Check Forgeries Almost Unknown Among Business Men Who Cash Students' Checks, Crimson Investigation Shows

Although an investigation conducted by the Daily Princetonian last year in an effort to find the amount of money which business men in Princeton lost through cashing students' worthless checks revealed a considerable loss, Harvard students must be more honest according to figures obtained by a CRIMSON reporter yesterday from Harvard Square business men. Forgeries are practically unknown to most of the men interviewed.

Leavitt and Peirce's only had three real forgeries last year. One of these checks was for $7.00, another for $2.10, and the largest, for $27.50. The forger who cashed this last check also got $40.00 from the Harvard Cooperative Society, $25.00 from August's, and $38.00 from John H. Derby, Inc. The forger used the name of a student who was in good financial standing.

August's lost one $15.00 check, but they do not cash many checks as a rule.

Max Keezer has never lost any money on a bad check. This company, however, cashed relatively few checks.

Arthur's Smoke Shop also has never lost a cent through checks since it was founded. This is all the more extraordinary in that the proprietor cashes approximately 400 checks a week.

All the men interviewed agreed that the greatest difficulty with checks was the fact that students who are careless of their accounts, frequently write checks against an overdrawn account unintentionally. Another thing which is often done is writing checks against money just deposited, which the bank has not had time to credit.

Leavitt and Peirce's, which cashes over $2000 worth of checks a week, generally find that about $100 worth of bad checks are taken throughout the year. Of these a large majority are checks which are cashed against over-drawn accounts.