Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1907-01-07
C0PfIE LITIGATION
NOW BEING PLANNED
A Movement to Throw That Famous
Property Into the Courts to Reetify
The Methods of its Exploitation.

The groundwork is being laid OF 4
plan to throw the Copete Mining con-
pany into litigation. a piece Of new
that is of great interest locally. both
because a great many Of the stockhold-
ers reside in Arizona and a great many
Arizonians who are not stockholders.
know the history of the Copete and the
value of the mine
To make plain the purpose Of the suit
it will be necessary to repeat a little
Of the history of the operations thai
have attended the exploitation Of thy.
mine. In the first place the property
Is admitted by many good authorities
among them Horace ]. Stevens. 10 b.
a mine of great value. proved mine
as ii were, and the only reason il is
not paying dividends is because II H.
not being worked. The title to the
property rests i'm the Melczer mining
company. a Mexican corporation la
Sonora and in which company the late
William Melczer of this city was an
important figure.
To operate the property the Copetc
Mining company was organized unde.
the laws of West Virginia. with prin-
Logan of that city being a controlling
influence in this organization. Thu
entire capital stock Of the Melczer
Mining company was turned over to
the Copete Mining Co. as it customary
in the operations of American capital
on Mexican soil The assets of the
Melczer Co. were the mining properties
and the assets of the COpete Co. were
entirely the stock of the Melczer Co
After this was done great deal Of
stock of the Copete was sold. There
was great confidence in the property
and the stock advanced in value until
some of il was exchanged as high as
SIS per share. Nevertheless the prop
erty was not worked extensively. Va
rious reasons were given. all the way
from shortage of funds to local
I troubles. Yaquis, etc, but il seems now
to be the belief of the dissatisfied
stockholders, that Mr.. Logan had a
purpose in not wanting the mine
worked. As shall appear in the next
step. it was TO his advantage To allow
the stock to depreciate in value and
the company to become just as "hari
up" as possible.
The next move on the part of Mr..
Logan, president of the COpete. was
to organize the Copete Consolidated
Copper Co. a corporation in which h
owned or controlled personally, a very
large and controlling interest. Early
in April this year an alleged authOriZ-
[ ed agreement was made and signed b.
Mr.. Logan as president of the COpets
Co. and Myra B. Martin as treasurer
Of the COpete Consolidated Co. Under
this agreement all the stock Of the
Melczer Mining Co. then owned by the
Copete Mining Co, was turned over
and transferred TO the Copete COnsOli-
dated Co. together with the control OF
the Melczer Mining Co. One OF the al
legged considerations of the transfer
on the part. of the Consolidated. was to
supply the Melczer Mining Co. with the
funds necessary to carry the property
to dividend paying and self support
ing point. Another alleged consider
alton of this transfer was that after
the Copete Consolidated had received
back the money it advanced to work
the mine with interest at six per cent.
the later profits of the Copete either by
production or sale of stock. should be
divided evenly between the COpete and
the Copete Consolidated. Assuming.
for illustration. that this had been car
ried out and the mine became a big
dividend payer, Mr.. Logan and assO-
ciates, who were in control Of both the
Copete Consolidated and the COpete.
would take half the profits for their
Consolidated company and also share
propOrtionately to the amount Of the
controlling stock they held in the re
manning half which went to the COpete
proper. 1t seemed the organization o.
the Consolidated was merely to give
Mr. Logan and his associates half the
profits clear. after getting back the
original money invested and before di-
viding with their associates. the small
Ter stockholders in the Copete.
But these things did not come Ia
pass. one reason being that Mr.. Logan
died shortly after and his stock hold
ings Of course were tied up in his es-
tate.
Now comes the smaller stockholders.
and particularly the Arizona stock
holders. who seek TO protect them
selves by litigation that will ces,roy
the Copete Consolidated. or at least re-
store the conditions that existed be
IOre It's Organization IL Il tohteil4eA
that the mine is proved and that ample
money could be raised by the COpet-
Co. proper To finance il. without
throwing half the profits of the mine
into the pockets Of third purely spec
ulative company, and that when form
er conditions are restored, the Cope
stock. which by its association with
the Consolidated (the gilt edged) has
fallen to ten cents a share. will be IT.
stored to its normal and real value.
These stockholders have issued
circular letter to other stockholders o.
the COpete Mining Co, in which the
say they have complete remedy at Law
and propose TO take advantage Of g.
They allege a complete failure OF thu
considerations on which the agreement
between the COpete and the COpet.
Consolidated was founded. They con-
tend that the agreement in the frs
place is vOidable and secondly. that 3D.
it were not vOidable from its natura.
the fact that il has not been kept b.
the Consolidated would make it so. J.
is proposed to bring suit in New York
where the principal office Of the com
pany is located. to abrOgate this agree