Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the World

by Clifton R. Wooldridge

The disaster was brought about by the appointment of a committee by the Missouri legislature to investigate the "get-rich-quick" situation. St. Louis had become the haven of every conceivable class of swindlers, who swarmed there in such numbers that the legislature deemed it wise to look into the matter. What motive inspired it to take this action was a mystery. Sufficient, however, to observe that when it came to following out its own recommendation to pass laws that would drive the "get-rich-quick" companies of all kinds out of the state something stopped the legislation.

The investigation of the "get-rich-quick" concerns in Missouri by the State Senate Committee resulted in an elaborate report, which was presented March 3, 1903. This report had the following to say of the turf investment companies:

"These institutions are of modern origin. The pioneer in this field, especially in this state, seems to have been E. J. Arnold & Co. Then followed Ryan & Co., the International, The Christian Syndicate, Brolaski, Thomas Walsh, Maxim-Gay and others.

"These concerns were presumably prosperous until the examination which was begun by the grand jury, instigated by the circuit attorney of St. Louis, Hon. Joseph W. Folk, and your present committee. When the crash came, company after company closed its doors or refused to pay back to depositors on demand, and upon examination of these companies, we found them to be mere shells, with little or no money or available assets on hand, and the millions of dollars handled by them either paid out in dividends, squandered and gambled away on race tracks, or absorbed by the officers and managers of the said companies.

"The evidence discloses the fact that E. J. Arnold is supposed to be in Mexico, the books of said company being in the hands of the grand jury. So far as the search under legal process has developed, no assets of Arnold & Co., except a stock farm and stock thereon, office furniture and fixtures, and a few hundred dollars in cash, were found.

"Ryan & Company claim that they have on hand $200,000, which has been attached and garnisheed, in the hands of the depositories, and the same process has been used to take possession of the real estate holdings and other personal property.

"George A. Dice, inspector of the postoffice, in charge of the St. Louis department, testified that he had made an examination of E. J. Arnold & Co. and John J. Ryan & Co., and that on their showing Arnold & Co. had on hand $160,000 more assets than their liabilities; that two different examinations of these concerns were made by him and his deputies, and that in the last report of November and December, 1902, his report to the department recommended that they be cited to appear before the department and answer as to their liability for criminal use of the mails, and that so far as his report went they were notified that there was a case pending against them; that the ruling of the department was not in accordance with his recommendation; that from the evidence it appears that the department at Washington, by some process or other unknown to your committee, overruled the recommendations of the inspector, dismissed the cases pending against these companies, and they were allowed to proceed with their process of absorbing the people's money. Had the department at Washington acted promptly and properly upon the recommendation of the inspector, millions of dollars would have been saved to the people of the State of Missouri and other states.

"In order to protect the people who are attracted by the fair promises and the payment of extraordinary profits or dividends, and to prohibit the improper and vicious misapplication and absorption of the money of the people who confide in the representation of investment companies, your committee recommends that a law be passed which will prohibit the doing of business by said turf investment companies or other like institutions in this state."

If one should moralize on the turf swindles it would only be to repeat the old story—avarice. Nothing else explains why they are permitted to flourish and rob, and then a newspaper story and no more.

Justice, blind and decrepit, is unable to scale the insurmountable barrier of the swindlers' "bank roll." But there is still hope, for from Washington we hear from day to day that another boodler has been landed in the grand jury net—thanks to President Roosevelt, who, if he knew all, would do more.