THURSDAY, AUGUST 7. 1958
HERALD AND NEWS. KIAMATH FALLS. OREGON
PAGE 7 A
iftft
Til. l.
O 1W by MA W g.
Editor's Note: Censorship and a
cloud of propaganda obscure much
of what has been going on in the
Middle East. To get down to ba
sic facts, William L. Ryan spent
nearly three months in the area
on a survey trip the sixth he has
made to the Mideast. This is the
first of four articles in which he
analyzes the West's dilemma on
the eve of a proposed summit
meeting.
Let's see I traded my green beans for your dessert,
so how much is my part of the check?"
Con Men Fleece Hundreds
Of Victims Every Year
United States Continues To Lose Friends In The Arab East, Says Analyst
By JERRY BENNETT
NEA Staff Correspondent
WASHINGTON (NEA) - Hun
dreds of gullible citizens are being
fleeced each year by a vicious
confidence game that enables
crooks to drag their victims into'
court to make them pay off.
That's the startling report of
congressional and Federal Trade
Commission investigators who
charge that about 75 firms are
running a unique real estate rack
et which takes unsuspecting vic
tims for 50 million dollars a year.
The details are to be aired this
month at special Senate subcom
mittee hearings, under Sen. Hen
ry M. Jackson (D-Wash.).
The average victim of the amaz
ing swindle, investigators explain,
is a small town resident who
wants to sell his home or busi
ness. He's usually approached by
a smiling, smooth-talking sales
man, who confidently explains that
ne can help him make a fast
sale. Often the salesman claims
that he already has a buyer lined
up.
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If the victim looks slightly
dubious, the salesman flashes
some impressive looking catalogs.
oonds and letters ot endorsement
to prove that his firm is as sound
as a bank vault's steel door. Then
he swings the knockout sales
punch.
He tells the owner that the prop
erty is priced too low. In fact,
the salesman explains that the
buyer, whom he just mentioned,
is ready to pay a lot more. This
is the hooker. .
The victim hurriedly signs a con
tract and agrees to pay the sales
man a commission right away
for his exceptional services. It's
not until the salesman is spending
the commission miles away that
the unsuspecting property owner
finally reads the small print in
the contract. It guarantees only
that the firiri will advertise the
property for sale.
The advertising usually turns out
to be just classified blurbs in a
couple of newspapers or a mere
catalog. Investigators say that
sales resulting from this adver
tising are less than one-half of
one per cent.
But it's another block of small
type that completely blasts the
victim's hopes. This is known as
a disclaimer clause. What its le
gal jargon boils down to is that
the firm is not obligated to fulfill
any of the salesman's verbal prom
ises. The contract, however, is ab
solutely valid.
It's the disclaimer clause that
enables the con men to success
fully use the courts in carrying
out their swindles. For example,
swindlers often will not ask for an
advance fee, investigators explain.
Instead, they will send the signed
contract to their home office.
Then the home office will start
legal action in the state where it
is located. The firm usually wins
its case since the average victim
can't afford to travel hundreds of
miles to defend himself. The judg
ment is then taken to the vic
tim's home state where it is en
forced. Racket investigators explain that
the majority of victims are the
people who can least afford a fi
nancial loss, tor example, a last
talking salesman swindled an el
derly Washington state widow out
of $250 by convincing her that a
worthless mining claim was worth
a fortune. Her sole income is a
social security allowance of $39 a
month.
A New York farmer, who is so
feeble that he can't shave him
self, was taken for $150. And a
Texan lost his entire business aft
er a firm successfully sued on
a contract. The businessman had
to sell his property in order to
raise the needed money.
Sen. Jackson's subcommittee will
study a bill by Sens. Karl llundt
(R-S.D.) and John McClellan ID
Ark.) which would levy a $5,000
fine on anyone found guilty of op
erating such a racket in inter
state commerce. Convicted sales
man also could receive a max
imum of five years in jail.
The Federal Trade Commission,
which is responsible for prevent
ing false and misleading advertis
ing is limited in its power to cope
with the real estate problem. The
FTC can command firms to stop
making false claims. But it can't
take court action unless a com
panv ignores the order.
FTC officials complain that or
dering a shifty real estate 'firm to
stop false advertising often re
suits in the salesmen simply go
ing to another location and form
ins; one or more new companies
By WILLIAM L. RYAN
AP Foreign News Analyst
For years, the UnitedJitates has
been losing friends in the Arab
East.
It still is.
Strangely enough, the shock of
recent events may have given
Americans, a chance to turn the
tide. These events made Arabs see
their area as the possible cockpit
of World War III. The thought jolt
ed them.
Thus, in the proposed summit
meeting, and -in its actions else
where, the United States may face
at last a chance to salvage some
thing from the wreckage of its
prestige among the Arabs.
Oil and strategic position are two
key points underlying any consid
eration of this area where Western
civilization began.
Basically, the struggle hinges on
what sprang from the ages-old
compost of the Garden of Eden
vast riches m oil.
And this is the crossroads of the
world. The question that must wor
ry Western leaders is this: Is the
Soviet Union going to be able some
day to squeeze the West's influence
out of this area, and make Moscow
master of the great sea route that
connects East and West?
Those are the stakes.
One of the things that brought
America to today's crisis was a
persistent near-sightedness.
Americans failed to see, or at
least to comprehend, the implica
tions of the postwar movement to
ward independence and nationhood
that swept across lands long under
colonial rule.
This nationalism fever swept up
the Arabs, too, but theirs is not
a nationalism confined to the spe
cific boundaries of one country. It
is pan-Arabism, a feeling of one
ness among people occupying a
vast segment of the backward
world, speaking Arabic, sharing
the same racial memories, harbor
ing bitterness against a history of
exploitation.
The Russians did not really
awaken to the possibilities of this
movement until after Stalin's
death. Then Soviet policy, however
cynically, set out to capitalize on
the tide, as if heeding the Biblical
prophecy of Jeremiah:
"Egypt riseth up like a flood and
the waves thereof shall be moved
as river."
The waves now threatening to
engulf all the Holy Land are those
of a pan-Arab nationalism churned
by frustration into a thing called
Nassensm. Gamal Abaci Nasser,
president of the United Arab Re
public of Egypt and Syria, denies
Nasserism exists. Whatever its
name, the force came into being
because of him perhaps even in
spite of him. He may be the cap
tive of its momentum.
Events of the past three months
plummeted Western prestige in
the Arab East. In many Arab eyes
the twin intervention in Jordan
by the British and in Lebanon by
the Americans set back the
clock and revived the dreaded bo
geys of imperialism and colonial
ism.
Many Arabs still want desper
ately to remain the West's friends,
though they have fallen silent be
fore the swelling tide of emotional
and often grotesquely distorted ra
cial pride. Before this summer's
events there had been developing
cautious attitude of reasonableness
reasonableness, at any rate, by
Arab standards, which are far dif
ferent from the West's.
Much of that climate is gone
now. The United States, as leader
of the West, can claim as friends
in the Arab East only those whose
survival depends upon such
friendship: Hussein, a lonely
young monarch heavily guarded in
Amman against his own people:
Camille Chamoun, the tough, stub
born politician who has been oc
cupying Lebanon's presidential pal
ace; 750,000 frightened Christians
in Lebanon; less than 500,000
scared Bedouins in Jordan.
Britain's Aneurin Bevan has
called Hussein a kept king in a
kept country. The description was
cruel but accurate. And to some
in Lebanon, was an ardent nation
alist who attached himself to the
United Slates "only because he
(eared the loss of his own power.
Many Arabs would be America's
friends if they could be or if
they dared. But the U.S. history of
association with unpopular re
gimes and American insistence
upon labels such as pro-Western
or pro-Communist meaningless
in the Arab East make it diffi
cult. Those who want to be Amer
ica's friends are not standing up
to be counted.
How did American fortunes sink
so low?
Palestine always has been basic
to the Middle East problem. Up
to February 1955. there was rea
son to hope the Arabs might turn
inward to their own vast economic
woes. Then began a nightmare for
Western policy.
Nagged by hit-and-run comman
do attacks. Israel mounted an at
tack on the Egyptian occupied
Gaza Strip. That humiliated Nas
ser and endangered his political
position. He sought arms. He could
not meet U.S. terms. The Commu
nist bloc was eager to help.
Even with these arms Nasser
was in no position to upset Middle
East peace. He still might have
concentrated on attempts to cure
Egypt's backwardness. However.
over-ambitious, Nasser's plan for
a high Aswan Dam to increase
Egypt's arable land might have
Kept him occupied at home.
But Washington pulled the rug
from under Nasser, withdrawing
an offer of help on the dam and
nanaing mm a gratuitous insult:
Egypt wasn't up to such a pro-.
gram. The result was nationaliza
tion of the Suez Canal and the 1956
isis.
Nasser now is captive of all
these events. Making himself into
the image of liberator and en
couraged by Moscow, he has
burned more and more of his
bridges westward. His Nasserism
became something quite apart
from Arab nationalist yearnings,
For years, the United States
made no conspicuous effort to rec
ognize there could be anything but
evil in Arab nationalism.
There's still a chance to reme
dy that. Every Arab is a national
ist, whether he is friend or foe of
the West. His nationalism is not a
force that will be stopped by diplomacy.
The West, depending heavily on
Arab oil, must choose: It can try
to oppose nationalise and drive
the Arabs into desperate meas
ures such as slain Nuri Said meant
when he talked of "a compulsion
to flirt with suicide." This can
mean unending Arab turmoil and
even eventual Soviet sway.
Or the United States can encour
age a genuine nationalism and
try to lead it into constructive
channels. To those who have had
long Middle East experience, this
course offers a chance to avert
disaster.
Assassin Slays
Alabama Mayor
SARALAND, Ala. (API-Mayor
O. L. Driver was fatally shot from
ambush in the driveway of his
home last night.
Officers said an assailant ap
parently waited in a clump of
bushes until Driver, returning
from work, pulled into his drive
way. The 56-year-old mayor was
shot with what officers believed
to be buckshot from close ranee
through the rear window of his
car.
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