Fcrstest - Growing Business

The Wall Street Journal recently reported, after making a survey of many major cities, that th€ fastest-growing business in this country today-or at least one of the fastest -is the passing of bogus checks. Shocking, isn't it?

A New York police official says that bogus check-passing is the fastest-growing criminal operation in the country' and that it is a steadily growing business.

All over the country merchants report that they are getting more rubber checks this year than ever before in history. Bad checks are divided into two groups. The first is made up of sloppy people who do a sloppy job of balancing their check books and make the overdrafts by mistake. The other group is made up of those who deliberately defraud.

L. A. Sets New Moy Building Mork

New construction in Los Angeles during May 1957 set a record valuation for the month ol $52,076,683, bringing the year's total to $43,206,095 more than the first five months of 1956. The city's May mark compares to $38,230,934 in the 1956 month but was below the $57,095,189 hit this April. Value of building in the county's unincorporated area reached $28,005,37O last month, an increase from April's $24,64,642 but a drop from the May 1956 figure of $38,350,961.

For 1957's first five months, Los Angeles building totaled $2D,5I3,885, against $186,307,790 in the same period. The city set a new annual peak of $484,962,749 in last year's 12 months.

An Editorial

There are more banks with more depositors in the country than ever before, so the percentage of chances of mistakes is larger than ever before. And there are, therefore' many more people-who pay by check as they go shopping. The merchant is exposed to chances to get rubber checks more frequently than ever before.

Go into almost any food market in the country, and there at the cashier's stand you will see more people paying for t&reir groceries by check than in any past era. Paying by check has become a national habit, and so the opportunity for both error and fraud grows steadily.

Most bad checks are small in size, which makes them easier to put over. Reports from several business centers show that bad-check passing has grown as much as 25 to 33 percent in a year's time.

So it appears that prosperous business conditions develop unpleasant as vvell as pleasant activities.

Sth Annuql L. A. D-l-Y Show Due

With the addition of several new-product exhibits and general show features, all indications point toward the 5th annual Los Angeles Do-It-Yourself Show being the best in the series, according to Producer Ted Bentley. One of the major features will be the "Before-and-After Duplex," half in its original form and half completely remodeled with "do-it-yourself" materials and methods. The project is sponsored by the women's division of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. Show offices have been moved to 66 North Robertson Blvd.; Oleander 5-77A0.