The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1879-12-02
STOCK DEALING REFORM.

The movement on the part of certain San
Francisco stock operators to secure a reform
in the management of the bonanza mines, IS
q tardy but highly necessary and important
step in the right direction. 1t is charged by
the indignant body of small capitalists, who
convened last week for hat purpose, that
valuable discoveries of ore have been covered
up, that work has been prosecuted where
there was no possibility of finding ore, that
machinery has been pulposely disabled, that
water, which might have been pumped out,
has been allowed to accumulate and retard
operations, and that when the known profits
warranted the declaration of dividends, as
sessments were levied, thus defrauding stock
holders out of their just dues. That these
charges are in the main based upon fact, no
one who has watched the auctuation of the
stock or is at all conversant with the methods
of the bonanza kings, will pretend conscien-
tiously to dispute.
1t seems that all ordinary business rules
should be reversed when dealing in Comstock
shares, a sound judgment being of no earthly
advantage to the investor. A man may pay a
visit of inspection to some Bonanza mine in
whose stock he is DESTROYS of specializing,
and may assure himself by personal examina-
ton of the richness and inexhaustible char
acter of the ore deposits. Convinced that
the proposed investment is safe and profitable,
he buys stock with every dollar he is worth
and within a week perhaps is Mortified and
crushed by discovering that the stock, instead
of taking a boom, has deprecated to such an
extent that he is hopeIessly bankrupt and that
from a position of possible a%tfiuence he has
descended to the depths of Calling poverty.
Thousands of similar cases are of daily oc-
currence in all parts of the coast where this
speculative mania has obtained a foothold,
and when it is known that a few inside men
own and control the entire machinery of
bonanza stocks and are solely responsible for
the many evils resulting from its dishonest
manipulation, any measure having for its
object the suppression of that villainous busi-
ness should receive the hearty encouragement
of all upright men. However, it being es-
tablished that the smaller shareholders are
shamefully swindled and that they have good
and sufficient cause for ~denouncing Flood
and his abettors, it next becomes an interest
ing question, what are they going to do about
it? To call an occasional Indignation meet
ing for the purpose of giving the moneyed
monarchs a good square cussing will be pro-
ductive of no desired results, for no matter
how concluslvely it may be proved that the
victims of their wrath are a combination of
INSCRIPTIONS and dishonest sharks. it would
be difficult in this advanced stage of ~civiliza-
ton, where money is the supreme power in
the land, to belittle them in the estimation OF
the public or to shame them into granting
any concessions in relation to the wrongs
enumerated. 1t is equally improbable that
the evils can be rectified through the medium
of the courts, for the reason that mining de-
| cisions in Nevada are usually favorable to the
party possessing the most money.
The safest and speediest method for obtain
ing a redress of grievances is within the easy
reach of the small Spectators themselves.
So as long as they deal in stock controlled by
Flood d Co., so long will Flood Il Co. con.
tinue to fleece them. If the army of small
investors will use their money in other direc'
tions the inside men would be compelled tc
change their tactics. If the mines are bono
fde bonanzas, they would most likely be
worked legitimately; if they are wild cats, OF
if the ore is exhausted, all further develop
ment would cease. In either event the out
side spectators would gain the required
knowledge .:and might thereafter invest theil
means with a better prospect Of making
money.