Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-07-30
COPPER
STOCK HISTORY
THOMAS LAWSON TELLS HOW HE
INTERESTED THE STAND
ARD OIL AND PUBLIC.
FOUND COPPER INDUSTRY
MADE 100 PER CENT RETURN.
Went After Big Game-Strike in the
Helena and Frisco-The Bam-
boo Chief.

Butte speculators in copper mining
shares who invested largely upon III
advice of Broker Thomas w. Lawson Of
Boston will be interested in the follow
ing interview with him. in which he gives
an account of how he interested the
Standard Oil people and the general pub
Tic in copper stocks. Said he:
Fol several years I had been conduct
Ding an investigation in the copper indus
TRY. I found that it would be a solid,
tangible industry, of the greatest in
the world. I ound that one pound of
copper which anyone could take out of
the ground for six or seven cents could
be solid at its place of consumption for IL
and IA cents. In other words, I found
that there was a profit of 100 per cent I
legitimate business. When I learned this
| locked around TO FIND why large capital
had not been invested in it.
Il Learned that the big investors in
America regarded 1T as a gambling game
and would mot touch lit and thai the Bos-
ton men had educated them to that be-
lief. This led me ito believe that the cop
per industry itself made a return of 100
per cent; that 1T was as safe and sure an
investment as the 6 or 8 per cent. in steel.
Second, that I could interest capital in
the working copper mines of the United
States.
80 I started out to- educate capitalists
'~S L VA IVO oOCCulp(
ITO Interest them in the undiscovered or
undeveloped mines, as is being lone to-
day. / went to five or six men who con-
troll more than that number of millions.
I said:
eff you let me go out and invest $780,
O0O, 600 In improved copper mines I will
bring you back stocks of ownership that
have copper enough ahead so that you
can go and see the stored UP dividends
to make 1t absolutely sure that earnings
will continue indefinitely and give re-
turns of rs to 40 per cent. ON the invest
menft. That being so and we find that we
have 500, 000, 900 invested in such prop
erty we IAN educate the investors of the
world as to surety and legitimacy of the
investment and Immediately the result
will be brought abou that capital will
compete for h ownership of the prop
erty Until vt has rum the return from Is
Ito 40 per cent. to five or seven. and there
fore, when this IFS accomplished, the prop
erty can be recapitalized on the basis of
it's re~modernization and the 800. 900. 900
will swell into $500. 00O. 0O0.'"
This talk I a with the men of many
millions just four years ago. H. H.
Rogers and John D. Rockefeller. Stand
ard Oil kings. said:
Lawson. you must be crazy
But l told them to investigate and
think it over. So after they had given
the matter exhaustive research they
oAAN " lily way VI llIhllI dlIu LO-udy
/ can say that I absolutely demonstrated
I was right in every word I said.
"Then you could have gone into the
market and purchased Montana at $50
a share and 1t had just raised from s25.
You could purchase Anaconda at 500,
Calumet & Hecla at $225. and others in
the same proportion. To-day Montana Is
sitter at 300 than it was at so. Amazon
da, with its 1000. 900 shareholders. is
stronger at 40 than It was then at 20.
Calumet & Hecla is in greater demand
at $50 than 1t was at 225: so the increase
of these three pieces of property alone
a Montana, $45, 900, 900: Anaconda,
$4S, 00O, 900; Calumet & Hecla, $73, 600, 900,
an aggregate of $166. 900. 900.
These men of wealth and I started i'm
q broad systematic Wayne speculation
or boom, but in an earnest effort to put
the industry on a basis commensurate
with its worth. having the standard Of
capital and modern methods. Now, then.
to bring this property into the eyes of the
world I paid $500, 900 for advertisements
or proclamations, in the newspapers, CIT
ing the alu of this property as an In
vestment. For fifteen months my mail
averaged $4,000 letters a day. This was
during the boom fifteen months ago.
''Then an unlocked for thing happened.