The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-11-29
SosrE HINTS o. THE oIL TRADE,

all be on the watch, and note every suspicious
stranger within our city limits
SOHE HINTS on THE OIL TRADE.
Much that is written and published about
the oil business is fitted, II not deliberately de-
signed to misead the public. Most of the
writers who presume to speak very knowingly
on the subject probably never saw an oil
well or a tract of oil territory, while their
statements, for the most part, are got at
secondhand, and often have no better foun-
dation than the Imagination Of some person
| or persons who are to be benefited by them
in the sale at an eXtrayagant price OF piece
of comparatively worthless land.
The oil business, however, is a sober reality,
very different in all respects from those "bub-
| bles" which, at various times and In various
countries, have created temporary excite
ment and then disappeared "lille the baseless
fabric Of a vision" but leaving vast wreck
behind in the ruined fortunes of thousands of
| credulous and infatuated individuals. A cor
respondent Of the London Railicoy Ne,oS, who
has made a tour of the Pennsylvania oil re-
| gions, writes to that paper as iollowS:-
| the scientific men themselves. But facts are
facts, and there is no getting over them, and this
| oil question is one OF the hardest aud Solidest
| that the world has had to deal with for some
| time past. Only fancy something like seventy
| thousand square miles of American territory out
of which the oil starts as naturally as water does
! in other countries. Well, L am not very handy
in figures, but il strikes mo that this is somewhat
about the whole area of England, Scotland, aud
| Wales, and that your Walsend, South Wales, and
| Yorkshire coal fields could be slowed away in
| very small corner Ofthe bituminous oil producing
| region Of the Staes. Talk of the great republic
| being overwhelmed with a few millions of MI
| CHNsE's paper progeny Bah as Mr.. DtsEAELG
said Of your national debt, it is but flea bite.
| Twenty years supply of the petroleum would pay
| all our debts of ana leave handsome balance in
| rhe STATE Golfers"
When it Is said that the on business is over
done, it is not meant that there is an excess OF
oil produced. The demand is far ahead of the
supply, and the price of the article is main
tanned at a high figure. The Oil City Register
in its latest report upon the subject quotes oil
, at the wells at eleven dollars per barrel, ant
adds:-
: awe estimate that the increase in the hom
consumption of the petroleum during the pas
y season, combined with the excess of the foreign
n | exports Of 1864 over 1868, amount TO fully one
third in favor OF the past season There has bee
: no corresponding increase IN the production a
J., we can see. So il our reasoning Is correct, ther
II is great deficiency in the supply as compares
i with the demand, aud this may account in
r measure for the present scarcity and the hig
II prices
h But there is one respect in which the oi
movement is being "run into the ground.
There is too much purely speculative opera
tion going on. Parties are dealing rather il
20 oil lands and oil stocks than in oil tseli
W Many OF the companies that are formed haY
le no intention to develop their property, bu
1T only to realize an enormous advance on tn
ID sum they paid for iC aud then leave the pur
I'd chasers to make out olit what they please.
a, is also notorious that many Of the organiza
ie tlons whose stock is on the market, and VIII
W have even declared menthly dividends, ar
r not working their lands with proper energ
20 and economy, ana consequently the stock dc
Al clines in value and the dividends cease.
ir few men get suddenly rich, slip quietly out {
It the concern to go into something fresh, Whil
N a majority of the shareholders find themselye
Al "stuck" with large amount Of stock that ha
" sunk very much below what it originally COS
,r them.
r. Another grave mistake has been made /
l.; the organizing Of oil companies. The capita
y and number oil shares have been too large
l. while the par value Of the stock has been ais
+ proportlono,ely low, and then consldcrabl
s discounted in favor Of original subscriber,
& All this is unWise, II not positively dishonest
few companies recently formed on nov
forming, are proceeding on sounder basis
They have but a small number Of shares il
proportion 10 their capital, increase the pa
value relatively, and dispose Of no stock t
, any persons below that price. The "Dlu
, Creek on Company Of Pennsylvania" ant
the "Tar and Scott Farm ON Company,
both new corporations, are founded and TO b.
conducted on the principle named.
But, after all said and done, the only Tul
. and sure ground Of profit in the oil trade f
{ production. No matter what amount O.
: territory a corporation may own, or what may
, be lis character, or how large the capital, th,
f number Of shares and the price Of the stock
, It may be laid down as an axiom that the rea
source OF success and emOlumen. at last lies IN
the oil ITSELF and that must be brought out Of tn,
/ bowels Of the earth by boring, There are com
D panies now whose stock is far below its actua
: value, only because the right efforts have moi
e been made to develop their lands. This sor
a OF mismanagement on the part oil directors
and their agents is discrelitable 10 themseYe,
= and most unjust TO those who have bought
. their stock under assurances that Lhe Interests
y o. ihe concern would be faithfully and vigo
10 rously promoted. In short the companies