Word: racketeering
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1930-1939
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...when his wife died, gave his State Bryant Baker's "Pioneer Woman," and then went bankrupt. He always felt that he had been euchred out of control of his Marland Oil Co. by unscrupulous financiers and when in 1932 he was elected to Congress, he kept up a steady racket against "the wolves of Wall Street." His gubernatorial platform: "A New Deal for Oklahoma," a State police system. State subsistence homesteads, wildlife conservation...
...This racket was described last week at a conference in Manhattan of the Jewish Ministers' Cantors' Association. A resolution was passed to boycott guilty synagogs. Cantor Martin Adolf of Paterson, N. J., chairman of the conference, declared that cantors are Forgotten Men. Said he: "The cantor, who by the grace of God is an artist, has always been considered as the pillar of fire in the synagog. He has the ability with the rays of his voice to create light and joy when Israel is left in darkness. . . . When the whole world was engaged in speculation to gain...
Meanwhile last week the Better Business Bureau of New York City, reviewing the business year ended May 1, reported that promoters of the timeworn "sell and switch" racket* were still active, that "gyp" stock vendors had continued to flourish as of old under the Securities Act largely because the Federal Government had been backward about criminal prosecutions. Declared the Bureau: "An examination of the registrations under the Federal law reveals that by far the greater percentage of registrations was of highly speculative enterprises. Most promoters of such enterprises are deterred but little by responsibilities of civil liability which, under...
...sell & switch" racket: A bogus stockselling crew obtains the stockholders list of a reputable company (the ''leads''), hires telephone salesmen (the "openers'') to win their confidence of certain selected shareholders on the list (the "prospects"). Then high-pressure salesmen arrive to tip off the prospect that his stock is being "hammered" by bear operators persuade him to sell it, switch his funds to a new issue, almost invariably worthless...
Last week the American Banker discovered that so many bankers had fallen for this old racket that it published a warning editorial of nearly three columns. For U. S. bankers big & little its homely advice was: "Do not sign any blank unless you understand thoroughly every word...