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BUCKET SHOP SWINDLERS Leaks In Financial System Practiced by Americans MANY BROKERAGE BOUSES FAIL ~* 'iJl > . . Brokerage Business Honestiy Conducted Is Good as Any Business?Many of Them Not Honestly Conducted. (By Richard Splllane.) There is a story told illustrative of the carelessness of the Mexican peon. He and. his family were huddling in their shack during a storm. Rain was pouring through many leaks in the roof. "Why don't you mend your roof?" th? peon waa asked. "Can't now; raining too hard," he answered. "But why didn't you mend it before the rainy season?" "No use then; it wasn't raining," he replied. ,*!!| What essential difference is therebetween the attitude df the Mexican peon toward the leaks tn his robf and that of the American people toward leaks in. our financial methods? Leading; bankers in the Middle West declare the greatest swindle ever perpetrated on the people of this country was that of a few years ago .when a horde of "get-rjfch-quick" Operators spread over the Middle West selling to agriculturists oil* stock in companies that never produced oil, packing house shares in concerns that never packed meat, stock in phonograph .^corporations that never made phonographs, land speculations, etc. It Is estimated the farmers were robbed of $2,000,000,000. The estimate might seem high, but for the fact that it comes from thoso best qualified to know the magnitude of the robbery. If the farmers had the two billions today with which to buy tfactdrs, fertilizers, build silos, purchase agricultural implements, clothes and no end of furnishings and supplies they need it would be to their advantage and a . ... ?T^. great am to general umusuji. -uj- i son of that robbery", the farmers' buying power is impaired. The plundering of the farmer affects every branch of American business, yet while it was under way Iittlb attention* was given to it. Recently there have been failures of various so-called brokerage houses. A better term to apply to most of them would be bucket shops. It would not be surprising If others closed their doors. There is little reason why a stockbrokerage house honeitly and properly conducted should fall. The business Is as safe and sound as any business can bo. The function of the broker is to buy or sell for cash or on margin such securities as are ordered by the custnmrr fhp broker runs little or no risk. His commission is established by the rules of the exchange. / If the customer ie purchasing outright, he i>ays in full in advance. If he Is operating on margin he must deposit a sum deemed sufficient to cover the widest fluctation of the market. If the market goes against the speculator, the broker may .demand further margin, and, if It is not forthcoming, close the account. For the difference between the sum put up as a margin and the market value of a security purchased the buyer is charged interest at the ruling rato. There is a clearance between all legitimate brokerage houses daily, and every establishment settles its obligations with every other establishment. The costs of conducting a brokerage business are large and the commissions moderate. The principal exchanges exercise rigid scrutiny over members, suspending or expelling them for questionable practices. Various of the smaller exchanges are not so. careful. To many persons ail exchanges look alike. This latter fact gives opportunity to the dishonest broker to "bucket" orders; that is, chargo the commission, but not buy or sell the security. In fact-, he bets against the customer, and when he does so charges for a service rot performed, and also charges interest on the difference between the customer's money deposited as a margin and the quoted price or value of the security, although he has not purchased the security. He swindles the customer in both cases and not infre- i qucntl.v adds to this by falsifying the quotations. Against the broker who "buckets" orders the market player has a heavy handicap, but occasionally luck seems to be with him, but not infrequently when he has big paper profits the broker "blows up." This whole country is speckled with bucket shops. Some concerns have branches in a dozen or more cities. It may seem because of the recent failures that the losses of the public arc unusually heavy. It is probable that the losses are greater when there are no failures. There was a time when bucket shops were drab and mean looking Today they are, as a rule, handsomely furnished and with every sign of distinction. But however much they are gilded. the game is to swindle the public. Bankers, if they refused to have any dealings with any brokerage concerns of questionable character, would make it difficult, if not impossible, for them to flourish. Some bucket shop men, branded as such by stock exchanges, have had their accounts with banks of the highest respectability. When will the banks repair the leaks in the roof? Bunyan Opposed to Kissing.?John Bunyan is the first recorded opponent of the kiss. Here is what the famous Puritan wrote many years ago: "The common salutation of women I abhor. It is odious to me in whomever I see it. When I have seen good men salute those women whom they have visited and that have visited them, I have made my objections against it, and they have answered me it was but a piece of civility. I told them it was not a comely sight. Some, indeed, have urged the holy kiss, but then I have I asked them why they have made balks. Why did they salute the most handsome and let the ill-favoi-ed ones go?" ?Philadelphia Ledger. NITROGEN AND LIFE Wonderful Element Absolutely Essential to Natural Growth. The following Interesting article is taken from tho Clemson College Weekly News Notes: The living substance, both la plants and animals, is a jelly-like material carted protoplasm. It is a mixture of substances which are so complicated, in themselves and nrc in mioh eomnli cated relations among themselves that no chemist, biologist, or any other scientist has yet been cblo to identify more than a few of them with certainty. The difflcultlcr can perhaps be better appreciated by rcmeml>ering that the unit of life, the cell, is In cases so small that it takes several hundred or thousand of them together to be visible to the naked eye; and yet the protoplasm of each cell exhibits the same complexity as shown by the largest nvss. A few things are known with certainty about protopkism, however, and one of these is that in plants at least whatever else mav be present or absent, iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium, carbon, hydrogen oxygen, sulphur, phosphorus, and nitrogen arealways present and are necessary to normal growth. Of these substances green plants obtain carbon from the carbon dioxide in tho air. All other food materials aro obtained from the soil, except that, aa mentioned in former articles, certain lowly plants can uso atmospheric nitrogen. Aside from water, a goodly proportion of the livinc substance is composed of protein. In fact, there is good evidence that this protein makes up the frame work of protoplasm, and that many of tho peculiar properties of the living tissue aro due to its presence. Now, the most distiivctive feature of the protein, as compared with many other organic substances, is that it contains considerable amounts of nitrogea and smaller amounts of sulphur in addition to these elements which all organic substances contain. Nitrogen, then, is an essential element of the make-up of the living substance itself. Nitrogen also enters into the composition of a number of products of the naturk of exoretiono or secretions < which have a piarked stimulating or poisonous effect on living tissue. ; Some of, these substances have an im- ' portant use in regulating the development of many plants and animals [ say the bacteriologists and soil specialists. Nitrogen, one of the essential elements of all living tloeue, is perhaps the most abundant of them all. However, the greater part of it is locked , up in the air in a form which is not i available for any but a few kinds of organisms. To become available it must be combined (or "fixed") with some other .element. When so captured and put into the soil it tends always to escape in one way c-r another and eventually to get back into the air. 'J Tho amount in an available form, therefore, is always limited, and it is thus the highest priced element which , farmers have to buy for fertilizer or feed. The cheapest way to "secure it, both for feed and for fertilizer, is to grow legumes; and the best way to conserve it is to keep something growing on the land continually, to keep the soil busy with a crop all the time. DR. GORDON DEAD Was One of Most Prominent Theologians of Presbyterian Church. Rev. Dr. Edward Clifford Gordon, 79 |. yea re old, one of the most prominent thcologicians of the Southern Presbyterian church, died, at his home in Richmond, Va., last week, of pneumonia. Born in Richmond, Dr. Gordon was a law student at the University of Virginia when the Civil War began. He ' enlisted in the Conferedate army and sa ved as a staff officer in Ecliol's brigade. After the war, he entered Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va., and was private secretary to General Robert E. Leo, president of tho college. He also attended the Unirn Theological Seminary and was president of Westminster College nt Pulton, Mo., from 1892 to 189G. He held pastorates at Savannah, (la., Salem, Va., and Lexington, Mo. He is survived by his widow, six sens and three daughters. Turns of Fortune's Wheel. ? The other afternoon, says Paris Figaro, a Russian admiral saw in a taxicab a gallant general of tho heroic hours of the war, and on the open boulevard embraced him and gave him the kiss of l>eace. Another even more touching scene occurred in a modest restaurant of the left shore where the "students who stuuy mei. At a table three Polish women stu-*[ dents were installed. A waitress of: rather advanced age drew near; de- | j spite her humble dress she had a i j lofty air. The students looked at her J attentively, and suddenly one of them j rose, knelt down and kissed the edge i of her apron. This servant had for- j merely been u lady of honor at a court j that was wrecked in the most awful j drama of contemporary history. ? If you treat some mpn courteously they thing you are "easy". WHAT THE CONFERENCE DID. (Continued From Page One.) cultural credits. The report also protested against enactment of any consumption, sales or manufacturers' tax and urged representation by the United States "in a conference for economic and financial reconstruction in Europe" to ascertain what this country can do toward reestablishment of international credit. Agsncy for Loans. With respect to establishment of an intermediate agricultural credit syatem, the committee proposed that confess set up an agency to discount loans on live stock paper and on other agricultural commodities secured by waretrouso receipts for terms of six months to three years. This agency would be given the right to issue debentures, saleable in the open market, hgainftt paper on which loan3 had been advanced and to have its paper redlscounted by the federal reserve bank. Amendment cf the federal reserve rtct to give the representative nanus power to buy and sell, with or without indorsement by member banks, notes secured by warehouse receipts for readily marketable non-perishable agricultural staples and live stock was recommended. The amendment urged for the farm land bank act would increase the amount one individual is permitted to borrow from $10,000 to $25,000 and would permit joint stock land banks to issue bonds In an amount up to 20 times their capital. Restoration of representation by cooperative associations on the directorates of federal farm land banks also was urged. The states were asked by the conference tonight to pass uniform laws BBraBHHHBHHHHI . - A ' .. . ' \ > > * > Satui . ?v" n JJ ? To clo! I sell to the 1: holdings of Estate at CI The p three lots h rr? 1 * 111 I nree lots i tain street, ner from M, feet with a rear. Also frontage o I about 200 i is a beautif ing. 1 his HEART of derful inves Any one ON TH regulating dairy products and by-products and inspection of meat animals and meat products, and fedcrq} and state cooperation in tick eradication work and control of plant diseases and crop pests was recommended with the adoption ot a committee report dealing with this subject. The report also requested the states to pass legislation permitting agricultural cooperation and organization of farmers'. cooperative associations and to cooperate with the federal government in gathering and distributing crop and market information. Creation of a national agricultural advisory council as a permanent body also was recommended. ' The conference, in adopting this report, expressed disapproval of appropriation of funds by congress for distribution of free seed, and went on record as opposed to removal from the department of agriculture of the bureau of forestry, roads, states' relations, weather, soils, markets and crop estimates. w A TCnhraska man has been mar ricd by wire to a girl in Paris. The Judge who married them went with the groom to the telegraph office, where the court asked the groom the usual questions, receiving affirmative answers. The Judge then; Bent a cablegram to the bride in Paris, In which he asked the questions of the marriage ceremony. Seven hours later the answering cable was received, and the court declared the two man and wife and sent the bride a cable to thait effect. ? 1 ' ' No Sound Interpretation.?On seeing a lusty chanticleer orow at the top of its voice, a fellow born deaf remarked, "How l^o yawns, that slcopy. bird!" I I AUC1 day, Febr , i.. ' \\ h A. M 11 %. f > r > CLC ;e this estate ] lighest bidder a! the D. A. Mat! lover, S. C. ? x t' ? > >rooerty consis ? ? icing on Main s !acing on Kings P just around th< ain. All lots 2 15-foot alley i one lot with 80 >n Main street Feet deep. On tl ul seven room < j.? iL ? properiy in me the city and a tment opportuni s of these lots ideall E PREMISES MARINES WITHDRAWN. United States Soldiers Will No Long* i *? < er Occupy Cuba. The detachment of 375 marines stationed at Camaguey, Cuba, were ordered withdrawn today by Secretary Denby, acting on a recommendation of the state department, relates a Washington dispatch of last Thursday. AH A a Prtflrxo/I /v nf Pllhfi f Aftlf iUIUlObCl UO VVO|/V\IV^< V4 VUk/Uf vwn ' up the question some time ago with state department officials, urging: the withdrawal, but It was said he had made no requests recently. Secretary Denby said tho marines would bG sent to Guantanrmo Bay, where they would encamp. They were sent to Camaguey during the war for the purpose, it was said, of protecting: the local sugar interests. The navy department Ih' announcing tho order for withdrawal also mr.de public a report from, tho marine commandant In connection with the recent fchooting of a Cuban by a marine at Camagucy. The report said: Private Donald J. Honey, U. S. marine corps, January 21, shot and killed Itaman Garcia, a Cuban, on a ranch j outside of Camagucy. Honey admits killing, but blaims he shot in self defense. He states that the Cuban shot at him with a' revolver and that he then fired at tho Cuban with a rifle, killing- him. Honey Is now confined ; at marine camp, Camaguey. The mat- I ter is being investigated by marine ! corps and Cuban authorities. To Permit Vcting by Mall.?5f particular Interest among the divers new bills introduced in the hohse of representatives th'ls week is the "absentee" voting measure, proposed by Representatives Julius S. M"clnncs of Darlington and Hubert C. Cox of Abbeville, to permit persons who are un? i i . i 1111 ?' riON l. m nary 4th, III attnew he i ( :i' \ f IVER, J I I will ated fo II the any ch thews ] advant I.. _ ts of Iew CO itreet. 1921 tl doun- lor its 2 cor- prospei ?6x90 an ag in the three c > foot f and may 1 his lot banks iwell- ] very of sale won- j( 192; i'y- ble. ly situ- I i RAIN OR avoidably out of the. state on the day and dates of any primary election in the state to send in their ballot by mall. The bill was referred to the judiciary committee. Under the pro -talons of the bill, a.nf qualified voter of the state who happened to be out of the state for any | UUU, iOilSUU at CIIC uiuu VI vuc ?iviu*<?5 of any primary in the state or may be engaged in any employment or calling which prevents his personal presence at the polls at that time, would be allowed to cast his ballot by swearing _ . . . ' . ' K ' 1 j U Billy Sunday's 1 > "NEXT TO MY FAJ|TH IN which will give me most comfort \ carried life insurance that would ta the wolves could snap and howl an f for years to come, long after old dac earth. "I DONT BELIEVE THAT A J thing by his wife or children unless surance policy, so that he can ghu f them put him in the ground, and a dren are provided for, and don't hi I for washing and the next day be it . board. "YOU OWE IT TO THEM to i don't get anything for that! But I to gay it. I think it ought to De si institutions on God's earth?Life Ii but I may die, and on that aocoun friends." IF YOU ARE NOT ADF.QUAT1 of your dependents, and are sufflcie day has said to cause you to act, wc THE MUTUAL BENEFIT Is in pos ones than any other Comixiny and 1 compiled statistics reveal the fact i leave estates qf $2,000 and over, leai SAM M. &S. EARLE Room 203, Peoples Bank i Mm ? ? V v ? a. mmm ? SALE 1922, 11 1 s fcstal ). c ir stores or busine aracter whatever. p i i fork County, in wt ageously situated, v unties producing m tan in 1920. Clover enterprising, pr( rous citizens. In adt ricultural center il otton mills. tats of this desin >e seen at either or at the office of t ERMS: 10 per cen and deed and poss 2, when balance is < V. L. BENNETT, i . SHINE, 11 i K. , < r h /) * "? I to it before a notary pubRc ami then sending it in to the election Manager* by registered mail. The bill, aa framed at present, Axes no limit as to when the ballot so mailed must reach the election managers, but, according to Representative Mclnnes, an amend ment will be submitted requiring the ballot to be in the hands of the managers within 48 hours aft . the closing of the ballot box on the day of the primary. . ? Most of us take better eare of our / automobiles than wevdo of ourselves nsurance Ideals 1 GOD," says Billy Sunday, "that * vhen I die is to remember that I < ke care of ray wife and children; .1 d they could give them the laugh H 1 had gone back to the dust of the V WAX DOES THE RIGHT, square M he provides for them in a life In- S, ffle off this mortal coll and hare V . 111 V?A?f thn t Kla tirlfa. o nrl nhll_ ^B Iblll AUVTT WlfM IUO ff | ive to go out from home looking lanicuring their nails on a wash- i J | nak? provision for them. Now, 1 * am glad, however, for the chance lid. I think it Is one of tha best * . nsurance. I don't expect to die. t I carry policies on my life, my J : 3LY INSURED for the protection i ntly impressed by what Mr. Sun? will be pleased to show you that ritlon to better protect your loved at L.ESS NET COST. Carefully \ c that nine men out Of ten, who fo it in the form of life insurance. 1 b GRIST, Dist. Agents l Trust Co. Building. oi : r i V M. 1 19 :e ; , I ' ' rffiM \ ' j !a ' a l m t:.i - ell i . - ; 'f | r?!) * -j V ss houses of . lich Clover is fas one of the AHA rnffAn hi VIV WiWU BU is well known )gressive and lition to being \ t also boasts a ' i ' .-J ^ j iLIA nwrnAvhr IU1U pi upvt IJ of the Clover . his paper. t cash on day ;ession March due and paya- j | ] | ; 1 r . ? . ,* Auctioneer. > A y- --J|