She displayed good financial instinct, for she asked, "Are the investments recommended by H. L. Barber & Co., such that I would be safe in investing money in any of them."

Now the Financial Editor, in giving advice. regarding securities of new companies, always applies the Morgan method to determine whether they should be given any consideration at all by investors. A partner, of J. P. Morgan & Co., when asked how they investigated all the new enterprises into which they put money, unless they employed a thousand men tc do it, once replied: "We don't investigate; we back the men who manage them." This case was particularly easy to handle because the woman had disclosed an understanding of this most important consideration in the making of investments. The reply was to have nothing at all to do with this offering, or with any other offering of the same concern. The Financial Editor knew the record of H. L. Barber; knew, for instance, that he had been indicted for fraudulent use of the mails, in connection with the flotation of the Consolidated Midway Chief Oil Company stock, his arrest having occurred early in 1915 and the case being still pending on a demurrer before Judge Geiger of Milwaukee. He also knew that of many companies which Barber had promoted few if any were paying dividends.

The point to be made, however, is that it is not generally necessary to know the past record of such men in order to decide regarding their offerings. That helps, of course, but nearly always the "literature" sent out to "prospects" bears on the face of it one or more of the distinguishing earmarks of the get-rich-quick promoters' methods. By becoming familiar with these methods the investor himself can recognize many of the things he should not touch. This kind of promoter, when he is successful, that is, when he keeps out of jail, is generally shrewd enough not to put false statements in his circulars. That would lead to trouble with the Federal Post Office authorities. But he has found he doesn't need to. He can stick close to the truth when he talks about what has been done; but elaborates on intentions, estimates, and promises until he has painted a picture that draws a stream of money from trustful investors. The widow in Nebraska was being asked to invest her $10,000 before there was even a factory started. There was no misrepresentation on that point. The frankness of this particular Barber cir

cular would be humorous if the sad side of the whole business was not so apparent. Although parts for the tractor were to be manufactured in a foundry and machine shop, the president could write to Barber, for his use in selling the stock, that "we are fortunate in that the material situation which is hampering other manufacturers cannot handicap our production because of the class of material we use." The answer may be that they will use little material and do very little manufacturing. This can stand beside the frank statement of the George Alot Land Company, which a few years ago sold farms located in the bed of the Mississippi River. They said that the land was "unimproved except for running water."

A favorite device of the get-rich-quick game is illustrated by this recent "Report of Progress" of the Convertible Tractor Corporation. After informing the prospect that the financing is going forward "so rapidly that in little more than a month after we began the work the management was getting ready to begin commercial production of the Megow convertible tractor," the promoter publishes a letter from Mr. C. F. Megow which informs him that "from this date on I will devote all my time and strength to make a great success for the Convertible Tractor Corporation, and do from now on conclude all other connections.” As much money has been fraudulently pumped from the pockets of would-be investors by the use of names in this way as by any other trick of the trade. The Ford Tractor Company furnished an excellent example of this. Before that company and its "bankers" where caught in the Government's net, the New York Tribune had shown how the promoters went down the list of Fords in the Minneapolis telephone directory and stopped at that of Paul B. Ford, who was found willing to father the new company. That name helped to separate more than 3,000 people from about $350,000.

There is so much similarity in the "literature" sent out by the get-rich-quick promoters that, with a little training, one can spot it at a glance. This tractor circular was by no means one of Barber's best. Only once did he impress the need of buying early in order to get in before the shares were all gone. Robert P. Matches & Co., the promoters of the Ford Tractor Company, in offering that "chance of a lifetime," used nine paragraphs of an eighteen-paragraph letter to urge the

necessity of immediate purchase. The fact that Government officials were so close on their trail may have accounted for this great demand for haste. Mr. Barber, however, is usually confident that his offerings will be oversubscribed and urges that the public come in and share equally in the profits with those who "have carried the business forward to the splendid success now indicated." And especially they should buy the shares "while they may be had at the present low price." Don't wait until a few days for the higher price of the next offering. Get yours Now."

H. L. Barber & Co. is used as an illustration because Mr Barber's operations in this field of finance have lately been mentioned in letters from WORLD'S WORK readers more frequently than have those of others of his kind. The point to be impressed, however, is that the methods of all of them are much the same, although some are more clever than others in applying them. A shrewd lawyer is usually employed to see that the promoter keeps just within the law in his "literature."

An excellent example of one of the oldest and most fruitful methods is to be found in Mr. Barber's letter on "Coffeetone." This method might take its name from his first sentence: "History repeats itself." A graphic account is given of the advance of C. W. Post and the Postum Cereal Company from a capital of $750 in 1895 to $33,000,000 in eighteen years. A cut of the little barn in which Post started, compared with the present plant of twenty large buildings, adds the visual proof of the success of that business. Then, after personalizing this by telling of an individual who invested $1,000 in the Postum Company in 1896 and has had $54,374 profit since, "according to his information," Mr. Barber goes on to tell how Coffeetone is so treated as to "keep out of it the bad taste and smell that characterize all other substitutes." In another instance, to show that "fifteen dollars may make you very comfortable if put it at work in the Commonwealth Pictures Corporation-Right Now, not next month," Mr. Barber tells what "the reports indicate that $15 of original capital in the Pullman Company and the Gillette Safety Razor Company has grown to. "These," he says, "are simply indications of what $15 has done and is doing in companies." He does not say it will do as well in his latest promotion, but "on the other hand, it has what you will concede to be a good chance to

do as well or better." In the case of the Boulder Tungsten Production Company, he says: "I would not be fair to a prospective investor if I failed to say that I do believe it has good possibilities of just as great a success, if not greater."

This method of appealing to the cupidity in human nature is as old as the hills, and the one most often used by get-rich-quick promoters. Said a thieving broker years ago: "Promise 6 per cent. dividends on a first-class security, and you cannot do business; but promise 56 per cent on a fake, and I can get rich. If the Post Office Department would only let me alone, I would have to hire a cart to carry down my money-laden mail."

Barber has an advantage over most promoters, for he publishes a magazine-“Investing for Profit." The subscription rate is a dollar a year, but advertisements in certain papers recently offered lady agents 30 to 35 cents for each subscription secured at 50 to 69 cents. He will even send it for six months free. Thus he gains new names for his "sucker list." He claims the magazine has the largest "exclusively financial" circulation in America, whatever that means. It is certainly an important part in his remarkably efficient system for parting people from their money. A recent number contained an editorial by Mr. Barber on no less pretentious a subject than "The Law of Financial Success." Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln were quoted on the front page and Woodrow Wilson and others inside.

The remainder was largely thinly disguised promotion propaganda under such titles as "Be an Insider' not an 'Outsider,"" "The Small Investor's Chance," "Advice of the Money-Trust's Publications," this latter being an explanation of why a large number of magazines and newspapers speak disparagingly of many forms of "investments.' This word "investments" is, of course, overworked in connection with his offerings. Having thus properly prepared the reader's mind, he then proceeds to discuss the need for farm tractors, with particular reference to the Convertible Tractor Corporation. The Maibohm Motors Company is also given special treatment, with "estimated" profits per car and per share of stock on the basis of "planned" production. The great things in store for the motion picture industry and for the Commonwealth Pictures Corporation in particular are given proper space. A most promising report on "Cof

"The King Stood Beside the Table

It Was the Saddest Face One Can

"The Queen

B

RUSSELS, October 14, 1914.-We are quite up in the air about what we are to do next. Monday afternoon I went around to headquarters to get a laisser-passer to take Harold Fowler [now a major in the United States Army], back to England. While the matter was being attended to, an officer came in and told me that Baron von der Lancken wanted very much to see me. When I went into his room, he said that there was nothing in particular that he wanted to see me about, but that he thought I would be interested in hearing the news and in telling him something of my trip. We talked along for some time about things in general and then he told me that the movement of troops toward the coast was progressing rapidly and that the Belgian Government would soon be driven from the country. Then, putting the tips of his fingers together and looking me coyly in the eye, he inquired: "And then, my dear colleague, what will be your position?" He elaborated by pointing out that, the Government to which we are accredited having left the country, we would be merely in the position of foreigners of distinction residing here, and that we would have no official rank or standing. The idea evidently is that they do not care to have us around any longer than they can help.

I later learned that Villalobar had been more ready than I with his retort. In the course of a call later in the afternoon Lancken

had talked the same matter over with him, and had wound up with the same genial question: "And then, my dear colleague, what will be your position?" Without any hesitation, Villalobar replied: "My situation will be just the same as yours. We are both representa-. tives of our country in a country not our own. We shall continue to owe each other respect, and to make the best of conditions."

The latest news we have to-day is to the effect that the Government has been driven from Ostend, presumably to the Isle of Guernsey.

To-day I ran across an order from the Governor-General forbidding civilians to ride bicycles. The order concludes as follows:

Civilians who, in spite of this, continue to ride bicycles, expose themselves to being shot by German troops.

If a cyclist is suspected of planning to damage railroad, telegraph or telephone lines, or of the intention of attacking German troops, he will be shot according to martial law.

Apparently it is no longer necessary to go through the forms of proving that the cyclist had any evil intention. The mere suspicion is enough to have him shot.

In the course of a visit to General von Lüttwitz to-day, one of the colleagues remarked that the Germans must keep the Belgians. alive, and could not allow them to starve. Lüttwitz was not at all of that mind, for he said, with some show of feeling: