Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-06-05
Another Mining Bubble.

Fourteen hundred people, mostly Chi
cagoans, who were holders OF stock in
S1U,OOOOOO corporation known as the
Amador Mining and Development Com
pany, o. Montana, supposed until yes
terday that they were part proprietors
in a profitable producer Of gold and cop
per- Now they know that the property
in which they invested was hole In the
ground, and that the $65O,OOO which they
Jointly contributed went to pay fictitious
dividends and maintain a constituencies
promoter.
The bubble was a bubble from the
first, but six years elapsed between the
time when the promoter, ID. T.. Mackln-
non, began to blow it and the time
when it burst. The discovery that the
mine was worthless resulted from an
investigation conducted by George Lii,
a Chicago coal dealer, who is vice presi-
dent of the company He and possibly
all the other officers of the company
were ignorant of it's affairs until he made
the investigation which demonstrated
that in all the six years of booming and
stock selling only five carloads of ore
had been taken out of the mine.
There was a good show of machinery
at the Amalor mine" and some Of the
money paid in by purchasers of stock
went for this. Some of the rest of their
money went for excursions of confident
investors who viewed the property and
reported favorably upon its condition and
prospects. There was also a consider
able outlay for the printing of literature
relating to the mine and for the rent
and furnishing and running expenses of
offices.
The price of stock in the mine rose
from 10 cents a share in 1902 to $3.50 in
1906. Mackinnon went to Boston a year
ago to continue his work of exploitation.
and recently offered to sell his share of
| the mine at the sacrifice price of $780,
| OOO 1t was in looking into the value
| of his stock that the officers discovered
| the worth1esSness of their own. They
engaged F. Gushing Moore, a mining
engineer, to make an investigation of
the property. which he did. He re-
ported that it was absolutely worthless,
and that further development would only
| increase the gigantic sum already stand
| ing to the debit side of its account.
The officers of the property are losers,
| with the other stockholders. Vice Presi-
dent Lii. who instituted the investiga-
ton. is seemingly the heaviest loser, his
stock holdings amounting to $4,000.
One of the lessons of the collapse is
| that men should refrain from accepting
| the responsibilities of office-holding in
corporations with whose affairs they are
not perfectly familiar. 1t is not i'm
probable that a large part of Mackin-
mons success in floating the stock of
his bubble enterprise was due to the
| high reputation of the men whom he
secured for officers of the company.
1t Is often remarked that mining ought
now to be less hazardous than formerly,
| because of the scientific methods by
which it can be carried on. Modern
methods make many mines profitable
which could not be worked to advantage
| quarter of a century ago. The trouble
| is that many exploiters who pretend
| to be working mines are really working
| investors. and they are foolishly aided
| by men who are honest but not keen
and who lend their names as officers and
| directors without any solid knowledge of
| the character of the enterprise.
Sometimes these decoy ducks are
among the heaviest losers by a sham
mine. But that is not a sufficient con-
| ISOLATION for other losers who have been
| enticed to invest by the prestige of
the names of those holding offices of the
company or places on the board of di-
! rectors. Evening Wisconsin, Milwaukee.