Weekly journal-miner., 1909-11-03
RAY CENTRAL MAN IS
 DECIDEDLY OPTIMISTIC


 years ago not one mining stock was handled on the New York curb; for the last two years 95 per cent of the business done by the curb brokers has been in mining stocks. If it were not for this business in mining shares the traders would starve. {"
 So spoke Oscar A. Turner, vice president of the Ray Central Mining company, who arrived in the city last night from New York. MT. Turner is on his way. to the Ray Central mine on a regular trip of inspection and expects to return to Phoenix about Sunday.
 The former address of Mir. Turner was Baltimore, but he recently re- moved his office to 42 Broadway, New York. Gotham, he says, is the center of the mining industry in the United States Nearly all the impor- tant companies have offices in that city. ....
 "I should have moved to New York five years ago." he remarked. "That is where most of the big min ing deals are swung and where min ing stocks are bought and sold"
 The building in which MT. Turner has his office contains the head of fees of mining companies with to- tai capitalization of more than three quarters of a billion dollars. In no other building in the world is any thing like that sum in mining invest ments represented.
 Among the mining companies at 42 Broadway are the Federal Lead com pany. better known as the lead trust; the General Development company and all the LewishOhn interests, the Amalgamated Copper company, U. s. Smelling and Refining company, Uni ted Metals Selling company, the Cole Ryan interests, which include the Greene-Cananea Copper company, the Calumet and Arizona and Giroux Cop per company; AnaeOnda Mining com pany, the Guggenheim, W. A. Clark and NJ. L. Smith corporations and a number of others. In addition tO/ these several large companies have of fees in other buildings and the of fees of smaller concerns are scatter ed over New York.
 No one is more familiar with the growth of the mining industry during the last few years than NIT. Turner. He is largely responsible for the great interest being taken at the present time by eastern capitalists and investors in western mining enter prises. This interest really began about five years ago, when MT. Tur- ner organized the big TOnOpah com pany. That turned the eyes of the east toward western mines. me moneyed men of the country are con stantly paying more attention to min ing. A number of the largest for tunes in America today are the result of malicious investments in mines.
 The story of how Mir Turner start ed the New York curb brokers to trading in mining stocks forms one of the chapters in the history of Am eriean finance. The curb, as is well known, is a part of Wall street, roped off a part of each day for the bene- fit of independent brokers. Every business day in the year, whether it be rainy or sunshiny, several hundrs1 brokers stand in that rOped-off space for the purpose of buying and selling stocks
 MT. Turner decided that there was no reason why these curb brokers should not handle good mining shares, so he told a man named Elmo Weir to go upon the curb and sell TOnOpah stock. Weir was virtually mobDed the first day. He was thrown into the dirt, his hat was kicked around and some extremely bitter remarks were directed toward him. The brok- CTS protested that they were there for the legitimate purpose of handling solid industrial stocks and not "wild- | eat mining shares" But Weir stuck, did business and only five per cent of the stock dealt in on the curb to- day is industrial.
 Speaking of the Ray Central, Mir. Turner stated that he had nothing to say about that property at present, as he had not seen it for some months. The stock, he remarked, had been down for some time, but within the last two or three days it has had a rather rapid rise. Copper stocks of all kinds are now in de- mand.