cular was drawn up for one of our clients and is an excellent
example of a perfectly harmless and legal advertisement that might
easily become fraudulent. We will suppose that the corporation
owned one-quarter of an acre of wood lot about ten miles from a
region where copper was being mined.

"SAWHIDE COPPERS
"YOUR LAST CHANCE TO BUY THIS STOCK AT PRESENT FIGURES!
"The company's lands are located near the heart of the copper
district, not far from properties now paying from forty to sixty
per cent. a year. There is no reason in the world why Sawhide
should not do as well if not better. With immense quantities of
ore just beneath the surface, when our new smelter is completed
Sawhide will undoubtedly prove one of the best dividend payers in
the country! As the Buggenheims and other well-known financiers
are largely interested in the stock, it is only a question of time
before it will be marked up out of sight. The properties have
great surface value and are rolling in timber and mineral wealth."

This is a fair example of a perfectly safe variety of advertisement
that does not commit the author to anything. As long as there is
a piece of land somewhere and an actual incorporated company the
stock of which, however valueless, is being offered for sale, the
mere fact that the writer indulges himself in rosy prophecies does
not endanger him so far as the criminal law is concerned. It is
only when he foolishly--and usually quite as unconsciously--makes
some definite allegation, such as, for instance, that the company
"owns six hundred acres of fully developed mining property," or
has "a smelter in actual operation on the ground," or "has earned
sixty-five per cent. on its capital in the past year," that the
financier runs the slightest risk. It may be that a purchaser
would find it so difficult to prove the falsity of any of the
statements upon which he had relied in purchasing the stock that
the vendor would practically be immune, but in these days of muck-
raking and of an hysterical public conscience prosecutors sometimes
go to the most absurd lengths and spend ridiculous sums of money
out of the county treasuries to send promoters to jail.

They are apt to have a hard time of it, however. I recall one
scheme in which a client of mine was interested, involving the
floatation of about a hundred thousand dollars' worth of railroad
stock. The circulars, printed by a famous engraver and stationer,
were twenty p