The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-05-23

America To-day" Dividends to Start at
50 n Month";" 'Tfnal Opportunity at 10
Cents" zone Million Dollars d Month"
The oil faker lives in the future. Sell
dom does he dwell on past PERFORM
ances, except of somebody else's we'll
Almost never does he give production
and financial statement such as investors
have q right 20 expect His game is
men and women who do not know whaS
they ought to expect One company adj
vertised nineteen mighty wells'' In Ok
lehoma ana showed picture of nine
teen derYfcks all In a row and each der
rick spouting oil like SO many factory
| chimneys getting rid of soft coal smoke.
Tho Nineteen Mighty wells.
Stock which originally sold for ten
cents a share was advertised as high az
! $3.50. IN few months nearly q mil
4 lion dollars worth was sold.
Nov, nowr roared tho official print
ing press, this chance comes to you---a
chance to buy stock in n company that
already has nineteen big paying, produc-
| ing wells-a chance to get In on the
profits of all of them and many more to
come. You can share the riches of all
| these nineteen mighty wells. This Is
sure. certain. big money making prop
erty, Just as sure to pay big dividends
as two and two make four"
| Mebbs so, but at the time all this
shouting was being done the nineteen
mighty wells" were averaging less than
one barrel n day apiece. The whole
output did not come to $50 q day-not
| enough to pay for the advertising.
Another company's song was: New
1000 Barrel Gusher Next Door to U.s."
900 Barrels Near U.s." 1900 Barrels
Nearer Yet" 1880 Barrels Getting
Closer" 1900 Barrels Still Closer"
1000 Barrels Right Next Door,"
They're Getting Bigger as They Ap-
proach us."
How They Get the Money.
Thus having led his share buyers to
expect that the moment his drill struck
the oil stratum ut least 5000 barrels a
day would come pouring forth. 1t must
have grieved this hopeful promoter
when a few weeks later he wrote his
stockholders that he regretted having TO
inform them that the first we'll on our
property came in n dry hole.
How do they get away with itT'
1.-THE SUN asked a man down Wall street
way who has taken q philosophic inter-
est in the mad scramble for oil stocks.
Said he: There are many honest
men in the oil business, and one should
not say a word to hurt them. The
lothers are playing to human greed un-
der particularly favorable conditions
The war is over, the country Is pros
} porous, money is plentiful and the pres
lsure OF Liberty Bond buying Is relaxed
The world needs oil as never before the
l IA Nd haa I'D 20 "a M.
} ment OF new fields and rich discoveries
which have innamed the popular imagi-
nation.
Most Oil stocks are cheap. The peo-
pie figure that they can get in and Out
of the market easily. They can get in
easily, but II they strike a crooked stock
they 60 out on skids, for the marKe,
on tho Curb is rugged by wash sales
Fictitious prices are established. The
public can buy and buy at those prices
and in little dabs they may be able &c
sell. But let any one try to get rid OF
say. 1000 shares Of the phony stock ano
J for some reason the bottom fails out.
Gamblers Take Up the Game.
"A factor that must not be ignored
3 in any frank consideration OF the sub
= ject is that the gradual suppression o
5 poolrooms and other forms OF gambling
t has diverted a lot OF persons to oil
stocks for quick action. Professions
A gamblers and get rich quick men of al
l. description are operating" in oil, anc
n are trimming the same race OF dupe
Q whom they formerly trimmed IN gam
v bling houses. ars
Many oil companies have perfect!
good reasons for appealing to the publi
: for money. You may wonder why the,
n don't borrow from the banks near tn
e oil fields. who know the probable vaIu
$ of the oil leases and the character o
a tho men interested in the project a
: that end. Many of them do, but /
| takes a prodigious lot OF money to de
g haven't sufficient resources to financ,
q all corners.
n There is little that's new In the meth
DDS of the oil stock swindler as dis
l tinguished from those OF the old tint
mining swindler. He has an Itch fol
money and the knack Of getting It wher,
! the getting Is easiest. which just now l,
in oil. He goes to Oklahoma or Texas
we'll say, and picks up n lease or 9
bunch of leases. He doesn't care where
the land is so long as 1t Is somewhere
ir the vicinity-which is broad term
OF wells the public has heard about II
| may be so far back in the country hat
3 he couldn't transport any oil II he found
it. but that Is nothing to worry abou,
either. II it is on proved ground sc
I much the better. but that is not ea.
1 sential.