The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1865-03-21
investments in Petroleum Stocks.

Investments in Petroleum Stocks.
Mr.. EDrroE:-The papers are as full Of PEE
troleum and dazzling invitations TO inyest, ~
ever were the Maryland papers 81 ioslely
schemes. Many of my neighbors are plopos-
Ing to invest their small earnings "a snese new
stocks, and as am somewhat sIl'cted win
oll on the BRAIN" write TINS Drlei nu,e ~
Letting your advice in the matter. WIN you
give it through the Press, and oblige hun
dreds who. liks myself, are anxious for more
light n Would you advise those having from
one to Eve hundred dollars laid aside, to in
vest in oil stocks or in 7-30s?
Yours truly, OXFORD.
So candid note from gentleman in mod
crate circumstances-as we know the writer
to be-deserves a candid answer, and SO far as
we are able such an answer shall be given. In
the first place We will say that we have no
prejudices against or in favor of any particu-
Lar Petroleum company. For the purposes of
this article we are willing to admit that they
are all honorably conducted, and that no de,
sign is entertained by Companies, Directors
or Agents, of quilting or humbugging the pub
lie, or of taking in the flats" We have moth
ing to do with motives. .s4f4 = q
We do not know who should invest in oil
stocks; we propose only 70 state who should
not, and perhaps may refer to few classes
who may; not who should.
!. No young man who has commenced bust
ness, and is still struggling to get good foot
+ hold among business men, should touch these
stocks They are all precarious, aud be can
afford to run no risks.
2. NO business man who is in debt should
invest, for while his obligations to others re-
main uncaneelled, he has no moral right to
trife with his only sure means of discharging
his Indebtedness.
B. No man who has the benefit Of his
friends names on his paper should invest, un-
less he lays the matter before those friends and
acts not only with their full knowledge. but
with their cheerful consent.
A. No funds held in trust for orphaned or
minor children, should be thus appropriated,
for the hazard is altogether too great.
5. No money should be withdrawn from any
legitimate business, to purchase stocks Of this
Kind, because Ii is too much like abandoning
q certainty for an uncertainty.
Q. No poor man, or man with dependent
family, having few hundred dollars laid aside,
isjustihed in putting his means into such COM
panies, because failure of success is sure to
result in personal discomfort if not absolute
suffering. fsfs ~ 4,5a
The widow, the orphan, the poor man, who
have few hundreds saved up, and who wish
to make their small sums increase. but who
can afford to take no risks, in our Judgment
do no hot fha,, ~
are perfectly safe, which pay the best interest
known in any legitimate funds, and which are
exempt from taxation. More than this; they
are available at par or ut a premium at any
moment when needed, while the coupons, paw
able twice yearly, are taken at their face at
any bank in the State. -
: Now who mag invest in oil stocks9 Let ms
say here, that we may not be misunderstood,
that we have no sympathy for that spirit
which scouts every new enterprise, and turns
up its nose at all attempts to develope new
interests and to exhume the hidden of earta's
treasures. This spirit imprisoned Calico,
prosecuted Harvey, frowned on Watt, sneered
at Fulton. ridiculed Morse; it would have
discouraged the railroad and the canal, wou Id
lowed Sir John Franklin's fate to remain in
mystery, and would close down on commerce :;
1t would have kept forever sealed the mines of
Californis, and clipped the wings of those who
have scaled the Rocky Mountains from the
East and the Sierra Nevada from the West. to
bring to light the hidden riches of Nevada
Idaho, and the region of the Great Salt Lake.
We are glad to see the oil wells made to
spout their rich treasures, and shall not re-
greet to see the whole Allegheny valley be-
come one vast honeycomb, If by such a labor
the world shall continue to be supplied with
petroleum as 1t has beenfor the last two years
or more. But.who shall incur the expense and
the risks of such a works That is the q ues-
ton. AS we have said, who should do it we
will not attempt TO say, but who mag do so is
easily answered. And,
!. Men who have neither families to suffer.
business to ruin, nor small means to lose, may
safely turn their attention to the oil regions
as in years past they have to the GOLD mines.
2. Men of capital, whose means are album
dant aud who can afford, without embarrass-
ment, to invest their money, may safely give
attention to this enterprise. --sNf
8. Business men who have become so firmly
established in their business that they can set
apart money for speculation, without teel-
Ing the need of it in their legitimate opera
lions, are justified in Striking oil' if they
cam, ~----- III.
4. In word, the man In business or out of
business, who feels that what he invests he can
afford to lose, and that its absolute loss will
not embarrass him in any way or involve the
interests of others, is safe in putting money
into precarious stocks. No other man Is {; and
so here our advice endeth. %