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Show Vol. I, No. SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, NOVEMBER 30, 1901. 12. Other periodically and severe penaltes should be prescribed and enforced against those furnishing incorrect information. It may be said that mine owners would not submit to such regulations, on the ether hand the exchange is Thunder Mountain as containing the but not obliged to list their stocks unless greatest gold deposits in the world. do so. Where everything is square they Great mountains of ore, the boundaries above board there should be no and of which are so vast that they cannot to reasonable regulations, objection be determined. One of the w'onders stocks listed and under those condiof the mining world, so vast that it would be with the pubfavorites tions is beyond the comprehension of the while would the lic, propositions shady human mind. The story is published be and those their neglected, buying in the three Salt Lake dailies under to would slock have themselves only the scare The heads. biggest if blame bitten. get they same thing is done in Denclearing-hous- e A stock exchange ver and it is sent to as many Eastso should be that dealers established, ern papers as will take the stuff. The in to show stocks both would have story is systematically followed up stock certificates and cash. up Wash with circumstantial details and in due sales would be impossible. A reasontime samples of ore appear. All this able should be fixed which margin is done on the authority of the proto adhere be should brokers required fessor, whoever he may be, and whatfor and not to, high protection enough ever his qualifications to speak with so aboas to business. The stop high authority are. of in lition futures trading might be In the course of time, following the time a confidence for until salutary usual custom, the promoter will apis restored, but it should not be necespear. He will have a bond and lease sary to abolish that feature of tradon the Thunder, and probably on the ing altogether. lightning too. The reporters will lay for him at the hotels, probably meet him at the depot in the various towns he visits. The El Dorado story will The public is not altogether blamebe indefinitely continued. The merless for the demoralization which chant, the storekeeper, the clerk, the came about. The speculators who public have no time to personally investigate the merits of the property. either bought on margins or paid for Reports of its boundless wealth will the stock are much in the same boat be drummed into them so thoroughly as the fool who goes to a gambling-hous- e that they will believe them. They will and loses his money and who put their money into the stock and has enough of the yellow in his comeven if Thunder Mountain turns out a to get out and squeal and position fairly good gold producing region they have the gambling-hous- e keeper, will have paid dear for the stock. Utah whose set to win fool out the money Mountains Thunder has had several he if arrested. in could, True, many which have gone into nocious desuecases in stocks the didnt speculator tude. This particular Thunder Mouna square deal. Jobs and combinatain may be all that is claimed for it, get were entered into which made it tions but the investor should emulate the impossible for him to win and at the example of the Missourian and require same time hurt the mining industry to be shown before putting his money of the State. Thats where the great into it. evil came in, and for the protection of legitimate industries the skin games If a customer goes to a broker and should be effectually stopped. gives an order for stock it is no part of the broker's business or duty to reMoney men and men of experience fuse to buy it for him or even to disa mining proposition do not alin courage him. If he did so he would mean success. The Tesora is an probably get no thanks for his advice ways of that. Accidents and unforeand the customer would take his busi- example seen circumstances arise which noness elsewhere. The mining exchange body can guard against The Tesora it is believed is a meritorious property, can, however, prescribe rules and regulations to be lived up to by parties and barring the influx of water and listing their properties on the ex- other bad luck would ' be shipping ore. change. It ought to do so for its own its reputation and the protection of expatrons. Some idea of how the Five carloads of ore aggregating 150 change has suffered may be found from the fact that seats on the ex- tons from the O. K. mine in Beaver change whch were difficult to get at county reached the samplers a few for days ago. It netted the. company about $850 can now be easily purchased in $15,000. It ran 40 per cent in copper. $450 or $500, and the chances are favor of a further reduction. For its y own protection the exchange should adopt new rules, and the governing Great activity is reported from board is being opportuned by the honest brokers to do something in that Stateline. The Ophir has 300 men at direction. The first and most importwork. At the Margaret drifting is beant thing to be done is to demand that all mines listed shall be open to pub- ing done through five feet of $14 gold lic inspection at stated periods, say ore. A big force is at work on the one day a week, and that the owners Alice. The Big Fourteen has let a must submit to an nspection of the contract to sink the shaft 100 feet more carry it down to the property periodically by an expert em- st which will At the Johnny the contracmark. shall ployed by the exchange, who submit to an inspection of the tors are progressing satisfactorily in sinking the shaft an additional 300 feet property for the use of the exchange Miand drifting is also progressing. At and the guidance of the public. the mill is treating the Horseshoe to the be should required ning companies furnish a statement of their finances usual amount of ore, and from $25,000 frauds than Brokers. Notwithstanding the criticism which this paper for the past six or seven weeks has made of the mining exchange and the schemes put up by a number of the brokers to lower or raise the price of mining stocks regardless of the merits of the mines, it is not meant that brokers are the only parties to blame for the utter demora-of lization which has been the feature the market for weeks. The promoters of companies in many instances are as the stock brokers, just as dishonest A whose games have been exposed. the backed by smart, plausible fellow', necessary capital, gets an option on a group of mining claims of more or less value. He and his associates immediately proceed to organize a company. They tell the newspaper reporters fairy tales of the marvelous wealth of their property. The columns the daily papers are open to them of ' for any amount of slush they like to pour into them from day to day, week to week and month to month, until by constant hammering and ingenious and varied repetition of the same alleged facts the public become convinced that the properties are real bonanzas. At an opportune time the incorporation is launched, the stock is allotted to the favored friends of the promoters, invariably friends who have money. They add their quota to talk and booming of the property, and when the allotments are made the public is eager to get the stock at 50 per cent or 100 per cent above the allotment price. The original holders, who are generally in the scheme, feed it to them as fast as they will take it without breaking the price. When the big fellows get out the price begins to fall, and continues to do so until the stock gets to its normal value. Stock manipulated in that way, even if the mine has merit, is dear to the public. The promoters get probably a cash bonus of $25,000. $100,000 cr more, according to the magnitude of the scheme, for floating the company, and probably an allotment of stock as well. All that comes from the price at which it is sold to the public, and the mine is not only that much too dear, but the amount of the premium paid on the original allotment as well. It is only In rare instances that even meritorious properties can continue long to pay dividends representing fair interest on an amount two or three times their legitimate value. The large dividends continue long enough to enable the original holders to get out; then they are either reduced or stopped altogether. The holders become discouraged and dump their stock on the market, which aids the brokers who have shorted the stock In getting down the price. Reformation is needed among promoters and some mine own-er- s as much as it Is in the mining exchange. 4- - An example of how the newspapers ai e worked may be seen in the story, which savors very much of hot air, of the Price 5 Cents. Thunder Mountain region and its untold and untenable wealth. On the authority of some one who is dubbed a professor the most lurid story is telegraphed out describing . ' -- 220-fo- ot fur-mu- to $30,000 worth of cyanides are being marketed monthly. The new crushing rollers and tables for the California mill have arrived and are being put in place. 4 The St. Joe Mining company is in the throes of litigation. Three suits, the results of disputes among the stockholders,,, are now pending. The results of the May Day new concentrating mill are so satisfactory that the most persistent hammering of the bears fails to knock the stock dowm below the figures It has been selling it for some weeks. The May Days stock, but for the pernicious methods of the mining exchange, would be selling in the neighborhood of $2 a share Instead of $1. An unusually large amount of work is being done on the Uncompahgre gil- sonite locations, and without opposition from the Indians. J. D. Wood of the Daly-We- st and J. E. and Simon Bamberger have purchased a group of six and ten mining claims fourteen miles west of Battle Mountain, Nev., and will at once begin active development. The Utah smelters can handle 3,850,-00- 0 pounds of copper ore a month, producing 1,840,000 pounds of the metal. . 4,4 Willard J. Snyder, president of the WesternExploration company, has returned from a months business trip in . the East. Joe Bush has made some locations of promising ground in the Birch Creek district, Ida., and will soon go there to prosecute development work. 4 44 The Powers Mining and Milling company has been organized with a capital stock of 300,000. shares of the .par value of 10 cents a share. The company owns the Josephine group of claims In Beaver county, ore from which has been obtained carrying 28 per cent lead, twenty ounces silver, $22 in gold and from 40 per cent to 60 per cent iron. M. L. Powers is president of the comH. pany; R. G. Wilson, Barnett, secretary and treasurer, who, with G. J. Field and Theodore Meyer, form the directorate. vice-preside- nt; For the purpose of developing the Belcher and Brooklyn group of three mining claims, situated in Ophir district, the Belcher Copper Mining company was organized in this city yesterday with a capital of $80,000, in shares. William Kelly is president, David Edmunds, 10-ce- vice-preside- nt; nt |