Show CAVEAT EMPTOR the april forum contains an article from the pen of R H inglis palgrave editor of the london Foon economist oraW on the subject of investments by the writers countrymen in the united states after referring to the subject generally he be cono concludes ludes that it narrows down to one or two very simple points Is the return from the investments likely to be good will the capital invested be secure the latter is pronounced much tile more import ant but the first strikes the luten intending aing investor more sharply being dazzled by the promise of a distinctly higher rate of return than he can obtain in england if says say mr palgrave ile be is ie a man of cautious temperament who remembers the well worn but perfectly truet ayling that high interest means meane bad security his anxiety la Is allayed when it to IB pointed out to him that the natural return for the use of money is IP even at the present time distinctly higher in the united states stales than in great britain when he be hears of mortgages and investments vest mente made at bilth rates by those who ho know the country yielding even eight per cent and teu ten percent per cent he considers that he be does docs not pass the bounds of moderation in making ati an investment which promises bix ix per cent or maybe only live five per cent so bo long as this in toe yield ol oi investments exists so long as there is ie a coux country itry like great Britts britain iii full of capital seeking employment where the rate of return on really good securities is barely three per cent a year at the plesent time anti and another country speaking the same language closey allied in blood with coues of thought and action in all serious points very similar in which the rate forslund for sound investments is still about five per cent and in the west vastly more the latter will always hold out great attractions for the surplus funds ot of the former mr palgrave shows that the united states offers a better field for investment thau the united kingdom cm om not because we have bave let leta lers a money over here by a great deal as we have more anti and have AM more but for the rascally manner in which silver is treated but because of ours ouis being a 8 new country with a steady form of government with a good soil a good climate and an enterprising race and thus there are so many more openings for the profitable employment ot of money than in so long loag settled a country as that of her majesty he properly considers the advantage the greater as the in investor veLtor comes this way what then the writer asks hinders binders capital from being moved as readily frum loudon london to new york ai from edib burgh to loudon london the reply to is showed to be the very trite one want ol of confidence want of confidence dots not imply absolute doubt as to honesty abny things contribute to besita hesitation tion there are the distance the stories about unscrupulous railway and mining kings the remembrance r mem of default made where complete security was believed to exist it is very easy to blow on american securities because of gross and notorious frauds and to overlook the good and solid tocks which abound here as on that side A certain dashing clashing recklessness of action leads amny english people to pause before brusti trusting ag their money so completely out of their eight this is ia not to be wondered at he thinks and we cheerfully second the statement in this portion of the weird yet winsome west some rather sharp anu and in some P me instances Int rather unscrupulous bulous schemes have been praet practiced iced upon our british cou cousins eJus those who have ever heard beard the history of the eberhardt and aurora mine at white pine navaja have heard an interesting story for a time it yielded silver so nearly pure that the miners were not allowed to emerge from their work with their clothes on so an that none ot of the precious bluff be concealed tout baled this caught johnny bull in great style and was the means of causing him to invest right and left in everything that was waa offered nine times out of ten he was we even heard beard of ane me in which one 01 his offspring was induced to invest in a brass minel mine it was a golden harvest f for r ton america while it lasted and it held on pretty well until tide the wonderful chamber in the emma little cottonwood was worked out then the stream began to di diminish very rapidly anil and while it has not dried up by any mean it is a long way from being what it was mr palgrave says the idea has gone abroad that whenever some wildcat wild cat scheme echeme was too out for wall street it was sent over to bondor Lon dor and that nothing was too bad to deter the engli h investor the badness of the scheme was an index of the largeness of the commission that provided a fund out of which puffing could be liberally paid and with the of similar arts art could make the worse woree appear the better cause just of and yet the badness I of the case is not all there is of it by any mean the people of the west are not greatly dissimilar it in most res respects p acts to people elsewhere and as relates to the desire fur for money are not different at all they are smarter marter 9 when on OD their own soil and playing their own game than others are naturally enough and it behooves englishmen and everybody else to deal with the american speculator with their eyes open and all their faculties in good working order not that as a class clan we are dishonest as that word is commonly understood but because we want the highest price we can got get for what we have to sell nor does it necessarily follow that it if the merits of the article to be disposed of are somewhat exaggerated it is a wilful deception not at all one man is presumed to know as much as another in a general way aud and what he dont donit particular eta that concern him he be is expected to find out most of the woes boes of our relatives beyond the sea came from buying through inexperienced a onto and from making sons of aristocratic stockholders the superintendents of properties when such sons knew no more of the business than they did of the inhabitants of more mars they ought to know by intercourse with books if they have no other means of acquiring knowledge that nature has guarded and still guards her treasures treasure a very zealously that not only to is as much expended expends in the long run as is taken out but a great deal is often put in that is seen no mure more and this through no misrepresentation resen tation or intention intent lou of defrauding but because a tenderfoot can see as far into a mountain as aa the most experienced miner and conditions beyond very often tail fail to be a continuation of conditions in sight further rethey marethey mo ought unanimously to know that brass is nut not a independent metal buts but a compound unit and that aheu they strike ore worta a ton it is not likely to last A little common sense to is a necessity in every calling without it wealth and honesty count for but very little in a practical way |