Show THE MINING INDUSTRY the united states investor of new york in commenting upon the mining industry its legitimacy and its earning capacity says the mineral industry of the united states is rapidly growing to the point where the value of the output will be placed at substantially as large as the gross earnings of the entire railway systems in 1903 and 1904 and far in excess of a number of other industries the growth since 1895 when the totals reported by the united states geological survey were has shown a greater ratio than that of any other general productive industry coal ranks first with approximately of values the production of bituminous being more than twice that of anthracite iron iron comes second copper next clay products fourth petroleum output exceeds in value that of gold yet the business of mining is usually regarded as much less desirable so far as investments in securities go than that of almost any other industry that is capitalized this is no doubt due to oft repeated experiences perien ces of a more or less disastrous dis character indicating a greater measure of risk involved it has been impracticable hitherto to furnish any proper analysis of the results of the industry owing to the absence of statistics the census bureau has however furnished a voluminous report that will give us a much better view of the actual situation the data covers the year 1902 for the purposes indicated it will be necessary to have in mind that a very large part of the total mineral industry is carried on by firms and individuals the report shows that the total capital stock issues in the industry under corporate control are a little over the dividends paid on this nominal capital were an average of only 2 per cent the metallic product companies show capital dividends or slightly less than 2 per cent fuel and oil industries dus tries capitalized at paid over of something better than 3 per cent further analysis gives the capital of gold and silver mines at dividends or at a rate of only a little higher than 1 per cent whereas copper companies capital paid or nearly 38 per cent of course many companies paid no dividends of the gold and silver companies only of the stocks or a little less than 24 per cent paid the yielding at a rate of 44 per cent while copper stocks being about 74 per cent of the whole paid the giving an average rate of 51 per cent it is in the mining of metals that so much money is is presumed to have been lost particularly in the three specially covered gold silver and copper the total capital given above does not by any means cover the amount actually invested nor is the full amount paid in not accounted for in capital stock ascertainable the facts are however that for the capital issues paying dividends and very many not purchased at par the earnings were for gold and silver nearly 42 per cent for copper over 5 per cent the investment yield was of course greater A further interesting feature is that the production of gold and silver in 1902 was showing that the dividend returns amounted to upward of 10 per cent of the value of the in 1902 y which was an excellent year for railways the amount paid in dividends upon the capital stock was an average of per cent in the year 1897 when the capital was the dividends were only or an average of per cent over 70 per cent of railroad stock paid no dividends at all in the latter year apparently therefore the mining business as a whole is fairly remunerative upon the average copper presenting features of greater advantages than other metals the objectionable points about mining shares as investments are to be found in in the methods more than in the actual conditions dit ions legitimate mining is probably more general than is believed and though veins frequently peter out the risks thereof are not so extraordinary as is usually thought but this applies only to legitimate mining business done at the mine and not merely in the new york office of the company |