F. Rhodus were operating the Denver Lottery Company, later called the Denver State Lottery. The following are extracts from the Chicago Independent, January, 1899, number: "The attention of the postoffice authorities was attracted to this scheme by seeing circulars of the Denver Lottery Company about August 20, 1890, saying, 'All remittances to be addressed to A. C. Ross & Co.,' who were none other than Thomas F. Rhodus, Jr. Ross, or Rhodus, Jr., was arrested by postoffice authorities October 5, 1889, fined $100 and costs, which was paid November, 1889. A. C. Johnson, alias A. C. Ross, alias Thomas F. Rhodus, Jr., was arrested March, 1890, and was at that time running what was called the Denver State Lottery Company, having changed its name from Denver Lottery Company. They kept arresting him daily for over forty days. The federal grand jury found five indictments, with over one hundred counts, against A. C. Johnson, alias Thomas Rhodus, Jr., for fraudulent use of the United States mails. He then changed his business to the name of Bank of Commerce. Was arrested several times, and then sold out, or pretended to do so, to Birch F. Rhodus.
"The Western Mutual Life Association of this city has been weighed in the balance by the Missouri and Michigan State Insurance Commissioners and found wanting. An examination of the concern by these officials, made as of August 31, 1898, has recently been reported upon. On that date a deficiency of assets under the most favorable showing of $55,635.36 was shown to exist. In other words, the association was impaired that amount.
"President Thomas F. Rhodus and Vice-President Birch F. Rhodus each received a salary of $10,000 a year, and there seems to have been a handsome expense allowance besides. Secretary Charles S. Johnson received $7,000 annually; Second Vice-President John B. Kirk, of James S. Kirk & Co., and Treasurer J. V. Clarke, President of the Hibernian Bank, under an arrangement, the annual sum of $27,000."
The facts here cited were disclosed by the investigation made by the Insurance Commissioners mentioned above. The association did not long survive this incident, and its assets were soon taken over by the Illinois Life Insurance Company.
When the records of these men are considered, it is believed that the boldness of their operations, the ease with which they have obtained the endorsement of representative business men in Chicago and elsewhere for their various schemes, and the way in which, unchecked, they have personally profited from their operations in the name of legitimate business, are absolutely without a parallel in the history of this city.
Any number of stockholders in the different companies stand ready to testify to the correctness of the foregoing. Every company started and operated by these men appears to have been exploited for the sole benefit of themselves. The stockholders have, with a few insignificant exceptions, lost every dollar invested.
This was the opening gun in the Rhodus campaign. When Detective Wooldridge began boring in he found that in addition to the Central Life Securities Company (whatever that might mean), the Rhodus brothers were promoting the moss-grown mining proposition, and that the Mina Grande Mining Company, with certain holes in the ground located in the State of Sonora, Mexico, was also a Rhodus Company.
The Mercantile Finance Company, which was capitalized at the sum of $1,000 in the State of Maine, Maine being almost as easy as New Jersey as a corporation state, was the basis for the manipulation of all the other companies. Even Maine would not stand for a big capitalization of penniless adventurers, so to make the capitalization bug the services of the Mina Grande and the State of Sonora, where things are still easier than in Maine, were called in and the capitalization of the Mina Grande was rated at $2,000,000.
This did not look nice to the detective. There was too much hunting of easy ground. He bored in further. Then he discovered the true inwardness of the situation. Around Joplin, Webb City, Carterville and other cities in Southwest Missouri, are certain very fine lead and zinc mines. Joplin is the first zinc producing city in the world. It has been known as such for a number of years. The lead from this district is second only in output to that of Leadville, Colo. Here was another easy chance.
Of course any one who knew anything at all about the lay of the land in Jasper County, Mo., knew that all the possible lead and zinc lands had been snapped up years ago; that "Pat" Sullivan of Joplin had been a political boss on the strength of his turning monopolist of the very districts which produced the lead and zinc. But the public did not know it. At least not the great, gullible public. They only knew that Jasper County was full of lead and zinc and they in some way formed the conclusion that the whole county was underlaid with the precious metals.
Therefore it was easy for the Rhodus "companies" to start the "Independent Zinc Securities Company," bore a few holes in the ground which would produce fish-worms and black ants and nothing else, and "transfer the stock of the 'Mina Grande' to the 'Independent Zinc'." This only was used as a safeguard where a stockholder of Mina Grande began to get peevish because the holes in the hillsides of Sonora produced nothing.
But the Rhodus game was not yet complete. The Mercantile Finance Company, with its thousand-dollar capitalization in the State of Maine, might get into difficulties transferring stock to the "Independent Zinc," because somebody might know enough about Jasper County to realize that there was not enough lead in that county outside the control of the lead trust to make a small-sized pea.
Therefore it needed another company to "transfer" the peevish stockholder to. So the Mexican Development Company was formed by the Mercantile, the capital of the new company being $1,000,000, and its assets 90,000 shares of the "Mina Grande" stock, the par value of which would not buy a cigarette paper.
The literature of the new company also carried the literature of the "Mina Grande," with a glowing account of how the new company was going to turn Mexico upside down and enrich the whole world from the scorpion holes in the Sonora hillsides.
The stockholders in the Mexican Development are still waiting for returns on their investment. But the American people were getting wise to the mining game, even when the magic name of Jasper County was used. So to supplement Mexico and Jasper County the Mercantile Finance Company, the old reliable thousand-dollar concern, organized in rapid succession the Boise King Placers Company, which was going to wash fortunes out of the inoffensive mud of Idaho rivers, the Moose Creek Placer Company, which had the same end in view, the American Fibre Company, which had about as much fibre about it as a paper candy box, The Illinois Finance Company (frenzied finance, all right), The Indiana Securities Company, which "secured" the money of the investor, but secured nothing else, The Minnesota Securities Company, and then with a great play to the galleries, The Finance Company of America.
From one to another of these absolutely bankrupt and worthless concerns the investor was thrown back and forth like a shuttlecock. If he was sore on Independent Zinc he got American Finance. If he became convinced that American Finance was worthless paper he got Idaho mud in the shape of "Moose Creek Placers."
Interest-bearing bonds with coupons attached were floated on a number of these companies and sold largely through the mails.
Just here Uncle Sam, urged on by reports made to the Chicago Postoffice Inspectors by Wooldridge, took a hand. When Wooldridge began boring in the bankers and other influential friends of the Rhodus people, who had been wise enough to get good political affiliations as an adjunct to their business, became extremely busy and influences were brought to bear to call Wooldridge off the case, because he was the most feared man in America on a fraud game.
Wooldridge accepted the recall gracefully, but immediately stepped over the way to the Federal Building, and called upon Postoffice Inspector William Ketcham, who is acknowledged by everyone in the secret service of the United States and the general public to be the shrewdest, most astute, and most indefatigable man in the service of the United States Government. Wooldridge convinced the great inspector that there was something doing in the "Rhodus" line. Ketcham complimented Wooldridge highly on the manner in which he had gathered the data together. Then Ketcham got busy himself. When two such men as Wooldridge and Ketcham get busy it is not long until the explosion comes.
Nor was it long coming in the Rhodus case. First came the receivership of the Central Life Securities Company. And here another big man and an incorruptible one got into the game—none other than John C. Fetzer, founder of the "Fetzer System" of receiverships that receive for the victims of defunct concerns, in place of and for the receiver. This man was fresh from the great Stensland Bank fraud, where as receiver he had paid 72 cents on the dollar and wound up a record receivership in less than one year, whereas the usual time taken in such cases was ten years.