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Show if I The Mining Mar Kef jfor the year. w Utah mining stocks were well on the home I I stretch, to use a racing term, before they got I I down into, the harness and bcgain to show what I p ' .they could do in the way of price-making. The f year 1905 'has been full of glad surprises in the , mining camps of the state. There has been no I j j ; pause in the underground development and no I month has passed without discoveries that cheered I the hearts of the miners, but, for various reasons, I J1 the prices of stocks have been slow to catch the B I step, and keep pace . with the material improve- t j ment o'f the properties upon which they are I : based. I The upward sweep of prices in 1901 raised the I j -valuation of many mines beyond the possibility 1 of dividends, and at the same time imparted a fic- H titious Value to claims that could not even be Hi called mines. In the reaction which followed not Hi only were the worthless stocks wiped off the H ! board, but the really meritorious exploitations HI ' were discredited. The good suffered with the bad. H From over-valuation the market went to the ex- Hl treme of undervaluation. The effect was to dis- H courage the development of promising prospects. HI Companies which depended for the prosecution of HI work upon sales of treasury stock were, in many H ;cases, forced to close down. Those which levied Hi assessments in order to keep things going found HI many of their stockholders unable or unwilling H to make the necessary advances. Sales of delin- H quent stock tended to further bear the market. H Outside investors turned their attention to other H lines of indusry. Mining stock brokers assigned H ' or voluntarily went out of business. The stocks H ;; became dull and inactive and the exchange lapsed H i into a state of coma. Such was the condition in H i which it was found by the year now closing. The H ' local exchange was kept alive only by the op- H ! timism of a few persistent brokers and the steady H progress of the work in the field. The condition H of affairs resulted in many anomalies and para- H i, doxes, some of which have been commented upon H , by Goodwin's Weekly from week to week. There H seemed to be no connection between the physical H condition of mines and the stocks by which they H were represented on the market. After an im- H portant strike the market value of a share was as H i likely to go down as up; stocks declined in the Hj ' face of increasing demands and advanced when Hj ; the demand declined. All the rules of trade and HI 'i all the lessons of experience were discredited. H Such variations were, it was evident, purely specu- lative and cynics were inclined to denounce the brokers. It may be said now, in justice to a much-maligned much-maligned profesi, jn, that the enterprise of the brokers in maintaining speculative trading during the dark days when there was little or no legitimate legiti-mate business, was all that kept the exchange, alive, and made possible the revival that was manifested mani-fested near the close of the year. There came a time when the steady output of mineral wealth and the generous distribution of profits could not longer be ignored. The fire of adversity had purged the stock list of undesirable shares and the public, halting at first, but with increasing confidence, took hold of the desirable offerings. The market immediately righted itself and the laws of business reasserted themselves. The price column again became sensitive to the news from the field. Demand and supply again dictated the rise and fall of the financial mercury. No one can positively predict the course of any market. If he could he could make the kings of finance look like hobos on a stone pile. The elements that influence markets are so varied that no human mind can take them all into account. But, to judge according to the usual standards, the mining stock market has several months of prosperity before it. The stocks now offered are, if anything, undervalued, and, with the development develop-ment which will be made possible by the advantageous ad-vantageous sales of treasury holdings and the ready payment of assessments, should constantly increase in intrinsic worth. The danger signal need not be hung out until the market is invaded by the parasitic shares which live upon the achievements of legitimate ventures. Such an invasion is sure to come, but, if the brokers are wise and the public cautious, the evil day may be long postponed. The advance in prices which began about the first of September has been so generally distributed distrib-uted through the list that a mention of the shares which have benefitted would include practically all of the active stocks on the market. There are, however, a few companies which have been so noticeably no-ticeably fortunate that they deserve special mention. men-tion. There is Columbus Con., for instance. This share did not appear on the board at all until a few weeks ago. It was then selling below a dollar. dol-lar. Improving conditions at Alta and the increasing in-creasing equipment of the Columbus have furnished fur-nished the stimulus which has lifted the share to $3.25 at this writing. Little Bell, whose as- : . .m-:- -v,t,. , . r J toni3hing strike at Park City has been the sensational sensa-tional feature of the camp for some weeks, began be-gan the year at 50 cents bid. It is now selling at better than $4. Daly-Judge, although still idle and to all intents and purposes in the same condition as it was last January, is selling at $7.50. It was quoted at $4.50 at the beginning of the yaor. Little Chief is still a low-priced Tintic share, but has doubled in value since the beginning of the year, when it was offered at 2 cents. Carisa has gone from 10 to 20 cents, Ajax from 11 to 18 and Lower Mammoth from 6 to 37. Few stocks have had a more checkered career ,in 1905 than New York Bonanza. It has occupied occu-pied the center of the stage for a longer period than any other single stock, but has of late been compelled to yield precedence to new attractions. New York began the year at about 40 cents a share. A strike on the eighth level gave every indication of. permanency, and a flood of buying orders poured in from Park City. This demand stimulated the price until the stock reached the dollar mark, and some of its devotees were hold--ingitfor$2. But, alas, poor New Yorrick! The strike on the eighth level contained high values, but was soon exhausted. The absence of smelter returnr. iad a depressing effect on buyers, and the price of stock, after hovering about the dollar mark for some time, sank almost as quickly as it had risen. The closing month of the year finds it selling around 17, though there is no reason to believe be-lieve that it will remain at such a low figure much longer. New York has good ground, and the coming year may see it at a higher level than it has yet attained. An advance in prices means very little in the stock market unless it is accompanied by a corresponding cor-responding growth in the number of orders. In this respect, also, the dying year, and especially the last three months, give a good account of themselves. At the close of business on December Decem-ber 13, the number of shares that changed owners during the year was 7,019,686. For the whole of the preceding year the shares sold numbered 6,551,755. The value of the shares sold in 1905 was $1,871,562.97, while in 1905 the total amount paid to date has been $2,050,361.46. The record compiled by Secretary Shorten of the exchange shows November to have been the banner month, j with $282,092 paid for stock. April came next with $248,931.53, and October followed with $204,-545.77. $204,-545.77. January was the poorest month, with the sum of mining stock transactions reduced to $105,202.54. Back of the exchange stands the brawny miner and the eternal hills, and to these the brokers and investors must look for still greater returns in 1906. While Bingham copper camp has been a leader in the development year just closing, newer fields are after its laurels, and it is hard to say what camp will occupy first place in another year. Alta, Park City, Tintic, Beaver county, the La Sals and Deep Creek are all in the running. The last named will gain an immense advantage in the race from the building of the Western Pacific, and there is hardly a question that its thriving prospects pros-pects will add materially to the mineral wealth of the state within the next two or three years. Smelting facilities have been increased in many quarters, and another twelve months will witness far greater expansion in this respect. The latest announcement is that the company which has taken over the independent smelting plant at Sa- icTa, Colo., will come into the Utah field backed by millions and add to the life of the miners' trade by giving healthy competition to the American 5 Smelting & Refining company. |