Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-01-08
SAFEGUARDING
 INVESTMENTS
Prominent Mining Man Does Not Be lieve that Government Supervision Would Be Good Thing-Good and Bad in All.

Present day methods enable mining and engineering men to determine the value of their properties with so much accuracy that there is no occasion what ever for offering them to the public un- til they have been SO thoroughly inves- tigated that their prospective value may be known with reasonable correctness, said Major l.. H. French in New York paper, referring to the sentiment which has arisen in financial circles in favor of curbing by means of federal legisla- ton the many wildcat schemes which have been the accomplishment of the present boom in mining stocks. "The great mining men of the country" con tinued Mir. French, "conduct their en- terprises upon these principles, from which they in no instance depart.
 ''Very frequently companies are formed and stock sold simply on the strength or ownership of mining claims in some favorable locality, but where no development work worth speaking of has been done. This can never be jus tified, even though sucn mines may ulti- mately produce large dividends. That which applies to all other enterprises is equally true of mining investments. Honesty in statements concerning a company, as well as in its later conduct and management, are the only proper guarantees of success. It has been sug. gested that some form of federal con trol may be exercised, so that an inves tigation into the genuineness of mining companies assets may be made before they are permitted to offer stocks to the public. l can hardly see how it would be possible for such control to be exercised, but any plan tending to that result would be more than welcomed by those who put legitimate enterprises be fore the public.
 Reputable concerns in every in stance do everything in their power to protect their clients from unprofitable, unsafe or wildcat schemes.
 Major French, who has long been identified with mining and railroad in terests on the Seward Peninsula of Alaska, and whose energy and push have earned for him the title of "Alaska s Roosevelt" has just return cd to New York from the Greenwater he has recently completed the merger of several rich claims and leases into the NevadaGreenwater Mining & Smel- ting company. It is in this section that Charles NJ. Schwab, Senator w. A.. Clarke, T. l.. Oddie, II. H. Rogers, J. H. Carstairs, F. A. Heinze, the Guggen- helms and other mining experts have invested several millions of dollars.
 In response to an inquiry concern. ing the present boom in that section, Major French said: ''In the present merger the claims constitute an asset which is in no degree speculative, which have cost a great sum of money snd which cannot fail to return tre. mendous dividends for many years. In one instance five veins of copper ore have been uncovered to an extent of 5000 feet in length, l,60O feet deep, and averaging from 8 to 32 per cent in copper.
 Unfortunately, whenever a section is heralded as producing vast sums of money as result of mining, there in- stantly spring up number or so-called mining companies whose only claim to merit IS the fact that they are in the favored locality Such companies rare ly state definitely facts which are sus- eeptible to investigation, and the lack of responsibility on the part of those who father them is usually quite sufi- eient to stamp them as worthless.
 ''lt has been customary for Nevada companies to be formed with million dollars capitalization on the strength of the ownership of single lease. Most such companies have been able to make good and that has lent prestige to the custom. The fact remains, how ever, that such a practice is hardly lc- gitimate; for lease can scarcely be called property sufficient to form the basis of reliable company, no matter how much money such companies may have produced. l regard such leases as wholly speculative and neither more nor less than good gamble.
 II l7 dlhcult 10 properly denounce fake companies in the fact of the fact that most of the Nevada companies which have been formed on such himsy basis as | have referred to have managed to pay large dividends to their stockholders. The fact that southern Nevada has produced so many paying mines is, however, no defense for sell ing to the public millions of shares in companies which are wholly specula- tive and the success of which has been due more to luck and the richness of that section than to careful examina. tion and proper desire to care for the interests of the purchasers of stock. v
 MORALES MAKES PROTEST