‘suicide Preventers’ Fleece Many Under Guise of Religion

One of the outfits which mulct New Yorkers of considerable sums of money yearly was an organization whose sole avowed purpose was to prevent people from committing suicide, the Jewish Daily Bulletin learned yesterday.

Three enterprising individuals incorporated their organization as a religious congregation. After all, they said, when filing application for certificate of incorporation, saving lives by telling men to have faith in God is real religious work.

Opening a small office, the life-savers had three telephones installed under a fictitious name. From one of the agencies which specialize in such things, a “sucker list” was obtained, and operations got under way.

Various persons were called on the telephone and asked to save lives to contribute to this organization which spent all of its money persuading people not to commit suicide.

YOU DON’T NEED A LICENSE

No Department of Welfare license was necessary because under the now famous section 199a of the New York Code of Ordinances organizations incorporated as religious congregations need not apply for licenses.

Needless to say, the organization prospered. It is impossible to estimate to just what extent it prospered. Anyway, there was no thought in the mind of the promoters of committing suicide themselves. Aside from preventing themselves from shuffling off the mortal coil, there was no evidence that others had been so aided. The suicide charts of the Bureau of Vital Statistics showed no appreciable diminution.

The District Attorney’s office launched an investigation. The three promoters found it expedient to terminate their good work, and decamped, incidentally leaving the Telephone Company with an unpaid bill of several hundred dollars.

ONE BLIND MAN

There was a home of the blind which carried on its work via the convenient telephone. A welfare agency decided to send an investigator to visit the home. At the address only one blind man was found—the director of the campaign. Not having incorporated itself as a religious congregation, this racket was closed up.

There was another case of a charity promotion agency which was conducting a campaign for an institution whose name bore a strange resemblance to that of the Judea Convalescent Home. One of the solicitors for the agency phoned Albert Warner of Warner Bros. motion pictures.

THE ‘GOVERNOR’ CALLING

“I am calling for Governor Lehman,” said the solicitor, “and he would like you to contribute to our campaign.”

Warner, a friend of Gov. Lehman, made out a check for $500 and forwarded it to the agency. As an afterthought, he communicated with the Governor who denied any connection with the institution. Warner brought charges of fraud against the agency, and it was halted in its nefarious activity.

John B. Prest, superintendent of the New York State Department of Social Welfare, yesterday told this reporter of one man who built an organization with distinguished names on its letterhead by dint of solicitation and ingenuity.

The man sent out an appeal to many presidents of railroads for contributions to a fund to send tubercular patients to sanitariums. He received a check for fifty dollars. Immediately, the racketeer had new letterheads printed with the name of the railroad official listed as a “contributing member.” He made photo static copies of the check, and cashed the original, pocketing the proceeds.

With the new letterhead, he found it easier to get contributions from his next “sucker list,” the hotel owners. He received a contribution, printed a new letterhead, and went through the process again. As the list of influential “contributing members” grew, it became easier to secure funds. The enterprising racketeer fied from the United States with a comfortable fortune when the district attorney’s office got on his tail.